Is your weather going to be the same this year as last year? What is your soil temperature - adequate for germination? Can you use row covers?

Those questions drive your decisions.

Dan

My peas -- regular, snap, and snow -- are already 4-5 inches tall, the turnips are in and I'm just about to go out and plant the kale and the spinach. My collards and more turnips overwintered and are ready to harvest. Same for last fall's cabbage that didn't head up due to the drought and unusual, late-season heat that set back all the cool-season crops.

I'd wait on the carrots for sure. The others are possible now depending on what your soil temps are.

Dave

Well, I can't be too far from you and I have my peas, radish, turnips and carrots seeded outside and have started my lettuce, kale, broccoli, and Asian greens inside. I'm planning on waiting to put those out until maybe next week or even the one after that, depending. (The two really cold nights we had just a few days ago did in my parsley that I put out a week ago.) I suppose if I were seeding those greens in the garden, now might work since the seed would likely come up when it was ready.Cheers!

I am in VA and I just planted out some bok choy. They seem to be ok. I am planning on transplanting my other Asian cool season crops out this week. I direct sowed my fava beans this week too.

I planted broccoli, cauliflower, kohlrabi, Brussels Sprouts, and onion plants out about 2-3 weeks ago.

My soil temperature is already warm; I recently sowed some sweet corn seeds. Some of them are germinating now. Maybe I won't get a frost and have an early harvest of corn.

My overwintered garlic and onions are really taking off now.

I have to wait until May/June for Corn and Brussels Sprouts. I am going to start some Melons and Pumpkins either next month or the month after :)

I'm in NW DC and just planted peas, kale, and spinach (would have done collards, too, but am not growing them). I have a hardy flat of baby lettuce seedlings (winter sowed) that I'm hardening off to transplant sometime this week. I also had fall-planted lettuce that probably overwintered in an unprotected bed somehow!?!

I'm waiting another week or two before planting carrots, beets and radishes, though all would be a decent gamble in my raised beds at this point.

I'm also hardening off onion babies cabbage and broccoli - all are my last attempt at growing them successfully for spring, so if they don't produce I won't try them again. Fingers crossed!

Peas have been in for a while and doing great. I have broccoli, lettuce, pac choi, chard, spinach, parsley, cilantro, fennel and dill all being hardened off to go in the garden this week. My onions arrived from Dixondale yesterday and will be planted no later than St. Patricks day. Carrots and beets will be direct seeded on or around the 19th of this month. have another batch of cool season crops under the lights and started peppers (indoors) yesterday, tomatoes and eggplant will be started in a week or so. I have all raised beds (2100 square feet of them). It is important though to have a plan in case the weather takes a dip, be it frost blankets or whatever, frost free isn't guaranteed until the end of April.

i have already planted one round of greens, turnips, peas, radishes, etc and will be going for round two this week... most years our soil is still to wet to till this time of year but we had such a small amount of precipitation over the winter that the ground is in a state it doesn't generally reach until late march or so... i would try to take advantage of it if i were you... all it will cost if it fails is a little labor and some seed.

Its nice to hear from so many of you and some of you who are not so far away ... I am in St Marys County , not far from you Sunnibel and Mootgirl ? Because of health reasons I didn't get to plant my kale and collards this past fall ... We made another raised bed friday, the soil is warmer than I expected so I was jonesing to plant some veggies yesterday, so I decided to go for it , I planted kale, collards, spinach, vitamin green, lettuce and watercress yesterday ... we covered it with a tarp just in case this rain we are getting today decides to get heavy and then we will uncover it tomorrow , supposed to be 50s all week , a little cold a few nights but hoping it will be okay ... I don't have the big garden spot ready yet but need to do it soon , I want to plant out some radishes and snap peas asap ... Thank you all for all the great advice ! Bring on Spring !

Iris

Nope, not too far at all! I'm in that little bitty tip of PG county that no one knows about, just about 15 minutes either way to to St. Mary's, Calvert, or Charles county. We do seem to be in a little localized cold pocket, though. But I have so many other things that need the grow lights sprouting now that the broccoli may need to just go out and hope for the best!

Cheers!

I'm so happy to have found this blog. We're farther down the season now and I was wondering if anyone is planning to plant a winter garder. I've never tried it and I'm curious to know how it works in zone 7 and what precautions we have to take. Thank you in advance for any help and/or suggestions and ideas that you can give me. I'm new to raised bed gardening, but now that I'm retired I'd like to give it a serious try.

I think it may be a little early to plant things for a fall garden.But you can start plants indoors of broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and brussel sprouts. Remember to keep in mind there may be shade where there was none all summer. I learned the hard way. There is a patch of woods south of my garden. No shade in summer, all shaded by the end of fall.