How brave/dumb are you getting...

[jasonvanorder]

Zone 6a here too and we have had a very warm few weeks here too. I'm itching to get things started but I must wait. The funny thing about Michigan weather is we can go from 70 one day to a blizzard for the next month. And for the life of me I just cant keep anything alive inside long enough to plant outside

Called that one. Just south of me there are thunderstorm warnings. To the north winter weather advisories. And later today to the east there is a chance for strong thunderstorms and tornados. Gotta love Michigans Bi polar weather

[JayPoc]

It's like 70 degrees here today. Amazing.

I want to start my maters, but I think it's still to early...trying to weight another week...lol...

I did order some seeds today. A couple of new varieties of tomatoes and romanescue broccoli. My daughter thought it looked pretty, so if it grows maybe she'll eat it?

[jal_ut]

Its snowing on top of the foot that was already on the garden. I went out and got on the Big Green tractor and moved snow off the driveway. Ain't likely to be planting for a while....

[rainbowgardener]

It's like 70 degrees here today. Amazing.

I want to start my maters, but I think it's still to early...trying to weight another week...lol...

I did order some seeds today. A couple of new varieties of tomatoes and romanescue broccoli. My daughter thought it looked pretty, so if it grows maybe she'll eat it?

If you mean start the tomato seeds indoors, not too early. When I lived in zone 6 with an average last frost date of about mid-April, I usually started them indoors under lights around Valentine's day or in the week after Valentine's.

[The garlic man]

Planted some kale seed, spinach, lettuce, mache, and tatsoi. (Under a small plastic tunnel.)

Might throw in some old onion seeds as others have suggested.

USDA Zone 6a-ish (Which seems a little generous to me.) But hey, we were in the 60's for a few days so what is a gardener to do?

[HomewardBound]

This recalls the Great Zone 6 Ice Storm of April 17th, 2014, which wiped out all of my basil plants which were supposed to be OK to plant by April 15th. The weather is simply too weird and too wonky to take chances, I'm not doing anything until May1. A good thirty years ago, probably closer to 35, eek, I remember a stonking blizzard on a Monday, about 18 inches of snow, in mid-April, and by Saturday, we were outside doing the spring clean-up.

[rainbowgardener]

Well, it's a toss up either way. By being VERY conservative about how early you plant things out, you make sure you don't lose any to frost. But if we are talking about things like spinach and broccoli, you wouldn't anyway. They are exceedingly cold hardy and frost tolerant. But by waiting a long time to plant your cold weather stuff (I'm not talking tomatoes and peppers here!!) , you risk problems on the other end. Where I lived in zone 6 (Cincinnati, OH) spring tended to be short with a sudden warm up before it was even officially summer. All the cold weather stuff would just bolt and be done then. You give them a lot longer growing season by planting sooner.

Remember climate was quite different 30-35 years ago. In the late 70's in Cincinnati we had several years of incredibly severe winters, blizzards, -30 deg F, piles of snow, the Ohio river actually froze all the way across, solid enough that you could walk across it, one of those years. . Cincinnati will never see a winter like that again (hard to miss it too much! ) Just because you had an April blizzard back then doesn't mean it will ever happen now.

[ButterflyLady29]

My mom has pictures of us hunting Easter eggs in a couple feet of snow. And then a few years back we had near record breaking cold right at the end of April. Mom lost over 50 chicks that piled in a heap to stay warm. The heat lamps were taken down nearly a week before because it was so warm. The same year our feed store owner lost nearly all his little tomato and pepper plants that were in his greenhouse because it was just so cold. So yes, there is a huge risk of freezing or a serious cold snap just as those plants are getting started. In fact our overnight low is predicted to be around 20*F in just a few days, after several days of temps in the 50's and 60's.

Rainbow, spring in Ohio is still incredibly short. I think it was all of 4 hours last year. But fall was wonderful! It was the latest freeze I remember. We didn't turn on the heat until November. And we never unpacked the coats during our family camping trip in late October.

[rainbowgardener]

" spring in Ohio is still incredibly short. I think it was all of 4 hours last year."

[ButterflyLady29]

It's pretty pitiful when you go from heat and wool blankets at night to air conditioning and fans in the same week.

[HomewardBound]

Weather and climate are indeed changing in all sorts of ways, but I don't think it's changing for the better -- I haven't any reason to believe that we wouldn't be blasted with an April blizzard ever again, we've had very bad snowstorms late in the season in more recent memory, and then, just picking a case at random from our files, the delightful "October Storm" of, when was that, the year before Sandy, 2011? All the leaves still on the trees, and I'm out there with a broom after barely making it home, knocking snow off the branches of the cherry in front so they wouldn't snap the power line, and turning myself into Frosty without his magic hat in the process...this is my first year here, and I noticed when I moved in that their hydrangeas were nothing but leaves, and all at the old place except for my limelights didn't produce flowers for three years straight, and then only a couple last summer, because of late frost. The other day, I didn't need a jacket; tomorrow the high is supposed to be 24 degrees and I'll be standing on the train station platform next to the river, and I'm dreading it.

My orientation is different than many; I don't do cold weather crops, so that's a big difference. My gardening jones comes from my grandfather, an immigrant from southern Italy, and we only did hot weather crops because that's what we used most and that's what he grew there, so I am from the tomato, pepper, basil, oregano side of things. We could buy delicious broccoli, but you can't buy a good tomato!!! His garden was an urban garden for most of my life, and space was at a premium.

[digitS']

Seattle has out-snowed king-of-winter Minneapolis

"It's the first time since 1968 that Seattle has had more snow between Jan .1 and Feb. 28 than the Twin Cities.
Of course, Minneapolis having a record-snow-drought in February ..."

What year did I arrive here from California? 1968.

Well, I arrived about 300 miles inland, on the the other side of the Cascades and in the foothills of the Rockies. We had an amazing winter ... but, I thought it might be "normal" because, what did I know?! It wasn't normal but the experience with so much snow and severe sub-zero temperatures helped me with surviving the next nearly 50 winters.

What seems to happen is that high pressure builds up on the other side of the Continental Divide as most of the US experiences a heat wave. Pacific storms stay on this side of the Rockies. I'm pleased that we have so much snow, in contrast to the very dry summer months, and that the snow is melting so slowly that we may avoid serious flooding.

What has been happening this winter may not have much effect on the gardening season except having a well-charged aquifer, we will have to see. If the movement of clouds and storms persist into spring (and beyond!), we will be in trouble! The cool conditions and lack of sunlight will stunt warm season crops. Wind with late spring and summer storms may damage gardens, we will have to see.

Not planting a garden will guarantee garden failure. Hope and reasonable expectations are what it takes ... try to think of ways to hedge your bets, also .

Steve

[jal_ut]

Nothing ventured....... Nothing gained.

We plant in good faith, then hope. Yes, at times we fail, but we also may have some good success.

For each locale there is likely a planting routine that will work well. For this country, it is plant garlic in the fall. Plant early things like spinach, onions, in early or mid April. As soon as you can get on the garden. (right now its snow covered) 5th of May is the target date for squash, beans, potatoes, and corn. June 1 for cucumbers.

Yes, do plant!