Lee,

Yay!

Thanks for posting this, I have been watching the long-term forecast like a hawk for the last couple of weeks and have been really excited about the warm weather that starts up for us in a couple of days. I kept telling my DH that the 8-14 day temperature outlook showed us getting nice and warm, though he was focused more on the 7-day forecast. I feel like I've been waiting forever for these warm temps to get here.

I have 5 container tomato plants with fruit that I've been carrying inside in cold weather, and I have had them since the last week in January. They've been able to stay outside a surprising amount of the time.

I just moved all my 5-week-old home-grown tomato seedlings from the light shelf indoors to the greenhouse yesterday, so I could begin hardening them off. I am not in a real big hurry to put them into the ground, even though my soil temps have been roughly averaging in the mid-50s, but I do want them hardened off to outdoor conditions so that if the weather stays warm I can get them in ground sometime before the end of March.

We have some cold nights ahead tonight and tomorrow, but my greenhouse stays above freezing as long as the outdoor air doesn't drop below about 26 degrees, and I can quickly move the tomato plants to the nearby well-insulated garage if it looks like we might go significantly colder than forecast.

Last year I already was putting tomato plants in the ground by now, about 2 and 1/2 weeks ahead of my average last frost date, but the weather this year has not been nearly as warm so I'm trying to control my desire to plant like a maniac.

Dawn