YOUR TURN TO GLOAT

Knockout Roses in a MacDonald's Parking Lot

A few days ago I decided it was time to write a post, informing all my northern readers that they could stop feeling envious about our weather now, for we had reached the point where spring wasn't quite so wonderful anymore.  It had hit the upper 80's several times at that point, with lows mostly in the upper 50's or 60's, and our house had turned into a mosquito incubator overnight.  They were absolutely eating me alive! ('though, of course, they never touch my dear hubby)

The upside of that was that we could finally plant our warm weather veggies.  There is a great nursery in far west Austin, called Natural Gardener.  It's owned by John Dromgoole, the guru of organic gardening who brought us the wonderful Ladybug soils and ammendments, and it's a gardener's wonderland!  They have a huge selection of heirloom veggies and wonderful native plants, and the best display gardens ever.  The only problem is, I can never seem to get out of there for less than a hundred dollars, so maybe it's just as well that it's such a pain to get to.

Imagine my glee, then, when I opened up the latest Hill Country Sun this weekend, and found an ad for a new branch of Natural Gardener, just a hop, skip and a jump away, in Drippin'!  This one is primarily just a place to buy their soils and mulches in bulk, but the ad did say "great selection of herb and veggie transplants, just in", so of course, we went to check it out.

Sure enough, they had filled the porch area around their office with all kinds of great tomatoes and other veggies -- the neat heirlooms and such that you'll never find at the box stores.  They even had a tomato I'd read about called "Mortgage Lifter."  With a name like that, it's gotta be great, right?  Of course, I hadn't checked the weather forecast in a couple of days, but surely it was safe now to buy these tomatoes and peppers.  Surely!

So, what was the temp when I woke up this morning?  Thirty-frickin-four degrees!

Should I even bother to plant them now?