Spring has Sprung

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It just happened to be really cold today!

     Yup!  That's right.  Today is the first day of Spring.  For two thirds of the country it has looked like winter most of the day.  My poor niece is freezing her little Southern toes off in New York   ( I always wondered what the attraction was!  Still don't get it!)  It is also snowing on our family in Colorado, Illinois and points North.  There is a hard freeze warning throughout Alabama.   Happy Spring, everybody!  It rained here today and I danced in it!  

     So, it is spring, officially.  If you took any of the advice or suggestions I have made, you will still be ready to garden when the frost breaks.  I have flowers and tomatoes on plants I started the week after Christmas.  Have your seedlings popped up?  Are you getting ready for what comes after the snow?  Being prepared for hard times means doing ahead of time what others wait until it's too late to start.  

NOT 15 bags of mulch !!

     Number one son took a part time job at Lowe's home supply store.  He is strongly cautioned not to post anything about the company online.  So, let me tell you what I observed there so far this year.  People who drive BMWs and Mercedes will buy mulch and then expect the loaders to pack it all in the trunk!  It's a hoot to watch the folks with a tree and a flowerbed by the mailbox do ALL their spring shopping in one trip and expect someone else to make it fit!  They don't think ahead.  They don't measure.  Fifteen bags of red cedar mulch is two trunk loads in a beemer!  They don't think to order online, or have it delivered.  They live in their little bubbles and plant inedible flowers.  

     Then there are those non-preppers that think they will try a garden this year.  They go to the store and buy whatever tomatoes, squash, pepper and herb seedlings that are available.  They don't read the tags.  They don't know from shade loving herbs or sun craving vegetables.  They spend top dollar for a plant that has been grown under perfect green house conditions, only to take it home and watch it fail as the green house conditions cannot be duplicated.  Their one and only tomato withers with not enough water as the squash next to it weeps with over watering.  They don't plan ahead.  They don't do their research.  
     I was in line behind a nice family with three Topsy Turvy planters, three tomato plants, three bell pepper plants, three basil, and three bags of soil.  They spent around $75 and winced a bit when the total rang up!  They meant well, they were going to show their one and only beloved offspring how to grow a pizza garden.  Okay, then.  You know the same plants cost less than a dollar when you grow from seed and you have a better chance of survival and better yield when you grow them yourself.  Ooops!  And now, I'm going to go off on the Topsy Turvy planter.

     The Topsy Turvy planter seems like a good idea, unless you live in Florida where it is too hot to grow tomatoes in a planter that bakes the plants alive!  I have had limited seasonal success with them only when planting early here, and never as seen on TV, in the summer.  It is too brutally hot in there for the roots to survive.  I have even hung the planter under a porch over hang so the sun can't touch the planter and still let light hit the tomato.  That undid the convenience factor, having to get a ladder to water it from the top!  

     Our first pineapple is making a valiant effort to please.  I am having a picture of it's progress made every other day and will post them as a top action film when it is about to be harvested.  Look forward to it!

     SO, Spring is officially here.  I hope you are getting ready for the coming change in weather, whenever it arrives at your home.