CRAZY warm Spring..with apologies to my West Coast friends here!

[ducks4you]

I gotta ask all those east of the Rockies--dare we plant about one month ahead of schedule?!?!?!? We may NEVER have a chance for early tomatoes as we have THIS YEAR!!
I'd like your opinions, please. thanks

 

[lesa]

You know I am not much of a gambler... but I'll be darned if I am going to sit here with the weather in the 70's and not try it! We have the option of covering things if we do get frost- and in the worst case, we can always buy new plants at the local greenhouse...I say, "go for it!" For crying out loud- I might direct seed some tomatoes!!

 

[Ridgerunner]

Is it a trap or an opportunity? My cool weather stuff; beets, lettuce, carrots, spinach, peas, radishes, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, and spring onions, are in. I'll replace some herbs that died in last year's heat/drought in about a week and a half. Like Lesa said, I can cover those if I need to. I think I'll be OK with those herbs anyway.

I'm holding off a little while on the pepper, tomato, and eggplant. Those require warm soil to grow and the ground just isn't that warm yet. Those are usually a late April-early May planting for me, but I might try some a little earlier, at least a few tomatoes. But those will be purchased plants. The ones I started from seed won't be ready until my traditional time.

The squash and cucumbers are another question mark. They are so easily damaged by frost, do I dare? And I direct seed. Would they even sprout in the cold ground?

Then there is the corn and beans. I usually have trouble getting them to sprout until the ground warms up. Usually they will rot in the ground if I get them in too early. If these showers hold off so I can get the ground ready, I'll probably try. The okra, I'll hold off on until the ground is really warm.

For about everything, I think it is a matter of how warm the ground is getting. I'll try to start some things early, but it will be stuff I can easlily replace or reseed. I really don't expect this stuff to grow much until the ground warms up if I can even get it to survive, but I'm an optimist at heart. Maybe a cautious optimist. The way this year is going, who knows when the ground willl warm up?

 

[The Mama Chicken]

I'm in zone 8a, so today is the normal time to put tomatoes in the garden. I did gamble a little by putting one out a couple of weeks ago, and it did fine with a little babying. If you can afford to replace anything you lose or can cover it I would try it.

 

[Detlor Poultry]

I'm in Zone 3b, and I'm already breeding my chickens. I would definately start veggies (using Logic), but, like Lesa, I dunno if I like the idea. This is pretty weird for spring to come in early march... it may just do something weirder. Also, it might be harder to harden stuff off in April than it is in June.

 

[so lucky]

Southeast Missouri is experiencing this warm weather, too. I have some red translucent plastic jugs, about two-gallon size, that I am thinking about using for a mini greenhouse for a couple of tomato plants. I can cut the bottom off, and use as a large hotcap. Isn't there something about using red mulch for greater production in tomatoes? Since I have lots of extra rutgers and roma tomato seedlings, I think I will give it a try. I have my potatoes, onions, cabbage and broccoli set out, and lots of flower starts waiting for April (if I can wait that long!) My hands are itching for something else to put in the garden. Actually, I seriously think we are going to get a killing frost yet, maybe even several. But we gotta take a chance, don't we?

 

[Ridgerunner]

One trap we might fall into is to forget to harden off our plants. That's one reason I'll wait on my plants. But if I can get some from the garden center that are hardened off, it could be worth a shot.

 

[swampducks]

Well I've planted my seeds indoors a month early, usually can't set anything out till the first week of June, often have had 3 or 4 killing frosts the last week of May. But I am only putting them outside with protection. Got some walls of water I haven't used in years. I was amazed when I dug a couple of test spots outside, didn't hit the frost line at all, normally the ground is still solid this time of year. I'm betting we'll get a snow storm in April, we usually do. It's not going to stay snowing in the pacific northwest only.

 

[thistlebloom]

It's not going to stay snowing in the pacific northwest only.

Well of course it isn't! We plan on sharing it with you all!

 

[StupidBird]

Well everyone, here in the Atlanta area I'd estimate we're six to eight weeks ahead of schedule. Everything's leafed out. We broke LIFETIME WORLD records for pollen - over 9000.

Even broke the record for number of days over 80F in March.

Summer is going to be TOUGH, hot, dry, bad storms; according the the Farmers Almanac. They've been spot on about the spring, and I didn't take advantage of it as soon as I could. Kept remembering all those April Ice Storms.


We'll be in for some bad times if it freezes now.