Not-So-Hot Peppers

It has been freezing here. Not in the proverbial sense but in the "Look, there's ice on Hubs' garden" sense.

Hubs grows peppers and tomatoes every year. He is a real green thumb.

Let me tell y'all something about me. I'm a brown thumb.

As Ouiser said in Steel Magnolias, it is a Southern woman's duty to have a garden. I am an embarrassment to Ouisers everywhere.

Hubs knows this. This is why he asks our daughter to water his plants whenever he has to go out of town. He gave up on me when I killed his cactus plant.

The only hope my bedding plants have is the sprinkler system, which is on a timer.

Let me tell y'all something else. Whenever Hubs has a garden of any kind and the plants are nearly at their peek performance, he has to go on a business trip. And whenever he goes on a business trip something freaky happens with nature and I have to suddenly problem solve about why there are holes in the tomato plant leaves or how on earth I'm going to keep the birds away.

Sigh.

Hubs was on a very short business trip last week and, as my unluck would have it, we had a freeze warning. An unseasonable freeze warning.

Hello, Al Gore, Mr. Nobel Peace Prize winner!

So, after I made a nice bed for Milky The Stray Cat, I grabbed all of my Wal-mart bags and began to cover up Hubs' pepper plants. Some of the plants were too big, so I did the next best thing. I covered them up with blankets. Right now there are jalapeno peppers lovingly draped in a hot pink woven blanket in my backyard.

It really adds to the wicker furniture on the porch.

Hubs came home from his trip and we greeted him at the airport with a hooded sweatshirt. He was surprised to hear that it was cold. On our way home, I told him all about my Wal-mart Bag/Woven Blanket Solution.

As of now, nearly 12 hours later, he still hasn't checked on his plants. I think he's scared to look.

Or maybe he has decided the hot pink blanket makes a nice addition to his garden.