Mine are all out. Some are still under WOWs, all are wondering where the heat is. But all of them are growing roots. The zuke-squash in pots are tentatively poking their heads out of the soil, searching for heat. The spinach is still very happy. Poor Carl doesn't have WOWs and can't plant...

Dan

This will be the latest I've planted tomatoes and peppers in decades, up here near the 49th parallel.

Overnight lows in the 30's are predicted for the weekend. I got in a huge amount of trouble in 2010 (another cold spring) when I set plants out and then had to cover and lose them over the course of 3 days & nights.

It wouldn't take much to get me out there in this rain today, setting those plants out but they are too precious to me! I drove by a truck farm near my garden and identified hundreds of tomatoes and peppers that have just been transplanted into their field. I don't know what to think . . .

They have their sprinklers all set up and can do some frost-mitigation with them but that wouldn't be adequate for any low below about 30F. It just wouldn't be, and I know it. Last year, I had my sprinklers going and there was a 10mph wind accompanying what could be considered a light frost. The plants completely covered by buckets were okay but that was it for frost-tender plants. The rest were covered with ice and toast . . .

Ah well, they are okay in their containers for a few more days.

Steve

My issue is wind, forecast for the next week or so. We have spread the compost, yesterday I spread a mountain of grass clippings for mulch. So everything is ready to go. I may go ahead and get some of the tomato plants out, given that they're so over-grown that most of the plant will have to be buried anyway.

I'll still wait on the peppers. I take out the trays into the sun when I can, but have to watch they don't get snapped off when the wind picks up.

Most of my tomatoes, eggplants and peppers are in the garden. It seemed to be time to start spreading their roots out. I'm probably passing on doing corn this year.

I've started winter squash, melons and cucumbers in peat pots about 2 weeks ago. Hopefully the soil warms up by next week. I have some of their planned beds covered with clear plastic.

Every year I say I'm going to start the melons and cukes & squash indoors to get a jump on it, but never do. Even after warming the soil I'm getting cr*ppy germination, and this may be the spring that pushes me over the edge to do it.

Dan

I've got lots of cucumber and squash starts in containers so all of those things have gone out in the open garden. If they freeze, I can be back in a day or 2 with more plants.

We know that the peppers aren't going to do anything with highs of 55F and lows of 40F. It probably will stunt them. Eggplants would likely die. Eggplant is still in the greenhouse and the peppers will come off the sawhorses and again join the eggplant tonight.

I've now tilled the tomato patch 3 times because of delay and rain. I've got the bit in my teeth and couldn't be more ready to go!

Steve

My tomatoes are getting unhappy in the green house. Lack of room and lack of pot size. I put out 16 in the new planter boxes yesterday. I have 5 gal bucket with the bottoms cut out over each. More for wind that any thing else. In the past, I have had to weight the buckets from the wind. There use to be a guy, I think in Casper Why. that used old car tires. One or two around each for protection and also to generate heat from the black color. I bet he wasn't in any HOA restrictions.

My HOA says old-car-tire planters on the front lawn have to be painted in pastel colors. The back yard, they don't care.

Snooty jerks. Whats wrong with black and a bit of silver from the really worn spots? I call it "patina".

I'm going to start planting horizontal tomatoes tomorrow.

I gave into temptation and started planting tomatoes this evening. The weather forecast goes like this: windy windy breezy breezy breezy breezy windy windy breezy and so on, with temps in the 70's, lows in the low 40's.

I think I mentioned that I'd started tomatoes and peppers using "Fox Farm" potting soil, the choice of "alternative medicinal crop" growers, and the plants are looking hard at 3 feet long. I dunno if that stuff is such a good idea.

So I started off by burying the first two feet. They look sorta wilty in the wind, but they'll toughen up. And only broke two out of 20, so far. I've got a mountain of grass clipping mulch all around each plant in case we get a freeze. Another 40 plants to go. I'll wait on the peppers for another week.

The other day, I was looking at some information on "lazy beds" as was practiced in Ireland and elsewhere, often for the growing of potatoes. The images of ancient gardens are enchanting. There are plenty of gardeners who still use this effective technique.

Around one of the gardens of about 1,000 square feet, and probably used for centuries, was an admirably well-kept stone wall. I wish I'd bookmarked the picture so that I could show it to you now.

No doubt, there is an interest in keeping livestock out of the garden, altho' I'm not sure how the cliff edge on one side would afford a critter much of a toehold to get in that way. I'm sure they wouldn't want a gardener tripping over a rake and falling backwards into the sea; so that could be the reason for the wall on that side.

Of course, a gardener would be interested in getting the stones out of the garden soil.

But the wind protection . . . a stone wall of 36" to 40". Frost protection also, but I'm not quite sure how that would work. However, I bet you could lie on your back in that garden on a windy day and feel no more than a soft breeze on your face!

Can hardly believe that I've been chucking rocks out of a garden all these years without using them to build a wall.

Steve

There ya go, Steve. Around here, one of the common garden 'features' are home made stacks of the ubiquitous sand stone rocks, mimicking the Anasazi ruins. I've several flower beds myself made with the stuff, which is everywhere you stick a shovel. I'm going to do one sometime next week around a dying peach tree* and fill it with composty soil and plant squash.

Our stone garden work will be the object of some future archeology class, and they'll find short walls, bits of weed whacker string, beer bottle caps, and draw conclusions about industrious gophers.

* dying due to peach tree borers. Invite them to dinner, they sit around 'til 10 pm telling stories about their minor childhood ailments, and show slightly out of focus slides of their 1988 trip to Disneyland. And the trees just die.

I gave in and started planting peppers on Wednesday. Immediately after that I noticed the forecast, which included a high wind warning. Fortunately, the winds weren't as bad as predicted, and everything made it through just fine. My peppers were growing like gangbusters under a growlight in the guest room, but then a house guest arrived and I had to move the peppers to the front porch. Between the cold, cloudy days, and the wind, the peppers were looking worse and worse, so I decided to take a chance. I only got 13 planted, and have a couple dozen more to go.

My tomatoes, which were wintersown due to lack of space indoors, have sprouted but most don't even have their first set of true leaves, so who knows if I'll even get a tomato crop this year ...

David, your HOA comment cracked me up! Just this morning I dug up a Wichita juniper, well actually I was able to pull it right out of the ground, as it was half dead. Anyway, afterwards I realized that I am now in violation of my HOA guidelines, which require at least one evergreen in every yard. What can I say, I'm a rebel : )

I'm putting in my tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers this weekend. I actually broke down and bought already-grown plants from the nursery instead of starting seed this year. I had a busy spring and didn't get to it.

I planted my squash last weekend, along with some shallots, tuscan kale, radishes, and summer crisp lettuce. We shall see how germination goes. I know it's been cool still, but my beds are in a full-sun southern exposure so they at least catch every bit of heat there is.

Not a great start to the growing season, but you know that when the heat hits, it's going to hit all at once.

I am starting to transplant veggies today. Starting with the cuc's and squash starts...then the toms, eggplants, and peppers after rain forcasted for Sat. night.

@Steve- We are tilling the garden for the third time today also because of all the rain!

The bums at NOAA have forecast Monday night at 29F, and so I'll have to cover all those tomatoes. Last fall, my neighbor who worked at Walmart brought home a couple of hundred left-over hanging baskets full of geraniums and what not, left over from the season. He was told to throw them away, and he did so - into the back of his truck. Anyway, he gave me a huge stack of the things and with some careful stem bending, they fit perfectly over the plants to protect them.

Germination has been slow, but melons are up, cukes and squish not up. Might throw a couple extra seeds in just in case.

Dan

I've never grown squish before, Dan! Would it be similar to squash???

:-D
Skybird

"I've never grown squish before, Dan! Would it be similar to squash???

:-D
Skybird"
Only when step on one.

The 8 y.o. and I call it squish. We were out looking at her melon germination and she was disappointed we couldn't see any squishes. And the morning glory are slow too.

Dan

Thought there might be an explanation for that one, Dan! First I thought it was a typo, and then I realized the a and the i are on different hands, and typo didn't make much sense anymore!

Your explanation makes sense later in the summer, Kenny, but it's too early for there to be anything to squish yet this early.

I don't have anything at all to squish yet this year! STILL don't have my root crops, beans, cukes or squish planted! Well, I finally decided to stick some squish seeds in pots today to at least get them germinated before putting them in the ground! Spent most of the afternoon removing more of the potter's clay from the second half of the veggie garden and hope to get everything else planted in the next few days. Just got WAY behind with the couple weeks of rain and the swap. But, actually, when we went into that second week of rain I decided it was probably good that I hadn't gotten some of that stuff in the ground earlier. Seems to me things like the cukes and squash, and maybe the beans, might have rotted with all the cold and wet! And as Digit is discussing over on the Cucumber thread, I don't think the cukes would have done anything anyway, even if they had already germinated. Supposed to be in the 80's for the next week, and if I can get them in quick, I think they should get going pretty well now!

My tomatoes, eggplants, basil plants, and my ONE pepper are still in pots, and they're doing just fine as they are, so they'll be going in the ground after all the stuff I still need to seed is done! Lotta work sorting the heavy clay out of the garden, but I'm optimistic that it's gonna really help my production this year. With the nasty, nasty stuff I'm pulling out of there, I'm totally amazed that anything at all grew the first couple years I planted veggies when I didn't do anything at all but put the seeds in the ground and water them! It's been five years now, my garden is swarming with worms (do worms swarm???) and I'm expecting things to grow better and better from here on out.

In a week we're all gonna be complaining that it's too hot!

Skybird