its always possible, here in VA weve had snow in April, if it happens id cover what i could and bring the others inside. it wouldnt be a total loss. Most of my peppers/tomatoes are in containers. Corn was old seed and between you and i, not a variety i cared for anyways and i have probably 2lbs of corn seed that needs to be planted in the next 1-2 yrs anyways i guess it wouldnt kill me, just really pi$$ me off a little(more because its my own fault, and i should know better). Im more worried about another hail storm. had one last spring that just destroyed my garden, including my corn. then 2nd run of corn we had the hurricane...

Thanks for the trades and the help in our community garden. To ymaddox, Charlie60, NancyPlants, FarnerGreg, mrs.b_in_wy your seeds will be on their way today, roper2008 return postage is headed your way. God bless you all! We STILL have some trades available and STILL need more help. It takes a lot to plant 1� acres and a good variety of veggies. Be sure to check out our initial post and if you have a surplus of seed and would like to trade or can send for SASBE to help the community outreach, please take a moment and respond. We will start our Greenhouse efforts at the end of February/first of March time frame and plan our community garden�s planting locations to ensure good rotation efforts�.just gotta know what we will have available to plan properly. Thanks in advance, ~Arkseven

Yes. I've been growing vegetables year 'round here for the last 10 years or so. "Non-tropical" vegetables can take light frosts. There is a large list of them. Almost all root vegetables, however these must be started off in warm soil. I sow them in early September. Cole Crops - brassicas of all kinds, many Asian vegetables -pretty much anything related to cabbage or mustard. Cauliflower is a pain here. swiss chard, and many lettuces and other greens withstand frosts. I just planted lettuces today at church from transplant. I am no longer planting anything from seed. Seeds need about 70 degrees, in general to germinate. Tenting them can help. Row covers work unless it is freezing rain. I use old sheets for row covers in my raised beds, and I usually use plastic on days like today, to heat up the soil a bit and get better growth. I never ever let the plastic touch the vegetables because that burns them when it freezes. I keep frozen wet out of the vegetables, that kills most back to the ground and they don't aways recover. I protect spinach and lettuces. There are a variety of ways to do that. I protect only when there is going to be a hard frost, artichokes, and celery. I use old tree pots for this, or heavy cardboard boxes (not in rain) with a rock or brick on them. You can use heat sinks if we get a 2 week freezing period like we sometimes do. I like bricks the best for this. I just plop them inside the tented veggies. I make tent frames out of PVC and use them every year. My favorite covers for the garden are old shower curtain liners. Heavy plastic! You can also build units around existing beds using bales and plastic held with bricks . I have done this. The most important thing when tenting or protecting is getting in the light and ventilation. You can't let the heat build up for any length of time (under a tent it can easily get 20 degrees warmer than outside, if it's sunny)...so you have to be present to tend the vegetables. GGG

Busy1, So, you're saying they want green tomatoes for frying or making chow chow or something? For a market grower, you know, that's good news.....because you can take green tomatoes to market earlier and (with green tomatoes being more rare) command a higher price. Sounds like a win-win situation. I just won't hardly pick a tomato green except in the fall. If a huge cold front is coming and I know I need to pick all the fruit, I'll pick the green ones and try to ripen them slowly, especially the longkeepers. Most years when I have a lot of greenies, I do send a big bunch to work with DH for one of his coworkers who likes to fry 'em green and also make chow chow. I do grow some green-when-ripe types most years, but they're no more suitable for frying when ripe than the ripe red ones are. River, Bill P., who used to post on Garden Web as Gone Fishin' before he passed away last year, raised most or all of his seedlings in a cold frame every year in either zone 7B or 8A. He was slightly east of Dallas in the suburbs, so I'm not sure which zone he was in but it was either 7B or 8A. He had great success. Actually, if I remember correctly, his was actually a hotbed because he put down a layer of hot (fresh, uncomposted) horse manure several inches down deep in a trench, put garden soil on top of that, and planted directly in the garden soil. The heat created by the horse manure as it decomposed kept his plants just warm enough at night. He always raised beautiful seedlings and the only trouble I ever remember him having was the year it rained non-stop and his in-the-ground plants almost drowned. So, I think it could work for you and, you know, you could throw a heavy blanket or comforter over the "hothouse" if a late snowstorm threatened. I suspect this is one of those projects that you'll just have to try to see if it works. It should work. People have raised seedlings using similar methods for years. If the seeds don't get warm enough to sprout, then you'd essentially be wintersowing, which ought to work fine anyway for most plants. Well, I'm not sure about peppers. Peppers don't like cold at any stage of their development, so I am a little concerned about that. I'd post a message for Seedmama here on this forum and ask her if she wintersows peppers and has success with them. I think Ilene wasn't happy with wintersown peppers in the past either, but I'm not sure if my memory is correct. (The older I get, the less confident I am that the things I "remember" actually happened.....LOL). You also could buy a seed germination mat and start seeds indoors using it underneath the flat. In the room where I have my light shelf (with ordinary fluorescent lights) and germination mat, the room always seems hotter to me than any other room in the house, and I think the lights generate more heat than you'd think. Just lights and a germination mat might create enough heat in your house to start seeds, and then you wouldn't have to worry about the temperatures dropping too much outside and causing you to lose your plants. If you try this method outdoors, you also could place milk jugs or two-liter bottles full of water inside your frame. They'd serve as solar collectors--absorbing sunlight and heat all day long and then releasing it into the air at night as they cooled. If you paint the bottle black, they'd probably heat up a few more degrees. You also could add heat by purchasing a soil heating cable and running it through the soil underneath the cans with your seedlings. You also could line your coldframe with a light-reflecting mylar paper. It would reflect light/heat back onto your plants. That kind of thing would be available in rolls from someone like Worm's Way that sells to indoor and greenhouse growers. You probably could get a similar effect from aluminum foil, but it might not be as reflective. Later in spring, as the occasional very warm day hits, you'll have to open the lid up during the day so that your plants don't roast. Dawn