I would like to plant also, but I think I will wait for the next cold front to move through. I so many plants committed to others that I wont have backups.

Good luck, Dorothy. You're much more of a risk taker than I am. I don't have anything to cover mine with either.

Susan

I put 27 tomato plants in the ground today, Dorothy, and intend to plant the rest tomorrow. Like you, I have material on hand to cover them up, and I think that on at least one night this week I'll have to do it.

If something awful happens and I lose them all, I have backups so I am comfortable with the decision to plant. I was worried if I waited any later, that it might get too hot too early before they could grow enough to set a lot of fruit. At the rate the late cold spells are rolling around weekly, I think we could go from "too cold" to "too hot" all at once.

It was 85 degrees today and gorgeous so it was a fine day to spend the afternoon out in the yard and garden.

Dawn

Dorothy, I was in your town on Saturday and bought a few plants from a local nursery. This one was the greenhouse north of town with all of the berry plants. A bought just enough strawberries to finish out a container that needed a few additional. I already had chosen everything else so an employee just went out and picked out 3 for me. They look like they had been nipped by a little frost, but most of what I bought was still inside the greenhouse and looks really healthy.

I've given up on ever having a big strawberry bed because the birds always get them. but I have a few plants in a discarded metal cart. I bought 3 more plants to add to those then found another flower pot with one or two in it. I think I will just build a cover for it and maybe I will get a bowl of berries before the birds do.

I'm trying to get everything hardened off this week. My garden looks too empty.

I have back up plants but I just don't want to have to replant for reasons other than extreme exigent circumstances. I may regret that decision but I think I have varieties that have been discussed here as being heat tolerant, or at least more so than most, that may survive the summer to produce a fall crop, if not a spring crop. And that's okay with me, in a not so perfect year. My gut' s telling me to be patient and wait, and I'm not usually a patient person.

Susan, hoping everyone gets mucho tomatoes!!

I put about 15 tomatoes in the ground yesterday. I have means to cover them. Also, I got 3/4 of my corn (Mesquakie Indian) in the ground.

I sprayed the tomatoes with Neem. This is an experiment for me. But there were so many cutworms that I had to try it. In one place, just planting one tomato plant, I discovered FOUR cutworms!

George
Tahlequah, OK

we put ours in also. I didnt want to spend the money on potting soil to pot them up. I have plenty of 5 gallon nursery pots and blankets on standby.

mike

Glad I'm not the only one. Carol, that is Doyle's greenhouse. I haven't been out there this year. He was selling fresh strawberries from under row covers last Thanksgiving. And I bought a couple pint boxes of fresh berries that look like his from the grocery in town last Friday. I have more trouble with deer eating my strawberries than I do birds. I bought bird netting to keep the jays off the apples last year. If necessary I'll net the strawberries.

George, it's a year for cutworms isn't it? I told Glenn yesterday that they were really numerous--and big--this year. As always, I planted my broccoli in paper cups, then just pulled the bottom off to transplant leaving the cup standing up to protect the stem. Still lost one, but found that guy.

So good luck to all of us.

I only put 16 more plants in the ground today and then stopped planting because it was too hot. I figured if it was too hot for me then it was too hot for the plants. Our high temp hit 91 degrees and since we have been used to cool weather, it felt "too hot". That's funny because a month or two from now, 91 degrees will feel nice and cool.

We put hoops over each tomato bed and attached deer netting to the hoops, hoping it will offer some protection from hail. On the coming cold nights, I can just throw row cover over the hoops/netting.

Of course I have the material needed to cover up everything that is in the ground, and I have backup plants in case disaster strikes.

I worked hard to kill off the cutworms this winter and haven't found any while planting. I am not saying I won't be finding some or whatever, just that the soil into which I have been planted was rototilled so many times this winter that it ought to be relatively cutworm free. I've had some cole crops in the ground for at least 6 weeks now and even though I see cabbage whites every day, none of their cats have appeared on my cole crops.I am watching closely for them.

Susan, I already have seen white-lined sphinx and monarchs in the garden, as well as swallowtails and lots of the less impressive moths and butterflies. The hummingbirds are back and the purple martins are too. April and October are my favorite months because the weather is generally so mild that being outside working in the yard and garden is a pleasure.

I have more tomato plants to plant tomorrow, and then I likely won't plant again until after the weather calms down. We have a little bit of everything in the forecast the next few days.

Dawn

I had a whitelined sphinx visiting day before yesterday so I put out a dish of overripe fruit for him. I've seen lot of butterflies including Monarchs. I hope for lots this summer!

Susan

I think it is a good sign we are seeing them so early. Certainly it is looking better for the butterflies than 2011. Of course, it would be hard for the butterfly year to be worse than 2011.

Looks like Thursday night, Friday morning are going the be the chance for a frost here in Tulsa. My concern now is for hail tonight into tomorrow.

mike