Steve my plan here in extreme SW KS is too start planting tomatoes Friday afternoon. They have now raised our lows for tonight a little. 36-38 now. Then around 40 tomorrow night and after that looks good. I will put the tomatoes out first. Which will make room in the frames to harden off the rest of the peppers. I have a few out there now. I will plant them around Memorial day when I plant okra. I mulched a few things heave tonight if the wind doesn't blow it away. I have cukes, squash that are growing in milk jugs. Hopefully will be able to take them off soon. Glad you were able to set out a few and that it looks good down the road for you. Jay

Jay, things not yet set out are hardened off, well and good. The cucurbits have mostly been exposed to cold and not sun so I may burn them. Zinnias and sunflowers are desperate to move out of their containers and I'm not about to move them to something larger - it is now or never.

The peppers, especially, have been out again and again during the last 3 weeks. Tomatoes had a tough go of it because I started most of them too early and tried to slow them down with cool temperatures, too fast. The abused ones are coming back fine, however. The unabused are healthy but will need to be planted with a posthole digger because they've stretched so much. That's okay.

Ten days of waiting will be hard on them but there's enuf in reserve to replace all that went out today and are likely to go out Monday. Neighbors always seem to be happy with the reserves and make good use of them. I just started things a little too early and didn't have supplemental light when the weather turned cloudy.

It really turned out to be a somewhat normal spring but the warm January and February up here fooled me into believing we were headed towards something different. And, I'm going to have to deal with too little light in some fashion, some day.

Steve

OK, for what its worth, I will give you my permission. Big grin.
I wonder if the soil is warm enough to germinate melons and such though.
If the wind doesn't blow, I will lay out my dripers and mark the spots for my tomatoes.
Kenny

Our 7 day forecast night time lows are 32, 33, 32, 33, 34, 32, 33. I'm waiting until they get up into the 40's. At the rate we're going, that might be July.

I'm still hardening off as I planned on using this coming weekend-early next week to set out peppers and couple container toms. I'm also still planning on the cool going away all of a sudden, and the heat showing up at the door without so much as a phone call or fanfare, hopefully after my lettuces head up. My vining crops' seeds are in under warming film (and next to the house) so my soil temps should be good after today. We'll see if Mother Nature likes my plans...

Dan

Well, I had hoped to get my tomatoes and peppers out sometime this week, but the weather is not cooperating. Winds are currently 38 mph, with gusts up to 56 mph. The tomatoes had spent the last few nights outdoors, and the peppers were out during the day, but everything is in the garage ... again.

The milkjug tops that I had over my perennial seedlings that I planted out, blew away, so now they have no protection. If the winds don't die back soon, I'm going to lose quite a few, I'm afraid.

I noticed some of the sunflowers and cucumbers I direct sowed last week are starting to poke their heads up today, and I have a feeling they might regret it!

... and of course, I had to chase my garbage can down this afternoon.

Bonnie

I'm glad I got all the seed blanket down over the soil, as the wind has picked up here too and is threatening to pick up the lawn furniture and deliver it to a lucky family in Nebraska. Still waiting to put the peppers in the ground, as they seem to be used to the sun. Tomatillos are objecting a bit to the wind, and I left the WOWs on the toms in the planter for another couple days.

Dan

. . . a deterioration of the weather today.
But, I dude it. I set out over 60 tomato plants yesterday.
Last night, the Weather Service had Saturday morning's forecast low at 34°F!

This afternoon, they have changed it to 36°. I-will-take-whatever-I-can-get . . . even if it is only a 2° increase!

Of course, I will turn the sprinklers on to mitigate a light frost if one occurs. But, I know, I am Casting Fate to the Wind . . . If this is a screw up; it is my fault.

Compared to bright sunshine and 80°, so far, it has been a reasonably good 24 hours for the transplants. Low temperature at the garden was a remarkable 53° and the high was 59°, for the day. Light rain has fallen, now and then. Could be a little less windy.

I'm heading out to move all the reserve plants back into the greenhouse for the next few days. I can replace everything that is out in the garden . . . but, I don' wanna!!

digitS'