By now, I'm sure everyone who bought those tomato plants during the first beautiful, lovely weekend in March is wishing they hadn't been lured by the vegetable shelves. I'm glad I stuck with what my successful gardening friends recommended would do well in cold weather -- lettuce, collards, onions and broccoli. And while I was starting to get a little worried they might get washed away, so far, so good.

I went so far as to even plant some carrots, beets and bush beans last weekend. And wouldn't you know it, less than a day after they go in the ground, it pours. We're talking wake-you-up-in-the-night, crazy rainstorm pours.

Well, the carrots I figured were more of an experiment, anyway, and I was just about to write off the beets. But then, as I was poking around this morning taking pictures, I realized not all is lost.

 I think I have the start of tiny beets and beans. Sure enough, there's little green shoots coming up where once there was just dirt. Perhaps there's hope, even after a steady downpour.

GARDENER EVENTS

I also wanted to let you know about a few events on Saturday that are a bit of a drive but interesting nonetheless. First, there's the Master Gardener plant sale in Athens, which starts at 8 a.m. Saturday at the old farmers market building on Broad Street. Then there's the Piedmint Garden Club's tour of homes in Athens, which includes some really great gardens, including Vince Dooley's home (did you know he's a master gardener?), and third there's the Old Timey Seed Swap from 3 to 8 p.m. Saturday in Crawford, which is out in Oglethorpe County. It's got heirloom seeds as well as cheap barbecue and bluegrass till after dark.

Here's a link: http://www.uga.edu/ebl/ssl/activities/seedswap/

Hope to see you there!