Thank you, Lee. . . unfolding as I was thinking it might, and we, at least, are getting the rain you mentioned. . . In the very furthest NE corner of Wagoner County, we are getting a bunch. I must say, I like that it hasn't been 80 or 75 this month, but rather, 60s with an occasional 70, and even spring rain! I am thinking our plants and trees are happy with this.

Thanks, Lee. I'm watching the temperatures closely because I have 7 tomato plants (most in flower and several with small fruit) in the ground. (You knew that I'd put some in the ground early despite your warning, right?) I have ways of protecting them, including frost blankets that give 10 degrees of protection. I'd be more worried if I didn't have the frost blankets. It seems like the cold doesn't want to go away. I think we've gotten spoiled the last few years with early warming up. This feels like a more normal Spring, even if I don't like it.

Dawn

I think we'll end up rivaling or even surpassing early April 2007 with this cold spell coming. That was a pretty cold stretch from April 4-15, 2007.

Forecasted high around 40 now here where I live in northwestern AR for Easter. April fools!!

Haha, just for fun, I saw a weather lore saying on Old Farmer's Almanac a few days ago- "Buds in November, Winter lasts until May." We had buds on everything in Nov.!

We have been spoiled by the warm springs Dawn!

Thanks Lee, now I have to extrapolate from that to my area of the world a few hundred miles north. We have mid 20s forecast for this Sunday and Monday morning so I am postponing planting out my broccoli until sometime next week. Snow predicted on Easter as well...that's going to make the kiddos work a little harder to find the Easter Eggs!

Last year at this time I was already harvesting Asparagus but I don't see that happening until at least mid April this year.

Lee, I remember that cold spell of April 2007. It taught me the importance of having heavy-duty row covers if you insist upon planting early like I do, and I remember it as being the most miserable, most prolonged cold spell ever for me and my garden in any location. I think we had a little sleet mixed with some of our rain that April, but I had low tunnels built over every planted row in my garden and the plants came through it all just fine. We did drop down to freezing during that cold spell, but what I remember above and beyond that is how cloudy and gray the skies stayed forever and how we just didn't warm up much during the daytime hours either. Thanks for the comparison as it helps me to understand what is coming!

Jacob, I love old weather lore. Back before we had professional meteorologists with all their knowledge, training and forecast models, all we had was people and their day-to-day observations and their understanding of what they observed over many years. So, that weather lore fascinates me because we know it developed from real life observations and experience. I also am surprised by how accurate it can be. One of the old sayings here is that you shouldn't plant your corn until the leaves on the white oak trees are as large as a squirrel's ear (some folks say mouse's ear, but I prefer squirrel's ear). I have found that to be pretty true---corn planted earlier than that tends to be going into such cold soil that either it germinates slowly or poorly or not at all, or it freezes after it sprouts and grows just a little. I just watch the white oak tree in our back yard to see when its' leaves are the right size to plant corn...and they aren't that size yet. If they were, you know I'd have corn in the ground now, which wouldn't be a good thing with the big cold spell that's coming.

Jack, This year certainly does feel a lot different from the last two. In both of the previous two winters, the asparagus emerged incredibly early and we were harvesting it in January and February. This year it didn't emerge until mid-March, though it is up and growing rapidly now (daily harvesting is required to stay on top of it so the spears cannot get too tall). This year totally feels like a real old-fashioned Spring where the weather stays cold longer than we gardeners would prefer.

I hope the kids enjoy a snowy Easter egg hunt. I cannot imagine what that would be like. Our grandchildren went to a nighttime Easter Egg hunt last weekend---you couldn't start hunting until it was dark, and flashlights were required in order to find the eggs. It was awesome as it added a whole new challenge to the hunt. I'm sure Easter egg hunting in snow would be much more challenging than just hunting in the darkness.

Dawn

Hopefully the pecan buds will stay closed this week. Nothing more depressing than having an April hard freeze and knowing it will be full 18 months before you get any pecans and make any money, yet still have to do almost as much work in that time.

Scott, We've had quite a few days with highs in the 80s and our pecan buds are still closed and not showing much signs of life at all yet. I like that. I hope yours are not about to bud out too early.

Dawn

For the sake of my stone fruit trees please no freezes!!

Some forecasts already have freezing temps for 9 days from now, but I think there is a lot of disagreement still in the models. It will stay cold though, that's for sure. Maybe wxcrawler knows what the Euro is saying.