Good for you, soilent. I'm a gambler also--what serious MN gardener isn't?--but not as bold as you. Good luck and keep us posted on things. Gary

I have lettuce, radishes and beets sprouting. Those are the only seeds I have planted other than my winter sowing, which is really doing well.

I love a good experiment... My lettuce is up and growing. Peas seem to be taking their time. And forgot to get some carrots going. :-)

I tried some warm weather seeds in early April. (watermelon, sqush and pumpkin) They all came up fine in early May - germination was a little slow... but they turned out just fine.

I'm with you. I'll be planting a bunch of stuff this Monday. Seed is cheap and a lot of these plants can take quite a bit of cold. One thing I like to do is presprout my peas. Kind of "kickstarts" them into action and helps with rotting in cool, wet soil.

Update: Things are sprouting after two warm sunny days in the upper 60's/low 70's. These two days were preceded by three cloudy and rainy days. Not as much up as I would have expected by now, but the soil is quite cold yet.

Squirrels are digging holes all over in the garden, but they don't seem to be after any of my stuff. I wonder if they are grubbing or something because I loosened and garden-raked the soil prior to seeding and did not notice any buried nuts.

I put up some rabbit fencing around this garden today. Hard to believe it but I overheated a bit - was sweating profusely from the hot sun and wasn't drinking enough water. Also got a touch of sunburn on my neck while doing this project. After spending all winter indoors this is a dangerous time of year to be out in the sun when not used to it, plus no leaves on the trees for shade to escape to for a break. Didn't feel good so I skipped dinner and rested instead, but I feel fine now and ate at ten pm. Dug out my old wide-brimmed gardening hat from storage and will start wearing it again. That hat is like an old friend as it always helps keep me cool and nicely shades my face and neck from the sun. It was kind of stupid of me to not think of wearing it today.

A cold snap that I expected would come sooner or later is forecast to start on Monday. Highs in the mid to upper 40's, rain expected as well. Here will be the test because I have no intention of doing anything to protect the garden - it is on its own. I currently have around 2000 seedlings in flats under lights to worry about and take care of - they are my babies, not the stuff in the garden.

Thanks to all for the posts. It is nice hearing from fellow gardeners regarding what you are all doing or have done in the past.