The weather was wonderful over Thanksgiving. We spent a lot of time outside. I finally got my elephant ears dug up. The main bulb was half rotten but I broke off the side bulbs to keep. I forgot about my tuberose. It's still in the ground and it's raining right now. I left my cannas in the ground on purpose. I think they'll make it unless we have a very cold winter.

We mowed our yard to get rid of the leaves over the weekend too. You can't even tell they were there now. Why do people rake and burn? It's so much easier to zip around on the riding mower. Will we eventually have too many leaves to do that?

What a yucky forecast! I'm looking forward to a little snow but wish they'd cancel the freezing rain they're predicting.

I can't answer about the garlic. I have Egyptian Walking Onions that I left in the ground and if I understood right, they will come back next year. Hope they make it through the winter.

Christie, you will have your walking onions until the end of time....mine have spread to several locations in the garden. I didn't get the garlic in...must do it tomorrow. We hit Target instead and picked up a couple of Christmas presents.

I had a couple of catalogs in the mail today....guess they haven't forgotten me after all.

If your leaves are gone by spring, I think you can do what you are doing indefinitely. I certainly don't rake and this year didn't even mow them.

I don't do anything with our leaves, except sometimes rake them up and pile on top of things to mulch. The ones I don't use seem to be gone by spring.

Going to Springfield tomorrow for DH's eye app't. Sure glas the bad weather is supposed to hold off until tomorrow evening.

Glenda, I haven't even gotten one catalog yet, garden that is. Seems like I have gotten LOTS of gift type ones that I have never asked for. Sure hate to see them send out so many unneeded catalogs when they could be saving trees.
Donna

Had a nice Thanksgiving too. Son-in-law got a buck and we finished cutting up meat in afternoon. He and daughter drove to Buffalo NY where he'll start a new job till March. DD said she'd hybernate in a motel for a couple days when she ran into the cold front.

I,ll be ringing bell for Salvation Army friday and saturday. Glad i've got a warm coat.
I did'nt rake any leaves this year either.I've got so many leaves i'll still have a bunch in the spring.
Have got one catalog from Pinetree seeds.

Got out a box of Christmas decorations and put out a nativity scene over my tv.
I hate to think of all the wasted trees with all the junk mail i get too.
oakleif

Are you only expecting cold temps in Arkansas? Don't want to be stingy with the winter mix we're expecting. You can have some of ours. lol It's very kind of you to help with the bell ringing. Maybe it won't be too bad if you can get out of the wind.
Donna - You planned better than me. I've got to go to town Thursday morning for an appointment. Hope they can keep up with the slick streets.
I have a couple oak trees that are holding onto their leaves so that "significant ice accumulation" is really going to weigh them down.
Glad to hear that about the walking onions. They're small but I like having onions handy when I need them for cooking.

I think I'll take a walk around the yard today and see what I've forgotten to dig up or bring in. Wish I could get my trees ready for the ice storm but there's really nothing to do I guess except cross my fingers.

I took my walk this morning and 2 hours later had everything done for the bad weather......I hope. I planted the garlic; made a cold frame of straw bales next to the south wall of the garage and moved all my potted things into it. Will fill it up with more leaves when the temp drops down and stays.
I found a couple of stock tanks that still were hooked up to hoses and disconnected them and drained the hoses and put them away. Put a light in the chicken house via a drop cord. I will try to wire it next spring.

Some of my perennials in the pots looked dead....guess I won't know until spring.

Donna, hope your husband's eye exam went well. I finally got Totally Tomatoes and Seymour Seed catalogs.

It is now drizzling rain and it 52°. We have wood in and a fire laid in the stove to light in the morning.

oakleif I always feel for the bellringers when the weather gets so bad.

The rain has arrived here. We are in the path of the winter mix for later. Gld, I have the fire laid in our heater too, and a pile of wood behind the stove. I put potted evergreen shrubs in the cold frame today;emptied the ashes from the stove; washed up all the accumulated dishes( in case the power goes out);checked all the kerosene lamps( in case the power goes out);moved the car from beneath the honey locust( in case the limbs break). I went to town yesterday to restock the larder. I think I am all set for whatever! I hope my hoses are all drained. I didn't think to check them.

I didn't dig my Elephant Ear. It is probably rotted by now, anyway they are pretty easily replaced.

I mowed our leaves Monday, or at least blew them off of the grass!My rider doesn't have a mulcher.

I don't get many nursery/seed catalogs anymore. I haven't ordered from any in some time. Most have online catalogs, so may not mail out like they used to.

I hope all will be warm and safe through this winter storm.

Marian

Thanks Christie LOL you'll get to share the snow and ice with us.

I'm all ready for the bad weather,candles,butane,food,water etc. Going to put up my christmas tree and listen to christmas music.
Oh i got my totally tomatoes,Seymour seeds and miller nursery catalogs today.

Well, we got it! We got over 3 inches of rain before it began freezing. I have broken limbs all over the yard, Siberian Elms. The power has stayed on; that is always the big worry.
I took some shots this morning. It was still sleeting so the quality isn't great, but you get the idea.
They are all clickables. Had to include my nandina because of the red berries I have been waiting for. I love this shrub and want more.

How did you all fare?

Nice photos! I started getting more berries on my nandina when I added a second. I don't know if it was getting pollinated better or if it would've done that anyway as it matured. Is yours a named cultivar or just the species?
I need to bundle up and go outside with my camera. It's going to be beautiful when the sun hits the tree limbs this morning. I did take a couple pictures of my birch tree yesterday because the limbs were so bent over. Sorry to hear about your trees GLD. A lot of our neighbors have tree limbs in their yards - mostly elm. That's a lot of work to clean up.
Our power was out from six o'clock yesterday morning until almost midnight. The house got cold without heat so we spent the day bundled up. Finally found a kerosene heater at Lowe's but didn't find kerosene to put in it until late last night then it took awhile to get it set up. We were afraid to leave it one while we were asleep so the house was still very cold. We'll be more prepared for next time though.

Thursday, 6:30 a.m. Drove to work near the airport, walked across the parking lot and encountered.......

ice.

So I checked in, and then checked out and drove back home.

I will wait til this weekend to get some snow driving instruction from DH. Florida doesn't give you those kind of driving skills, lol.

Welcome to Missouri!!!

Cheri, who is enjoying the snow, at least for now....

I can't find the label for the nandina...I am sure it was just the dwarf version. I picked it up at either Lowes or W-M.

We ended up with 6-8 inches of snow over the ice. No problems other than the phone was out most of the morning. Thankfully, no power outtages.....yet. I heard on the news that kerosene was hard to find.

Cheri, the best advice for snow driving is "don't!" imo. Best to stay in if possible. The ice under this snow makes it very dangerous.

Marian, did you get any more rain? You should be set for next spring with all the moisture you have been getting.

Oakleif, what kind of weather did you end up with?

Gld, we got several inches of rain, but I had brought in my gauges so don't know how many. There was more standing water all over our yard than I have seen in the 22 years we have lived here. Then it sleeted, and started freezing on everything. Towards nightfall it started snowing, but wasn't much of an accumulation. It was hard to judge because of the wind. We had no power outage, and no tree damage due to the ice. Our lovely Blue Spruce fell, but not necessarily due to the ice. It had started leaning badly, and we discovered that the base of the trunk has been distroyed by something....either disease,insects, or varmints?
Here is before and after pics:
{{gwi:182186}}
{{gwi:187684}}

It did no damage to my car. It is sad to lose such a lovely tree. I planted it when it was only 6 inches tall.

Marian

Marian, how awful to loose that beautiful tree. I would love to have one, but at our ages, am afraid we wouldn't get to enjoy it! That is one reason we have left the elms. They at least give us good shade in the summer.

I have to admit I lurk on the other forum and had seen your pics, but rarely post there.

Welcome to Missouri Cheri! - Hope you appreciate the beauty of all this snow and ice. It might be a little hard to take if you don't. I don't like driving on it at all but really it's not like this all winter long so don't worry too much.

That spruce sure came close to squishing your car Marian. Sorry it's gone. We had to cut down a tree this summer that we planted when we built our house almost 20 years ago. It was almost dead and we finally gave up on it. We didn't lose any in the ice storm but I think if we'd left that one, it would've fallen anyway.

Gld, I am 74, but I plan on planting another Blue Spruce, and another Hemlock to replace ours that died last year. I will enjoy seeing how much they grow in the time I have left. :-)
I'll buy the largest balled and burlaped that I can afford.

There is a dying oak close to where the spruce was, now we have a clear space to drop it...so there is some good to be found from the loss of the spruce. You can see it in the second pic to the left rear of the downed spruce.

It got warmer here today than predicted. Most of the ice has gone off the trees, and a lot of the ground is bare, but very wet. I am sure our hill will be too icy in the morning for us to go out for worship.

Marian, you are exactly right. Our neighbor who lived here before us for 50 y ears and moved just down the road, planted trees and shrubs in 1992 and later. She would have been in her mid 70's then. Guess what, she now has wonderful 15 to 20 foot tall specimans everywhere! Of course, she fertilizes and waters all the time. I am 67 and hopefully have some good years left..............thank you for reminding me!

We got abt. 2" of snow. It was so cold it took almost a week to melt.
DD called me on the way back home from NY as she was going thru Nashville and asked me to check the weather channel as she was having snow coming down heavily. She had come south to miss the snow that had come thru here earlier. I watched the weather an called her back and told her it was'nt snowing in Nashville,she replied every one on I-40 was driving 50 mph and the snow was sticking. She went thru abt 40 miles of it ,than the sun came out and was fine the rest of the way back.LOL never trust the weather channel for micro snow storms!
vickie