How's your weather?

[GoDawgs]

After a streak of warm weather, the cold weather behind yesterday's front will move in tonight and take lows to 32 or slightly below. Winds have been 15-20 all day. Right now the yellow Carolina jasmine and purple wisteria vines are in full bloom and are playing tag with each other up and down local trees. Dogwoods are blooming with azaleas adding to the color while trees are pushing out new leaves and showing off that special vibrant spring green. Loropetalums are in full hot pink flower.

I am hoping and praying that when I walk outside tomorrow I won't smell a sweet scent in the air. Freezes during full blown spring have happened before and back then when I asked my boss at the nursery what that scent was, he replied, "That's the smell of death. All these leaves will be toast by tomorrow". He was spot on.

Pickles is hilling up the potatoes and will dump leaves over anything still above ground. We'll try covering two rows a little later hoping the wind will die down some by then and make that chore a bit easier. For sure the pepper plants and sweet potato slip box will come inside for the night. By Tuesday we'll be back to almost 80 with lows in the 50's-60's.

[bower]

Great idea to hill up the potatoes [mention]GoDawgs[/mention] I think they will be fine. IDK about the other stuff. Fingers crossed.
We did not get much of a warmup at all. Overcast all day and yes, the ice on my steps finally melted but reluctantly... The sunny promise of Easter weekend has been downgraded to drizzle with a high of 5C, day after day.... At least it will be a melt. A slow melt. A very slow melt.

[karstopography]

Chamber of Commerce stuff today. Brilliant blue skies and 68 degrees. Going to 47 tonight. 8-9 days ahead of sunny weather and a warming trend. Lots of blooms and buds on the tomatoes so I should get some good fruit set this upcoming week. Already have a few tomatoes setting fruit. Going to be out watering the garden by early next week.

[worth1]

I bet the neighbors wonder why I'm not cutting my loquat trees down.
The leaves are all brown and dead from the freeze.
The trunk and limbs are still alive.
The bay trees bit the bullet.
Cacti dead.
Sour orange lives.
Pomegranate dead to the ground.

[GoDawgs]

It was 30 again for the second morning in a row. A hint of frost too which will probably be the last of the year. Last frost is usually somewhere in the March 20-26 area but early April has been known to happen occasionally. The water in the hummer feeder ant guard was frozen this morning, not solid but about 3/4 of it.

Tomorrow morning should be about 36 and then this cold mess will be over. 80-'s next week!

[mention]worth1[/mention] , sorry to hear about all the damage!

[worth1]

[mention]GoDawgs[/mention]
Lost all my rosemary too.

[GoDawgs]

@GoDawgs
Lost all my rosemary too.

[mention]worth1[/mention], that's a darned shame! I had one in the ground for a long time, near the house and kind of in its own micro climate but it died several years ago of old age. Fortunately I realized it was eventually on its way out, started a new one from cuttings. It now lives in a large pot on the porch where I can bring it indoors if necessary. Variety is 'Tuscan Blue'. I would be happy to start a new one for you if you'd like one. Just say the word!

[pepperhead212]

Gorgeous weather here lately, after those couple of days at the end of last week, with freezing temps, and highs only in the low 40s one day. Now it's reaching the high 60s/low 70s every day, and only in the mid-40s at night. If it weren't for that darned wind, I'd say perfect spring weather! However, it's drying out again - I saw a warning yesterday about possible brush fires, for idiots throwing cigarette butts out car windows, or burning things outside in open fires.

[worth1]

@GoDawgs
Lost all my rosemary too.

@worth1, that's a darned shame! I had one in the ground for a long time, near the house and kind of in its own micro climate but it died several years ago of old age. Fortunately I realized it was eventually on its way out, started a new one from cuttings. It now lives in a large pot on the porch where I can bring it indoors if necessary. Variety is 'Tuscan Blue'. I would be happy to start a new one for you if you'd like one. Just say the word!

Thanks but I can pick up a few more at a nursery close to where I live.
Mine were around 15 years old and made it through 10 degree weather a couple of times.
At one time I had about 50 rosemary plants of all types.
Tuscan blue could handle the wet better than others.
Lots of dead landscape plants around this area.

[bower]

We are in a long band of thick fog, drizzle and rain that is expected to continue for days. Temps above zero and the rain is cutting away the snow. Looked out and spotted the first sprout of garlic coming up through the mulch! Drive to town was horrible today just a wall of the thickest fog I've ever seen. All good for the garden.

[karstopography]

Big wind shift, humidity drop here happening just now. Looks like a dry front. Heading for 57 tonight. No sign of much rain out a week, could use some. Temperature looks good going forward for tomato production.

[bower]

Too bad I couldn't share the endless rain and fog of the week here. We had enough, we sure could use a "dry front"!! but more and heavier on the way for several days. I woke up this morning to ice on the trees. A trivial amount so far, but with 60 mm of precip expected in the next three days, IDK it could be bad here in the frostier part inland. Temperature expected to stay at the freezing mark until Sunday night it will drop to -2C, then more rain and a warmup to 4C on Monday.
This on the left is one of the Red Alder (European Alder) trees I planted about 20 years ago. They are loaded with lovely red catkins already starting to open. They are always early and ahead of optimal time here, so I don't get a lot of seedlings, but there are a few that have made it, all the same. Not the first time to see them iced over.

April10-21-freezingrain.JPG

[worth1]

Great news.
The bay trees didn't die completely.
They are coming back low on the stumps.
With the old large root system it won't be no time I'll be able to pick bay leaves again.

[Amateurinawe]

[mention]worth1[/mention] nothing like picking bay as you need it. I do the same with mine and also with the rosemary which I've had to move a few times to find her perfect spot.

[worth1]

@worth1 nothing like picking bay as you need it. I do the same with mine and also with the rosemary which I've had to move a few times to find her perfect spot.

Bay has two flavors.
One is fresh and the other dried from what I can tell.
I bought these things when they were just sticks in a small pot and one was probably close to 10 feet tall.
To have it die back was pretty devastating for me.
My Texas mountain laurel lost all it's leaves but it's putting on new leaves too.
One of them i started from a seed a collected in late 80s.
I planted that seed in 2005 and it sprouted.

[Amateurinawe]

[mention]worth1[/mention] I can believe it. I have two or rather five still in pots, I have been weaving them together the last five years with their trunks. They have given me plenty for my stews but I would be sorry if I lost them with extreme weather.

[bower]

Here is what it looks like a day later. It has rained a lot and still raining heavily all day, unfortunately it is not warm enough to melt the ice on the trees and instead it's freezing on the branches, in spite of being plain wet on other things, and filling up in the catchment area.
We see this kind of weather in one degree or another every year, especially in spring March and April.

ice-411-11a2.JPG

icewater236.JPG

[worth1]

Nice weekend here.
Got out yesterday and started the lawn mower.
Hadn't been started in forever and when it fired off a red rust came flying out of the exhaust then the black smoke then it cleared up.
Reminded me of how the old War planes of old would start such as the Corsair.

Got all the beggars lice and bed staw knocked down and the forest floor scalped to the dirt.
The horse herb will come up soon to cover the floor.

[pepperhead212]

First thunderstorms of the year, that went directly overhead! I thought they were finished, then more! A couple before I heard a few miles away a few weeks ago. Rain is up to 1.73", and rising.

Update - Yesterday ended at 1.82", and it's up to .17" since midnight, and there's still lighting! Coming down hard now, so will be over 2".

[Whwoz]

Big change in weather here, a couple of days ago 27C, yesterday 13c. Not sure what is going to happen over next couple of days with a cyclone traveling through West Australia currently. Very possible we will get something out of that, but probably not a lot, as it is not dumping big volumes of rain currently