An ASATGCBW lesson. I grow in Maine, where frost in the ground can be deep and last a long time. One of the crops I grow is sunchokes, and for a variety of reasons, I harvest them in spring. A few years ago, I made arrangements with a chef in Philadelphia to provide 100 lbs of sunchokes for a special dinner he was doing in April. I wasn't worried about the quantity - I grow several times that amount in a 30' x 75' bed - but the weather was a concern. We had been through a colder than average winter with a good amount of snow cover, but based on previous experience, I knew it was likely that I would spend a few hours digging in cold mud, another hour or two with a high-pressure sprayer cleaning them off, and then a trip to the FedEx counter at the local municipal airport. Well, as you've already guessed, things didn't quite work out that way. I spent the first few hours of my day shoveling snow off the beds. Then, several more hours with a pick-axe breaking out huge icy clods, which I loaded on a toboggan and moved into my house to thaw. It commenced snowing, again. Several more hours kneeling by the bathtub, prying frozen knobby tubers from the grip of frozen clay. A harrowing drive on snowy roads, trying to get to the airport in time. Back home, still snowing, to remove the trap from under the bathtub to get all the crap out of the drain. A call from the chef - the flight was delayed, so he would have to do all the prep on the same day as the meal, and he wanted reassurance that they would need minimal cleaning. I got the crop delivered. It wasn't a lot of money, but it put my product in one of the 17 true 5-star restaurants in the US. The date, according to my calender and records, was within range of when the ground could be worked - and it turned out it could - but it was a lot more work than I had planned on - including bringing all that mud back out to the garden the next day, picked clean of sunchokes.

I knew to plant tomatoes deep and they'd sprout roots from the buried stems, but I didn't know that about peppers! That's good to know! My tomatoes seem to be growing a couple inches per day as I keep having to raise my lights, but the peppers are still only about 3 inches tall so they're not leggy at all at this point. I already repotted everything once and I buried 2/3's of the tomato stems when I did those. Everything else I kept at the same level, however. I'm actually relieved people are saying it doesn't make that much difference! I'd feel obligated to at least try it out if people raved about it and I really don't need any more work than I already have lol!! I'm just frantic for it to warm up enough to get everything in the ground!! Having to cram most of my gardening in on the weekends makes me crazy! I have time for little jobs during the week after work, but not much. I'm already losing a day this weekend because of family obligations and I have so much to do still!! Getting everything in the ground will make my life much easier! Lisa

Bill: It's always bad. They're always raising water prices and restricting us of usage, but this year is BAD. Hopefully the rest of this month and march pans out. After that, we get very, very little rain traditionally. All of SoCal is actually considered desert. We have to import the majority of our water. I'll get by --- you can have your 3 feet of snow and subzero temps. :P Alex: I usually start them at the beginning of the year. But, between a major toothache, contemplation over the drought to do anything at all, and overall procrastination, I just started a few days ago. Looking for the little tails peeking through paper towels daily. Overlap? Sometimes, not always. I'm usually pulling plants late Dec/Early Jan, but even the little frost we've had didn't do in 3 of my chinenses that still had tons of pods. This year I pulled all my annuums and chinenses that were podless when it got cold(anticipation) and they were just slowing for the winter. I should have let them be, but if a plant is going to sit around for 4 months not producing, it not worth my effort(watering, pest control, etc). Thanks All. Kevin

Hi Truck! It depends on what it is you're wanting to plant! If it's "warm season" veggies, they can't take frost at all and would need to be well protected if we got down around or below freezing after they were in the ground. But "warm season" crops don't do well in cold soil and conditions, so it doesn't really help to plant them out "too soon" anyway! "Cool season" veggies (peas, spinach, cole crops, radishes, +) can take frosts (and snow) IF they're well hardened off before they're put into the ground. Things like hardy perennials & herbs (and trees and bushes) can also take frost and snow as long as they've been well hardened off before planting. If any of those things are purchased locally at a garden center where they've been grown outside, they should already be hardened off. But if you pick up something at a big box store or somewhere else where their plants are shipped in from another state (often California or somewhere on the West Coast), they will NOT be hardened off and you'd need to do it yourself in order to be able to safely plant them out. So it just depends on what you're thinking of! Hardy stuff (that does NOT include the "Hardy Boy" brand, which is just a marketing name!) can definitely be planted out when there's still "danger of frost" as long as it's been adequately acclimated. Welcome to RMG, Skybird