It was a record winter here, one i was ill prepared for it turned out...
The furnace failed repeatedly, all auxiliary heat had to be moved indoors...
Any other winter all would be well but we had regular sub zero dips...my min/max thermo said -14 was the coldest it got...in my greenhouse!
Luckily there were survivors, as they slowly emerge it would appear that I faired reasonably well, all things considered!
The sad fact is most if all this coukd have been avoided...but due to multiple health issues, and the fact that I wasn't expecting cold like that coupled with total hvac failure at the same time, I don't know why I wasn't...if it can happen, it will happen!
But the silver lining is...
I think everything I lost is replaceable!!!
That may sound silly, but a few of you know what I'm talkin bout!
There's some mighty close calls in there, but as far as I can tell the few truly irreplaceable gems I had did in fact make it!
As a matter of fact, I count my losses at 80-90%, it's a lot of dead plants, yet I think I may have only lost 10-15 of 70species of tropicals, not bad considering...
It did spur a sort of compartmentalized depression, one im rather familiar with!
When you go check the stash of bulbs, and find them frosty as the ice box...you know it's not good!
At that point I just stepped back, had I flown into overdrive...I'm sure I could have saved many of the unlucky victims...I just couldn't do it...not in the middle of my standard mid winter blues, and everything else...I just couldn't handle dealing with it...
Ashes to ashes, right?
I've dealt with worse loss, it took 6 or 8 years to back on the horse that time, I'm already diggin my spurs in this year...
I don't have an ear in the ground yet...hell I barely got a leaf up yet...oh well I'm sure I'll be over whelmed with massive leaves in no time...but boy am I behind now...
I'm not sure what I'll have to offer at this point, but I'll be counting on kindness to get crackin again...
All these years of gardening "alone" it's mighty nice to know I can count on my growmies to get my collection going again...I lost alota plants, not the rarest stuff, but not the most common either!
I WILL BE SEEKING TRADES!
You might as well get ready! If you see a lil red note in your tree mail, just figure it's from me :)
I'm far less interested in hand outs, but I'll not look a gift horse in the mouth! I'm happy to pay postage if trades don't interest you!!
I gotta make room for fresh pics for this year!
The phones slam full of last year find memories...and about a million pics of the sweetest 3 yr old you've ever seen!
Missed yall!
Hope everyone and their plants wintered better than me and mine did!
