Don't jump the gun with the nice weather!

[btrowe1]

All the trees are blooming up here, this is not normal at all, never been 79 degrees on march 22 in the 33 years I've lived here. I want to plant some onions and cabbage but, Even I know its too early, lately there's been a steady stream of canadian geese flying north, and robins and even the NY state blue bird has showed up ( thats a real new one for this early, usually may for them) . butterflys are out also.. Just watch next year we'll get the stuff they had over there in Europe..

[hendi_alex]

I've started putting some tender annuals in the ground. Will likely put out a few tomato transplants next week. Everything is so settled. All of the trees, vines, and other perennials are putting out as if it were late April. I figure that if I'm wrong, my price won't be nearly as dear as that paid by the multitude of plants and animals who have decided that it is mid to late spring.

[applestar]

Here, forecast low for Monday night is 28°F which means my garden could go down to 25°F

[Duh_Vinci]

Upper 30's for Mon and Tue here, which means in the lower 30's for my micro climate. Looks like one string of Christmas lights will be wrapped around the tomato cage and a huge trash can will cover it all.

As for cool weather crop, will still cover them, just for a good measure, the good ole hoops are setup. We shall prevail!!!

Good luck to all who DID jump the gun!

Regards,
D

[rainbowgardener]

We will get a bit of cool down, but that just means highs go down from 80's to 60's, still a bit above normal. Lowest low in the 10 day forecast is Mon night 40 degrees (which is at least 42 in my urban heat island micro-climate). After that it goes back up again. I don't have warm weather stuff out yet, so I am fine....

[gixxerific]

Temps are still good here. A little lower but now we have big storms coming with small hail.

[hendi_alex]

Ten day forecast: lowest hi = 71 degrees; lowest low = 46 degrees That gets us to April 2nd. While we might still have a frost any time before about the third week in April, it is looking less and less like that will happen.

[Yellowsnow]

Calling for a low of 23f with 15-20mph winds monday night. Tuesday low is 34f.

Glad I didn't put out any Maters or peppers yet. I'll be covering what is in the ground and hopefully it will be enough.

[Bobberman]

That wam weather tricked most people and its still cold at night with two frost in the last week! It was so cold a week ago thgat some things in my small non heated greenhouse to harden off plants had some freeze inside! I had three red bean climbing flowers about 15 inchs high that were killed inside! It went down to about 20 that night!

[mattie g]

Looks like the weather models I mentioned a few posts back were pretty good in sniffing out the "cool" shot that punched in here recently. Looks like another ten days or so of seasonable weather that has its temperature peaks and valleys, then a zonal flow kicks in, which should moderate things nicely.

Likelihood is that we've had our last frost here (yesterday morning), but I'm not willing to chance it just yet!

[estorms]

Our frost free date is May 15th. I don't care. I want to plant something. As soon as my husband tills, I will put in some peas... I want to plant early and use hot kaps.

[gixxerific]

After a month or more hovering around 80 a few day's just recently over 90 and now a few day's of possible frost.

Gotta love St Louis weather.

Still keep an eye out for temp swings people.

[probe1957]

We had frost here in central IL last night. I think April 15 is supposed to be our frost free date. Last year I planted tomatoes and peppers on April 14. Most all killed by a frost a week later. Waiting until May 1 this year.

Next weekend is the big plant sale at the fairgrounds. Tilled the garden last night. Getting antsy. Must be strong and wait.

[gixxerific]

I'm waiting till may first as well. Well ther will be a few that go out earlier I'm sure. But most will have to wait.

[mattie g]

Good idea to wait, especially those of you in the Midwest. It might get a bit chilly at night for a bit coming up. I think I'll be OK to plant next weekend here in Northern VA, as a zonal flow kicks in about that time and should keep things fairly mild.

[Duh_Vinci]

Frost tonight here as well, maybe tomorrow too...

Tunnel covers works great, all the cool weather crops and herbs are still alive and well, and the lonely, in-ground single tomato plant just keeps putting on the flowers and setting fruit in clusters. Frost blanket and Christmas lights kept the temperature inside the cover at 65 while the coldest we've had so far 26F.

Looks like next year, I will set 2 earliest in the ground in very early as well...
Regards,
D

[megany]

I've officially decided it's safe for me to plant. The ground here never froze, so it is completely thawed. Temperatures have been consistently above 60. Usually in the 70s.

Every day that I've waited has been killing me -- especially when I think about how big my plants would be by now! The cucumber seedlings I started aren't quite ready yet (and something happened to our tomato and squash ones...they didn't quite make it), but we're headed to a nursery on Wednesday to pick up some extra tomatoes, peppers and some squash.

It should be okay, right? I can always cover them, worst case scenario...

[mattie g]

It's ugly out there. Temps are threatening to drop into the mid-30s once or twice this week, so I'm a little on edge since I'll be gone all week!

Looks like it's time for the wife to continue developing her green thumb by giving me a little help if the plants need it!

[RogueRose]

The ground hasn't froze here at all...Heck I don't think it even froze this winter! I have snowpeas, beets, carrots, herbs, lettuce and artichokes out right now. I just put the artichokes out last week. I have tomatoes and melons started and I REALLY want to put them in the ground but it's so cold now. It was up to 90 last week! Now we're down in 40s at night and 50s during the day. Even down to upper 30s! Jeez. I just want to get all my stuff in the ground. The melons are NOT liking being in pots and I doubt they'll transplant into the ground well. I might ditch them. I have seeds to use.

[Duh_Vinci]

It's ugly out there. Temps are threatening to drop into the mid-30s once or twice this week, so I'm a little on edge since I'll be gone all week!...

The weather has indeed been a roller coaster in VA! We too had few frost nights, but everything survived. Kinda glad that I didn't plant but 4 tomatoes in the ground, makes it so much easier to cover them up in the evening hours...

On the positive note, tonight may actually be the last "possible frost" night here in the boonies. So Friday - here I come, warm weather crops to be planted!

And two days of the steady rain was a certainly welcome. I think it's been about 1.5 months with out it. All the cold weather crops seem to just get a huge boost of growth overnight!

Regards,
D

[hendi_alex]

We just barely dodged the bullet last night. Temps dropped down to 38 degrees. I ran the sprinklers from 3 a.m. until about 9 a.m. this morning. No harm done that I can see. We have lots of 4 foot to 5 foot tomato plants in the ground and in very large containers, way too much to cover or heat. Thankfully the temperatures didn't drop further.

[SPierce]

We're still holding tough in the high 40's mid 50's at night here.... just put a big max pumpkin plant in the ground- a risk, I know, but I guess there's only one way to find out! Still holding onto the watermelon- daytime temps are mid 50s almost 60s- but windy. They're already hardened off so I;m not quite sure if I should be bringing them back inside or not!

[mattie g]

Looking like this weekend could be a chilly one in the eastern half of the country...

[Duh_Vinci]

Looking like this weekend could be a chilly one in the eastern half of the country...

No kidding!

I watched the weather forecast and Sunday's weather has changed about a dozen times in the past two days, going to as low as 46 daytime and 34 night times to now up to 51 and 39, which still means frost for me little micro climate...

Frost we had on the windows this morning and grass... 2 Cukes and 4 Tomato plants were covered though, and doing just fine. 6 tomato plants in containers are flat up against the southside of the garage, so it stays warmer there, and I parked a car intentionally next to them, just a little barrier, so uncovered, all survived just fine.

Anywho, doesn't look like I'd be planting anything until Monday now... Oh well, that's the fun of gardening, adapt as we go!

Regards,
D

[SPierce]

We're going to be going down to 32 this upcoming sunday- good thing I haven't planted anything other than my cold weather stuff yet! Also time to put a cover of some sort over the pumpkin plant, too!

[Rabbits2]

I guess I will wait till may 15 since even my potatoes are frost bit. Glad I did not put anything fragile out even now!I set a few swiss chart plants out in containers that were really nice thinking they were frost tollerant but they got destroyed in one night!

[gixxerific]

The weather is warm here but the bae ball sized hail yesterday was not.

[cubs204]

The weather is warm here but the bae ball sized hail yesterday was not.

I was in STL Saturday for my cousind bachelor party. That was some hail storm. We were also right near the tent when it blew over. Is was complete chaos downtown for about an hour. There were 10 of us stuck under an awning trying to dodge golfball sized hail, not fun.