Who is tired of the weather?

[Big-Al]

Last year (I know it was exceptionally early) I had peas, and all the greens up by this time. I haven't been able to touch the garden. Anyone else feel a little depression setting in?

[reinhard1]

this will be my first garden this year. so i hope for the best. i understand the anticipation. as far as the weather, guess we cant help that much. glad i'm not a full time farmer, where their budget depends on the weather. good luck.

[ishy]

last years chives are going strong. used some three times already. pretty cool, had no idea they were that hardy. unfortunatley they wont make it thru the tilling.(maybe I can go around them). I too, am ready too get into the garden. still way too wet........ i did mail in my plant order. most important is the kids picked out a bunch for their garden, i am most pleased about that. first time mail ordering. last year we did everyting from seed in the garage, this year was new floors in kitchen,living, and hallway. Ran out of time. So, we all picked some fun and crazy stuff via mail. We will see what a hundred bucks worth will get us. if nothing else, family time in the garden when were are not fishing..................PRICELESS!!!!!!!!!!!!

[KEN W]

I also had onions,peas,and lettuce up and growing by this time last year.Only thing showing right now is my ruhbarb.

Transplanted all my flowers into sixpacks yesterday.Getting full under my growlights.

Started my early sweetcorn in sixpacks yesterday.All my cole crops are ready to transplant into sixpacks.

[Steve Foss]

Up here, we don't plant garden veggies until mid May at the earliest. Darn frost. So while I'm getting tired of all these cold weather fronts moving through, it hasn't really delayed anything. Garlic is coming up in the raised beds, and we've got daylilies, daffodils and bleeding heart poking their shoots up through the soil.

[Nainoa]

My Grandfather's farm failed in the Depression and he brought my Dad & Co into the city... But a thousand years of farmer blood flows through my veins still to this day.

One of the things I've come to realize and accept is that you can't see the weather as a negative thing... But instead a way to add to your skill set with cunning solutions.

Now granted... I still had more things up at this time last year... But not by much...

Last year at this time my peas were 16 inches tall... Now they are 4 inches tall...

Last year I stuck them in the warm ground and let them do their thing... Can't say that I really learned a whole lot of anything new!

This year... I gave them a head start with a warm water soak for 2 days... Planted them in trellis trays on my deck (Where the herbs will be grown in the heat of summer) and then covered them with a clear plastic row cover.

Peas are actually growing faster on a day by day basis this year than they were at this time last year. (Row cover warmed the soil tray better!)

Now that I have the basics of the technique worked out, I can perfect it next year for earlier and more bountiful production.

I would have never thought of this if it had been a regular or crazy early spring like last year!

[Nainoa]

last years chives are going strong. used some three times already. pretty cool, had no idea they were that hardy. unfortunatley they wont make it thru the tilling.(maybe I can go around them). I too, am ready too get into the garden. still way too wet........ i did mail in my plant order. most important is the kids picked out a bunch for their garden, i am most pleased about that. first time mail ordering. last year we did everyting from seed in the garage, this year was new floors in kitchen,living, and hallway. Ran out of time. So, we all picked some fun and crazy stuff via mail. We will see what a hundred bucks worth will get us. if nothing else, family time in the garden when were are not fishing..................PRICELESS!!!!!!!!!!!!

You can still at this point in the year, especially with the cold spring, transplant those chives out to a planter... Just dig up wide around them... Separate like you normally would any root matting, and then put them into planters... Then put the planters somewhere that gets a little afternoon shade.

Perennial herbs should never be planted in the main garden, just because of this tilling problem etc...

[Big-Al]

I love to get the peas in by by mid April. Last year I got hem in even earlier. They love that cool weather growing period and don't mind a good freeze. Several salad greens love it too. The freezing temps plague me also, often into the first week of June. That doesn't stop me from planting many items if the soil is dry enough to till and warm enough for germination.

I will predict the last major frost here in central St. Louis Co. the 17th or 18th of May to coincide with the full moon. In those years that the full moon lands in that first week of June we have a frost then about 50% of the time.

[Dotch]

Still too tacky here to do much, the main garden especially. Being under snow up until a few weeks ago probably had something to do with it. No heat, no breeze when it has been warm and cloudy conditions probably didn't help. Will start the vine crops this week at the greenhouse. With average soil temps at the 2" depth in the upper 30's and low 40's last week and rain forecast tonight there is no rush. Crop farmers are in the same boat. Very little field activity today save for some fertilizer application and rock picking. Even field pea planting for Green Giant and Birdseye has been slow going except for the areas with lighter soil around Hastings. Of course there it can rain in the morning and be fit to go in the afternoon. Oh well, it will warm up here one of these days and within a couple days, the garden gets planted. Too much time invested though to screw it up and have a do-over. As the oldtimers say, plant in the mud, crop is a dud. Plant in the dust, bins will bust.

[Nainoa]

What I've done to boost soil temps for my heat loving crops is to build shallow cold frames out of old windows... Then I put them over top the areas where I want to plant my heat loving crops in a few weeks.

They act like mini greenhouses on sunnny days and boost the soil temps so my eggplants and peppers don't go through transplant shock on a cold spring etc...

[Steve Foss]

What I've done to boost soil temps for my heat loving crops is to build shallow cold frames out of old windows... Then I put them over top the areas where I want to plant my heat loving crops in a few weeks.

They act like mini greenhouses on sunnny days and boost the soil temps so my eggplants and peppers don't go through transplant shock on a cold spring etc...

Same here. The old-fashioned storm windows work best with our 4x8 raised beds. We can lay them right on top so there's about a 3-inch gap between soil and glass, or we can put 2x4 on top of the bed edges and then lay the storms on top if we need more room.

[Nainoa]

Yeah I've still got some old windows left that I'm trying to figure out what to do with them... I'm trying really hard to resist the urge to build a MEGA cold frame in the garden and plant some of my larger tomatoes... Simply because they are getting much larger than I thought!

[Steve Foss]

Well, 2 inches of new snow overnight, with 1-3 more coming today and a bit more this evening. Good thing it's getting to 42 today and again in the 40s tomorrow. One thing about spring snow -- it doesn't last long.

[Nainoa]

Ouch...

At least down here it was just cold rain...

In a strange way my Greenhouse needs the cold... Some of my cherry tomatoes have pretty whispy stems just from growing so fast. (I think I may have selected too fast of an early growth trait in the seeds over the last 2 years)

[Steve Foss]

Yeah, we've been about five degrees too cold for the last three or four systems to produce rain, so we get the snow.

[Big-Al]

About 2.5 inches that we did not need here this morning.