It was wonderful garden weather this past week. My garden progress did not disappoint.
Where You Should Be
If you’re planting a vegetable garden, it’s time to put some stuff in dirt. Additionally, you should either have sprouts growing indoors or know where you’re getting your mature plants.
When is the Last Frost?
The date you should keep in mind is the last frost date. This is kind of a moving target. The last frost date can land anywhere in late March through mid April. I’m conservatively looking at April 15. However, I’ll be closely watching the extended forecast because if we’re looking at all above freezing temps for the week before April 15, I’ll be planting as early as April 7th or 8th.
The last frost date is when you put most of your vegetables in the ground outdoors. However, frost tolerate plants can go in the ground already. Unfortunately though, certain plants require overnight temperatures over 50 or higher. Tomatoes, basil, and citronella fall into this warmer plant category.
Frost Tolerant Plants
Certain plants can go into the ground now. These are your frost tolerant plants. Generally, this means they can tolerate a light to moderate frost.
- Lettuces
- Kale
- Broccoli
- Carrots Seeds
- Parsley Seeds
- Celery Seeds
- Radish Seeds
- Dill Seeds
- Peas
- Onions
- Oregano
- Mint
What I’ve Done This Week
Last week, I planted a ton of tomatoes and some flowers and herbs. They have excelled! As of Sunday afternoon, I had the following:
| Bonny’s Best | 30 | Chadwick Cherry | 132 |
| Martino’s Roma | 76 | Beefsteak | 77 |
| Green Doctors | 78 | Lg Red Cherry | 86 |
| Roma (From Etsy) | 18 | Blush Tiger | 47 |
| Mortgage Lifter | 45 |
Again, I have way too many tomatoes. My goal was to ensure, even with a low germination rate, I would have enough to supply my garden. I only need about 20 plants and have over 600. I’m going to figure out how to give away a few of them. However, you can’t plant them outside safely until the night temperatures are over 50.
I also planted some flowers and herbs. Currently I have the following sprouts:
| Teddy Bear Sunflowers | 8 | Foxglove Flowers | 31 |
| Black King Pansy | 52 | Bee Balm | 45 |
Outside Planting
The weather was gorgeous all week, and we’ve reached the time where certain things can be planted outside. Therefore, I planted my potatoes on Sunday! I’m excited to have planted sweet, russet, fingerling, red, and magic molly potatoes.
Additionally, I planted my peas on Monday. I have tom thumb, sugar snap, and little marvel peas planted.
Finally, on Tuesday I planted my radishes. I have about 20 champion, china rose, and early scarlet globe radishes planted.
Projects
Next, I built a few arches for squash, pumpkins, and watermelons to grow on once it’s time to plant those.
Additionally, we pressure washed the outside of our house and our driveway. It hadn’t been washed in years, so there was a bit of algae and dirt built up. It looks great now.
Finally, we got on the roof and put up a few more Christmas lights.
Garden Weather – Not Planting Weather
This early spring weather can mislead you and coax you into a false sense of security. You need to hold on before you plant too many things. We still have a high likelihood of frost. Therefore, if you plant something that can’t handle frost, you could lose your entire crop.
The mantra right now is be patient. If you’re incredibly optimistic, you might be able to plant at the very end of March, early April. However, I’m waiting until mid-April just to be safe. I wouldn’t want to lose a ton of Peppers that I’ve been growing since January!
Winter Harvests
If you’ve been growing cold hardy plants all winter like I have, you can still be harvesting them. Plants like spinach, oregano, mint, and onions are still growing great.
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