Killer Freeze

This morning the frost was so thick on the ground that it looked like snow. The sun didn't start to come up over the hill and through the trees until eight or later, and it hasn't been much help. The sky is a clear, cloudless, cold blue. It's cold out there!

We've been digging irises to replant and give away. The garden was blessed with them when we moved here eight years ago. They were at their height when we moved in, and I counted a dozen colors at the time. We have found others since. The thing about irises, though, is that every few years they have to be dug up and thinned and what you can't use, you should share. They are so easy to grow, anyone who has a bit of ground can do it.

When I was a little kid, someone gave my father some irises in a burlap bag. When he got them home, he was too tired to do anything with them, so he just threw bag and all on the ground by the porch. He forgot about them through the rain and snow of winter. But they didn't forget to grow! They grew right through the burlap bag and bloomed beautifully the next spring.