I feel your pain as I want to put out my tomatoes, peppers, cukes and beans. I am a little tired of this cold weather. And to add insult to injury this past saturday I totally missed the 70* temps because I work graveyard shift and weekends. Gonna hafta cover the onions and lettuce. Sheesh.

I hear you. I have anywhere from 6-18" of new growth on each of my clematis, and there's no way I can cover all of them. If that new growth - and all the flower buds - die out I'll be a sad camper indeed. I had been hardening off the baby cherry trees, but I'm afraid to put them out now that it's gotten so ridiculously cold. I covered the annual seeds that I'd started and they should be fine. I hope. No huge loss if not.

Just bought a prunus avium lapins -- wild sweet cherry -- going to put it in garage. At least it's short enough for that.

Have a bed of marigolds about 1/2" high, plus some odd swampy big-leafed thing, can't remember name, same height. Will lay strips of bubblewrap on those.

The rest of the yard, all tender baby new leaves, can only pray. Will hand-water heavily today, Friday and Saturday. They say trees and bushes do better in freeze if their roots are damp. It has sprinkled a bit here but hasn't true rained enough to wet more than the grass for a long time.

Must say at this point the grass is thicker, healthier and more lushly vibrant than ever before in the yard. The tree leaves are so small from all the cold that the sun reached all the grass. Wonder if the thick exuberant grass covering everything will protect tree roots? It helps protect from sun scorch in the summer. It's dwarf grass, perennial rye and some wild stuff, not mowed, about 8" high now, will be massed over by strawberry clover when it gets warm and sunny.

This weather is getting beyond the pale! The forecast for this weekend is for record cold and perhaps more snow. Are the weather gods really that mad at us??? I've still got most of my stuff in the g/h but I have planted up a couple of big pots. I'm tempted to pull the plants out and put them back into the g/h until it warms up. The worst thing is that when the weather turns, everything will need doing at once. Except the grass cutting which goes on regardless of weather. Yes, I'm whining. I always say that spring is my favorite season and aren't we lucky it goes on so long here? I sure hope this summer is better than last year's. On a bright side, we had the first Goldfinch of the year at our feeder yesterday. And a pair of young eagles have built a nest on a tree a couple of hundred feet from our home and very visible. It's fun watching them and it will be great when the chicks hatch.

Thanks for commiserating!

Think I'll water everything down well -- thanks for the idea, Cascadians.

Will set cloches on top of the 'chokes. Only have one "sheet" of reemay, so will use that to cover the lettuces. Sheesh, Slow73, I didn't even think about the lettuce crop! No onions planted, but do have shallots. Hope they'll do okay with just the watering.

Violetta1976, I forgot to prune down my clematis this year, so maybe the tangled mess will actually be of help! ;0)

Dottyinduncan, lucky you with your gold finch! Despite several feeders and the use of nylla(?) seed, we've nerry a one -- ever.

Stay warm, y'all!

Rain

Well, Cascadians, at least here in the Seattle area, we shouldn't have to worry about hand-watering heavily -- last night's rain squall took care of that! So far, not so cold.

Crossing fingers,

Rain

I just can't believe this weather. The other day I was out weeding and got a sunburn. Yesterday, I sowed my grass seed on the front lawn and today we get snow, rain and hail? What gives? Will my lawn seed be okay?