I was outside all day yesterday without incident but I went out for 20 mins today and now I am scratching my ankle in 2 places.

I was just about to say I had a mosquito on my arm just now.

We have fought mosquitos all winter. They quit while its really cold, but as soon as it is above freezing they are back. It is the fire ants that have stronger stings and are infesting literally everything that is on my last nerve.

Hey Hamwild, I hear Georgia and Alabama never trim their crepe myrtles. Like Never, thought I would ask about that.

kittriana said: Hey Hamwild, I hear Georgia and Alabama never trim their crepe myrtles. Like Never, thought I would ask about that.

There are folks here that do and they come back ugly.

I am one that doesn't believe in pruning them myself.

There are SO MANY old, continually pollarded CMs around here. Once that is done, it can't go back to looking normal. Just have to keep doing it or get rid of it. We tried just letting the ones @ my mom's house go and they don't bloom well again if not re-pollarded. There's one in our yard that I think is as old as the house, 122 yrs. I don't mind the summer "lollipop" look but the bare winter "chopped sticks" is not something I would do from scratch on purpose.

There is no truth to the statement that people in Alabama never "murder" their Crape Myrtles. Even the city does it here with the trees in the medians. We have 'Crape Myrtles' my wife let some friends come over and help one day and they trimmed one of ours, I cut the tree down. The power company cut down all the ones in the back yard except for one miniature near the house and one full size right next to the rear deck. The rest in the front remain untrimmed and look the way I think they are suppose to look and have the beautiful bark and trunks and the tops that look natural.

I know camps are divided on the trim/no trim issue, but I took exception to Randy Lemmon along our Gulf Coast areas telling everyone that no one but Texas trims crepe myrtles. I do trim some every 3rd year, but trimmed one the drought got-and it is still alive and blooming again. I also live closer to the Big Thicket and fight swarms of bugs...I do know some of the older varieties reached skinny limbs 109' into the air and quit blooming - these were chronicled some years back over in lower Ga/Al, but I don't know what became of them. We don't just trim back to a knob, some folks trim them to knobs one year, then after 3 years trim the newer growth into a pattern that would resemble a tree canopy instead of long skinny overgrown octopus arms. Thanx tho for the vindication- I KNEW I remembered trimmed crepes when last I was over there. Darn skeeter in the house again...

...and now here comes a predicted hard frost Sunday night. I'm glad I came to my senses and only carried a few plants outside Saturday. All of them will be going right back inside.

I knew better. I was like nope, I remember a frost in April a couple years ago, I'm going to hold out this year!

Yes, I remember too. In 2014 we wandered off to New Orleans for a long weekend, not even thinking about frost & some of my plants got zapped on April fools day. And we had to buy some warmer shirts while there. LOL! Jack Frost is an ornery little ba... uh, bag of tricks.

Same here...brrr chilly Saturday and Sunday night.

My bad, I'm so sorry I took some plants outside. F'ed it up for everybody.

I'm sure I did something, somewhere along the way that screwed it up before you put your plants outside.

This cold snap is going to kill all my white azalea buds... a couple have opened already:

Here's a yellow trumpet daff and a patch of mini tet daffodils blooming, along with a hyacinth bloom or two.






I'll have to cover my hydrangeas that I planted last fall. They have started growing and I'd hate to see them set back because of this weather.

Ron

Beautiful! If it bothers anything, it sure won't be the weeds. Sigh!

If the prediction for 25° is correct, it will be the coldest night of this winter at my location by about 3°. Crazy to have it this late! At least the current crop of mosquitoes will be frozen.

Winds changed from NE to NW and picked up to 16mph. 52* will hit 31* by dawn, but the wind warns will last thru tomorrow. Temp 'feels like' 47*. I have a few skeeter bits in the plants I am bringing in.