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Not sure if spring is here, but it might be. There’s no cold in the 10 day forecast. We do have thunderstorms likely, but that’s it. And knowing this area it remains to be seem if that happens.  It might, but we’ll see.

But on a good note I have put in some tomatoes and peppers I picked up at Home Depot over the weekend.  This time I put cages around them as we put them in the ground.  I do need to put a few marigold seeds in.  I think the marigolds helped keep out bugs last year, so it would be good to put them in this year. And hopefully putting tomatoes plants in this early should help us get an earlier crop.  We’ll see about that, but we’ll also keep our fingers crossed too.

But the weather has been nice, 60’s to 70’s, but only the low 70’s as a high. And the nights have been in the 50’s so I thought it would be good to get the planting starting.  Pat moved the lemon trees out of the greenhouse and into the yard. One of them already has begun getting flowers. I’m hoping we get some rain and they can get a good soaking. I may add fertilizer just to be on the safe side. The lemon trees may appreciate that.

Since Pat was over this weekend we also had him replant the 5 roses. They really needed to be put into bigger pots. I’m sure their growth has been stunted in the small pots they were in. Hopefully they’ll grow more now. 

I’ll try to take some pictures so show where plants are this year.  But that will depend on if we actually get rain in the next day or so.

The past two nights have been cold – mid 20’s cold. Last night we got down to 25, but today we’re up to 53 already. Hopefully that’s the last of the cold. We went to Lowe’s today, and it appears someone didn’t cover their peppers and tomatoes well. They had them out in pots, and they drooped from the ground level over. The poor things looked like they froze last night. They may have. The only things we seemed to lose were the asparagus. But we do have some more asparagus popping up.

The seeds I had put out in the green house are just now coming up. At least the tomato seeds have sprouted, the peppers didn’t so I have put out more pepper seeds. I also have filled another set of seeds out in another flat in the green house – peppers, tomatoes and endive. I should start some of the other plants like the watermelons and such. I might do that this weekend.

The 10-day forecast shows weather getting warm.  I hope that’s accurate.

Okay, we’ve had warm weather followed by cold weather.  We have trees (apples, plum, pear, fig) all ready to burst with flowers (apple already has). We’ve had 60-70 degree weather. Then we got another cold snap. Last night we drove home in 28-32 degree weather. Today we’ve had a high of 32. There are icicles on the bird feeder, and I have heard ice falling off the gutters around the house. And get this, tomorrow should be 60, with Tuesday being 75, yet Wednesday low should be 26.  And tomorrow is March 1.

Today we’ve had cold with some precipitation. Can’t say its really rain, but its not really snow, maybe sleet – at any rate its cold and wet. As far as I can tell nothing is sticking to the ground. But tonight is 50% chance of rain/freezing rain (I believe it). Starting tomorrow, Sunday we should begin showers, then scattered thunderstorms from Monday thru Wednesday, the rain/ice on Thursday. Hopefully a week from today we’ll be back to just cold and above freezing.

Weird weather. And I’m not sure what the plants think of it either. Some of the onions that are still in the ground look like they are covered in ice. I just went outside and I can hear stuff falling, but I can’t tell if its freezing rain, ice, or rain. 

Forgive me.  Yes we’ve got some lovely weather, but next week, Tuesday is a low of 29 with a wintery mix. Who knew. But today is a nice mid 50’s, tomorrow (Friday) is mid 60’s, then Saturday is mid 70’s. Sunday and Monday are back into the 60’s then Tuesday and Wednesday are cold nights.   I have to remember to cover the strawberries back up, and cover the seeds too.

Okay, spring is not quite here yet.   But its working on it. All the fruit trees have buds on them and the lettuce is growing nicely. So spring is coming, or at least trying to.

Weather is changing here in Austin.  Its warming up, nights are in the 40-50’s, with days in the 60’s.  This morning we have fog, but its still 50 outside. And we’ve got sunshine most days. I expect this fog will burn off to a nice day. The weather forecast says next week we might have a couple of cooler nights – down near freezing.  We’ll see if that holds up.

I’ve put some seeds in the yard, and started some in pots. Its been peppers and tomatoes at this point. I’ve started using an iPhone app by Burpee that gives me a list of when to plant what. And according to it its time to start putting in seeds and plants. So I’m going to give it a try this year and see if I do any better.

We have purdy white flakes falling from the sky!!  Just what we needed, snow flurries. Weather.com says we should hit 48 today, that is anybody’s guess. Last night was about 40.

Texas winter weather. What else can you say.

It sounds like an ice machine out there. We have icicles hanging from the bird feeders, from railings, and from all sorts of items. Earlier we got up to 33 (low was 30), had some rain, and it sounded like an ice making machine here on the front porch. You could hear ice melting then cracking, then running down the drain pipes outside. It was almost funny. But with any luck we should hit 55 tomorrow.  I’ll believe it when I see it.

Yes, we hit cold – the low last night was 20.8 here at the house.  THAT’S JUST PLAIN COLD!!

And it looks like we will be cold the next couple of days. Like just above freezing cold. And they say possible rain. I hope we don’t get the rain even if we are cold.

Weird weather the past few days.  How weird, you ask. Sunday night hit a low of 27. Today, Tuesday we had a high of 75, and tomorrow night, Wednesday night we are due for a low of 22.  Definite swings in temperatures.

Pat came over last weekend and help with some yard work. He worked on the trees some more and turned over a couple of the veggie beds. Since all the tomatoes are finally dead and pulled out of the ground, I figured we should turn the soil over. That take a good back, strong arms, and a pitch fork. I don’t have that strong of a back, nor that strong of arms, we do have the pitch fork. I worked the small corner where the basil was (should be for salad lettuce), and worked the beds around what is still growing (some lettuce, onions, asparagus). Today I did a little more work in those beds and put some lettuce seeds in the area around the other lettuce. I figured now is as good as any, especially since the lettuce is growing still. I also transplanted a few lettuce plants I found growing in the yard – lost, washed away seed I’m sure.

I’m starting to think about what to plant this year. I want to do corn again, and Bill has said I should have a cage by the time I need to plant. But since two beds won’t be in the caged area, I figure I can put peppers and things the squirrels stayed away from.

Things I want to plant:

• corn
• peppers
• tomatoes
• lettuce
• beets
• broccoli
• basil (fewer plants this time)
• beans (think green beans)
• blueberries
• bok choy
• carrots
• chives (not garlic chives, regular)
• lettuce, endive, arugula, kale (yes I know I have some growing already)
• melons – watermelon, cantaloupe
• onions (yes I know I have them growing already)
• parsley
• peas
• potatoes
• spinach (just put in some seeds)
• squash
• tomatillos

I will need to order seeds for a few of these and plants for the blueberries. But that’s my goal for this year.

Merry Xmas, Happy New Year and all that jazz.  Yes, I know its been a while. But we were gone on a trip and got back just before Christmas. And we got back to strange weather. It was warm – low 70’s warm. But this week, between Christmas and New Year, its cooling down. Our highs are in the low to mid 40’s. We haven’t had much rain, just little dribs and drabs. For example today we’ve gotten 0.25 inches of rain, mainly in the form of a heavy mist, and at 2pm its 41 degrees.  So cool, and damp, but not wet enough to call it rain. The weather said we should have gotten rain the other day, but that didn’t happen. They also said this would be a colder than usual winter. That hasn’t really happened either. We had a cold snap before Thanksgiving, but that was really it. Its so warm some of the plants are trying to set out new buds. Not the best timing. This is Texas. We could still get cold in January and February. We’ll see what happens.