Crazy weather. Hope the power is on for good.

Crazy weather, indeed! I've been battling heat exhaustion the past couple of days and now they're predicting freezing temps for the weekend!

My son is in Pullman and he text me Hot as hell today. Was wonderful here around 70ish.

You must be on the west side! 83 deg here today, and bright! Too hot to be working outside, but I was stuck out there, trying to keep a newborn goat kid from dying on us. Looks like he's going to be ok tho, and I think I may live, too!

looks like our night temps are back to normal.. 38 tonight.. and 40's everyday for the next couple of weeks

We still have snow on the ground in some places. I can see the plants but I'm not venturing out today. I figure if I go and look I'll be worrying and it isn't worth it. Our weather here today is on and off sun, 30's, winds have picked up again. Looks to be in the high 30's to 40's rest of this week too. Power has stayed on now thankfully (knocked on wood). Gosh, how much we depend on electricity for everyday needs.

I posted some pics on the Gardenweb Daylily forum yesterday to show what it looked like here. At least the trees have rebounded but not sure if any of the trees have cracked branches. Hope it is okay to post a link to GW.
http://forums.gardenweb.com/fo...

Well, at least your snow covered yard looks pretty. But I'm glad I just got the cold, not the white stuff.

I moved all my plants outside again to harden off for a little while. But it's still pretty breezy despite the 59° and sun, so I don't think I'll leave them out there too long.

Karen

Hope it warms up. Julia your pictures are beautiful but in April!

they are really pretty.. but I would be cranky!!

I moved some indoor over-winter plants outside 4-6 weeks ago, which of course triggered frosts and snow. This was my hasty response.

Cut two lengths of garden fence / rabbit fence
tie together to be double-wide
bend into a tunnel, propped with cinder blocks at the ends
throw two thicknesses of 2 mil plastic over it all, weigh down edges tightly

I set the plants on top of cardboard for a little insulation and to discourage slugs

Things are bursting out of my electric beach. They want out of the confines of these little pots and cells.




Look at the roots on impatiens in roottrainers. They are awesome


Karen

Those are some fine looking plants.

never heard putting down cardboard for the slugs... good to know

Karen wow does that photo convince me the root trainers are good.. they look great

It's amazing how things grow in them Allison. I seeded right into the tray, so roots were never disturbed. Roots follow ridges in the cell walls so they're directed straight down. The bottom is open, and when roots reach there, they're air pruned.

I did break some roots when trying to maneuver them into the bloommaster pots, but not too bad, I don't think. I used 14 plants. I rearranged them in the tray so every other row is gone- at least they're thinned out some.



Karen

oh they fit .. sort of.. in the bloom masters!!.. doubly good!!!.. always a challenge.. I did save some of the six pack trays from Parks.. they fit the octagon shape perfectly.. if I ever clean them and use them it would be good

To squish them from the outside in, you do have to do some squishing. But the plants were so full and well branched that some I couldn't get thru from inside out.

Karen

>> never heard putting down cardboard for the slugs... good to know

I don't really klnow for sure that it WORKS, but I used to have lots of slugs and I had just loosened the soil under that tunnel and added compost & coffee grounds.

I just guessed that slugs would have a harder time burrowing through 2 layers of fresh cardboard than they would through loose soil. And it gave me a smooth dry surfac e to sprinkle some slug bait on. The plastic kept rain off the carboard and bait, and I didn't see any slug damage - so either it worked, or it's still too cool for the slugs to be very active.

Either the last year was just not as good for slugs as the two prior years, or beer-and-bait has decreased their numbers locally.