By Jan Penton Miller

With sub-freezing temperatures expected for the first day of spring I took all the necessary precautions. My son graciously helped me haul all my beautiful plants that were adorning the backyard and porch to a place of safety inside the garage..

A little later I remembered that I had been out watering and taken the protective covers off the outside faucets. Fortunately, I found them without too much trouble, and once again put them in place to do their job.

I breathed a sigh of relief that everything was ready for a hard frost, and immediately smiled thinking of my grandfather. His handsome face appeared before me almost as if he was in the room. I could hear his words of wisdom once again.

“People who plant before Good Friday almost always regret it. The Easter snap can do a lot of damage so it’s just better to wait.”

Once again the promise of spring and the fleeting warmer temperatures had lured me into purchasing so many lovely plants that it took a lot of work to protect them. I’m sure Papaw is up there somewhere grinning at me and pointing to his Farmer’s Almanac as if to say, “I told you so!”

Toward evening I remembered that some of my perennials were about to bloom so I braved the cold and covered my fragile plants with sheets. Any non-gardener passersby may have puzzled over my strange yard décor. I imagine them wondering why anyone would throw what looked like perfectly clean sheets all over the place.

This morning I waited until the temperatures had risen above freezing and retrieved the sheets from the yard. Unfortunately, when I removed them from their places I also removed some of my Cypress mulch.

I looked at the weather on my phone and the forecast for tomorrow has changed. It looks like we are in for another freezing night. I guess instead of a grin my grandfather is probably rolling in laughter, and I just have to laugh too. At least I checked the weather before I started dragging all my plants from the garage.

Is there some lesson I need to learn from all of this? Probably, but like our dear friend Scarlett O’Hara in Gone With The Wind spoke so eloquently, “I’ll think about it tomorrow”. Maybe. Write to Jan Penton at jpentonauthor@gmail.com