ok, this weather does not belong in Texas. It can leave. Meantime I've discovered that I have to put my ranunculus pot in the greenhouse too. Ya'll staying warm?

I agree the weather needs to warm up significantly. I just checked the forecast for Houston, TX and it is really bad for next Monday Feb. 15. It is
predicted to be 16/36 F and the possibility of Snow Showers in Houston, TX That is really, really, BAD!!

Yes, really bad! Even though we are south of Houston, our temperatures tend to be several degrees colder.

I think it is supposed to be 13 here on Sunday morning, with a wind chill near zero. Most of my outdoor pots that I didn't pull in during October could have stayed out in a mild winter. This one just passed mild.

Gypsi said:I think it is supposed to be 13 here on Sunday morning, with a wind chill near zero. ....This one just passed mild.

Passed mild by a wide margin! Grrrr

I insulated the greenhouse roof with fiberglass and tacked plastic over it to hold humidity in (2nd hailstorm ended that clear idea anyway - I use lights)
I have a stock tank over young beauty berry pots, a couple of rubbermaid boxes over other semi hardy potted plants and a stuffed greenhouse, then tacked plastic over the chickenwire wall on the coop, and on the north wall of the other run, closed the windows and opened the hidden door on the bigger coop so I can close the north side front door when it all comes in. This is so not fun Bunny hutch got plastic tacked on it too, but I may bring her in on Friday. will see how she does. Her hutch is very well built with a solid enclosed nesting room.

I am going to have to check the cold hardiness of all of my succulents to determine which ones will survive temperatures down to 15 F and thus
determine what plants need to come in to the house. Probably all of the succulents. We have not seen temperatures in this range in many years.

I only left out an Autumn Sedum and a stonecrop that says good down to 20 below zero. Still thinking about bringing in garage. My succulents have been indoors since the fall rains. South window and I bought a light meter and added an led light, dropped my fluorescent lower

Actually in a container, I probably would bring it in. The container makes the roots more vulnerable to frost damage.

Love your kitty, Gypsi.

We aren't going that low tonight. I'll move tomorrow. Thank you Pod. Kitty and I had a spray water fight over the gardenia. He was sure it wanted to be rubbed and kissed....
I try to keep succulents out of the greenhouse because of rat damage, so I may bring the stonecrop and sedum in the house. Or i have another big empty heavy stock tank they can go under for protection. That works super well. I have some small sedum still out front because of the rodents that almost killed them last year, I could fill another 100 gallon tank with plants underneath. They are in the protected area on my lot, under a big pine tree. Microclimate.

Does Kitty stay in the greenhouse? His presence should discourage the rodents.

no Kitty stays in the house. He is very happy in the house. In the picture he is greeting my gardenia which needs to be warmer than the greenhouse. The succulents are next to him, they've been inside since about November. Note hardware cloth prevents kitty naps on top of them.

My dogs hunt the back yard rats and there is a semi feral front porch cat. That pretty kitty in the picture goes bald if a flea bites him so he lives a pampered life. i use plastic snap traps in the greenhouse, and I'm hoping chickenwire over the insulation will stop rat nesting. It's not all installed yet though. Currently no rats in greenhouse that I am aware of and I spent a couple of days out there getting the roof insulation up. I'm thinking some peppermint oil in there somewhere might be a good idea .

do not have vermin problems since I moved to Tx.
Had some mice in old house but used poision, had no pets to worry about

As you can guess the topic for today is that the temperatures are supposed to get down to 16/29 by Monday February 15. Yes, the forecast got worse.
That is the coldest I have seen in our 38+ years in Houston, TX so all of the succulents will be coming into the house. Right now I hear the thunder so I will
probably just pay for parking when I go to my eye appointment at 10:20 AM this morning! Actually it is already raining and miserable outside with cold
weather already here and I am not happy with the temperature dropping below 70 F and right now at about 8:45 AM it is 40 F and raining and it feels like it is
freezing at 32 F that is really bad.

I had to poor hot water on the chickens water bucket to make them some liquid....

I don't use rat poison, I enjoy the red tailed hawks, the neighborhood owl, I actually started a hawk walking around in my backyard, my hens having headed for the coop, yesterday. My birds are too heavy to be carried off. Rat poison used to only kill rats, now it kills whatever eats the rat, you can go to audobon's page for more information.

I stuffed my sedums on the porch behind a box, all in a pile and piled some cocofiber and stuff on top and around them to keep them warm.

Well I am glad that I have lots of newspaper to put down in the room where we will put all of the
succulents. Hopefully we will be ready for the cold weather when it arrives on Monday!!

I'm never all the way ready, but if my critters have food and thawed water and I don't freeze, we're all good. Realize when you have chickens, a hard freeze means water delivery every couple of hours, or a heated water bowl, and more chicken coops have burned over pecked electrical than I can count

Well I am not really worried about us and the cats as we are all going to be indoors. I worry more
about the plants at this point in time though a lot will just be left to die! We may still need to
harvest the Arugula for a salad!

I threw my truck cover on my onions, my shade cloth on my broccoli and garlic, and tightened up the greenhouse. My dryer vents into it. Currently it's 40 degrees with 99 percent humidity and I haven't run the dryer yet. Moving blanket on the potted pansies, stock tanks and rubbermaid tubs on other potted stuff... I'm tired, and I've moved into the small bedroom and need to get some kind of cold blocking curtain up. I use it for plants, they like the sun and it was cold last night

Monday I had a doctor's appt. in San Antonio...when I got to the building, I parked and went into the building, then got to the floor. Oops, something doesn't seem quite right. Some people had their chairs outside the office...and the waiting rooms was kind of dim. No lights? Well, there was one for the office. This after our big blackouts were supposed to be over? Okay, no biggie! There were lights once they took me back for vitals . The doctors didn't ask me much, though. They even got the summary thing printed out! Then I was free to leave and went toward the elevator. That's when it gets weird. The employee says I'll have to use the stairs, because the elevators aren't working. I open the door to the stairs...dark, no stairs seen, even when I open the second door. Somebody says "get your cell phone and use the flashlight". So, I start down and the employee brings another patient in and helps him, while she's holding a flashlight. I get down four flights of stairs, walk out the front. Then two large fire trucks pull up in front! Yep, I'm thinking there's somebody trapped in an elevator...or maybe a bunch of people. WHAT is wrong with Texas???