The peas I plant late, as you have, always grow faster than the earlier ones and produce well as long as a heat wave doesn't hit when they are in bloom. I keep planting lettuce through early May, too, and cover it with a shade cloth if needed to protect it from heat. Bok choy planted now will bolt in a month because of lengthening days, and with the brassicas it's best to wait until early to mid June and start B sprouts from seed, followed by broccoli a few weeks later. Too late for a spring crop.

You're right that lately it seems like we go from winter directly into summer. Makes timing the spring crop tricky. Fortunately, seed is cheap, so you don't have much to lose. I think the key with bok choi and other greens is to keep them growing as quickly as possible. That means loose, fertile soil and don't let them dry out. Feeding with a liquid fertilizer relatively high in nitrogen will help. If they weather does turn hot and dry it may all be for naught, but if you've got the time and space I'd say go for it. Like I said, seed is cheap.

Myself I would not waste planting peas at this point (BTW, IMO the st paddy's day thing is just totally wrong for most of new england - too early). It is not too late for lettuce and radishes since they grow fast, nor beets and chard. A bit late for spring brassicas unless for baby greens.

Thanks for your thoughts. That really helps me direct my efforts where it will do the most good. I do have limited space so I may go with crops that are more likely to succeed. One of these years, I'm going to try a hoop to sow earlier in spite of the weather and see if I can get more dependable spring crops that way.

You could sow your peas and harvest after 3 or 4 weeks for pea shoots.

I agree about waiting a month and then starting brassicas for fall/winter crops :).

I put out my tomatoes a couple days ago, and they got some frost damage. 6 weeks after our average frost date. (I'm a zone warmer than you - I plant peas in Jan or Feb.)

I was reading the recently published book about Jefferson's vegetable gardens (what a fabulous book!), or more accurately mostly looking at the pictures. According to his garden journals peas were planted in late feb/early march there in western VA. In fact I believe that region is the same winter maximum frost-zone as where I am in southeastern MA, but the spring there is much earlier than here, where planting peas earlier than early april is not salutory.

My peas are up about 3 inches since sowing them on April 15th and I just sowed string bean seeds. I think I will think of some way to shade the peas if it suddenly gets hot and hope that helps. I wonder if I should mulch them to keep the soil cooler?

We do enjoy lettuce and bok choy so I am going to go ahead and plant those and eat them young and if they bolt early, I will leave one or two to go to seed for the fall.

Brassicas will have to wait for a fall crop I guess.
I wonder about Kale?

I grow in raised beds organically and the soil is constantly mulched with leaves and grass clippings and I often add kitchen scraps around the edges of the bed under the mulch, so there are lots of worms and the soil is good and loose. I shld get some quick growth.

Oh good, beets and chard. IâÂÂll give those a try in the next few days.

Nila, I often put tomato starts out early but I always use a Wall of Water around them and that works very well for me. HavenâÂÂt had a frost damaged tomato plant using those.

pnbrown, I was lucky enough to be able to stop at that vegetable garden of JeffersonâÂÂs. Just a gorgeous location with so much space and rolling hills in the background and they keep the veggie garden immaculate. Yes, I donâÂÂt really get how someone in Virginia can be zone 6b or 7a and spring starts the same time as Massachusetts? Makes no sense to me.

Well, in fact spring is much earlier there, is the point. At least six weeks earlier than where I am, off the Cape. Cherry trees bloom in early March there, late April here. The same maximum frost indicates that similar flora will dominate in both zones, but doesn't say much about the extent of hot or cold weather within the yearly cycle.

I wouldn't start string beans in MA yet. They want warm soil, and it's been going down in the 30s at night recently. I started everything late this year, and my peas are at about 2-3 inches and the spinach is just starting to expand. The best thing you can do is to keep a notebook of when you plant and the weather. Experience at your location will teach you what you can and cannot do.