Hi Calliope, I know what you mean, but those plants that can be planted before frost date usually can take frost easily. My nasturtiums, e.g. went through a few snow falls last year with their beautiful leaves and flowers before they finally yielded. I agree that one must know his area well and know how to estimate (though we cannot be 100% accurate). For some annuals, I wait 2 weeks after our formal frost dates, then check the forecast for the next 10 days, and if it looks good I can plant them. For tender annuals, I might wait a little longer or start indoor. For half-hardy or hardy annuals, I can start earlier.

I find that tomato and pepper plants sell from our first market at the end of April, through to about the beginning of June, and then peter out. It depends a lot on your growing season and timing though. I should think you'd want tomatoes to be at least 6 weeks old to sell, and peppers more like 8-10 weeks, they are so slow, so you'd need to count back from the last date you'd expect people to still be buying them to see when is the last date you'd want to be sowing them. Kevin

Hello, I live in southeast Ohio. I finally stopped raining and I tink it's somewhat dry enough to till. We have a huge garden area we have about six families that tend and use the benefits of this garden. This is the third forth year and the last 2 have been terriable. We have fertilized and ever thing.Last year Our Corn earred when the plant was only about 2 ft. tall. Our potatoes sweet and regular rotted in the ground and our peppers, tomatoes and Okra was the only thing that grew? I'm confused. If someone out there has lots or expeience and can give be idea's since I'm getting a late start PLEASE HELP!

Hi Gina, First, I am sorry to hear that your life has been so challenging lately with your DH's medical problems and hope he is doing well and that his condition continues to improve. Congratulations on the impending birth of your child too! I'll try to address each vegetable separately. With all these, you could direct seed now with little fear of cold temps harming them, but you might get them off to a faster start by starting them indoors in warmer temperatures. LETTUCE: Since lettuce sprouts so quickly, I'd certainly go ahead and plant it again. At this point, you can direct seed it into the vegetable garden, or you can start seeds in flats for transplants. If it were me, I'd direct sow it at this point but there are some instances where starting with transplants works better. One example would be if you have wildlife that eat the seedlings as soon as they sprout, being eaten by wild things. In that case, transplants allow you to start with larger, older plants that can better withstand the pests. Normally, the best time to plant lettuce is roughly 4 to 6 weeks before your average last frost date and, in general, transplants are preferred in our climate. So, you're a little late, but not terribly late. Remember to plant only as much as y'all can eat because lettuce bolts (goes to seed) in hot weather and its season is fairly short here. If hot temps arrive extra-early, let's say in early May instead of late May, you may need to harvest your lettuce as baby lettuce instead of full-sized plants so you're able to eat it before it bolts. SPINACH: This one is a toss-up. Down here in southern OK, I'd say it is getting awfully late to sow spinach seed. Up there in zone 6, you probably could get away with planting it this late. You could direct-sow spinach now with no problem and direct-sowing would be preferable to raising transplants since you're planting so late. There's just no need to plant transplants, harden them off and spend time transplanting them (which means they might get transplant shock and stall) when it is warm enough to direct-sow. Then, hope that the weather doesn't warm up too much too soon so your spinach has time to mature before the heat arrives. Most spinach produces 7 to 10 weeks after the seed emerges so while you're a bit late, you're not too late, especially if you're planting a spinach with fairly short DTMs. As with the lettuce, if the temps start heating up a lot in May, you may be harvesting your spinach as baby spinach instead of full-sized spinach in order to beat the heat. KALE: I can't decide about this one. I'd say the odds that it would do well if started from seed at this point are 50-50. I have seen Kale hold on pretty late in spring some years, and have seen it go downhill pretty early when the heat arrives early. Here where I live, kale that was planted in the fall is bolting now because of the hot temps, but we've already had days in the 80s (and a couple near 90) here, so the bolting is not surprising. If you don't have a lot of room, I'd skip kale and save it for the fall garden. A similar vegetable that has better heat tolerance is Swiss chard, which produces virtually all summer for me if I keep picking the leaves while they're pretty young and tender instead of letting them get huge. Maybe someone else who grows kale in zone 6 can advise you regarding how long kale produces well there in late spring to early summer. BROCCOLI: I'd definitely sow the broccoli seeds now and then set out the transplants once they have 3 true leaves. Even though they'll be quite small at that time, they'll grow quickly. Broccoli is really picky about temperatures, so you'd not as far behind on this one as you think you are. I plant later than recommended down here in southcentral OK because when I plant it at the recommended time, we inevitably have some cold temps once it is pretty good sized and then it bolts. So I feel pretty confident you can start broccoli seed now and still get a great harvest if the weather halfway cooperates. Were I in your shoes, I'd only sprout the seeds indoors and then move them outside to grow on. The minute I had the very first teeny-tiny seedlings emerging above the soil surface, I'd carry the flats outside every morning so the plants can grow in the sun. That way, you can avoid the week of hardening-off needed for seedlings sown indoors since they'll be exposed to sunlight, outdoor temperatures and wind from day one. Also, the plants will grow faster with direct sunlight than with indoor lighting and so it won't matter so much that you're getting a bit of a late start. It also would allow the plants to harden off to cooler temperatures even if you don't leave them out all night. I'd carry out the plants pretty early in the morning and leave them out pretty late in the evening so they experience the full range of temperatures we have here. I'd bring them inside at night so they wouldn't be eaten by small animals or insects and so they wouldn't freeze if temps are going into the 20s at night. Using those little tricks can cut quite a bit of time off the process of raising seedlings. You probably also could direct-sow everything at this point, but I'm a little worried that some of them would emerge a bit too slowly in colder soil temps which might not be good since you're getting off to a late start. Finally, if all of these are intended to be followed by warm-season crops that will follow them in the exact same spot, that could negate everything I just wrote. Since these plants are going to be starting late, I'd be concerned that they will linger a bit longer than usual in the garden and that could mess up the planting schedule for succession plantings of other crops in the same place. However, if you could plan your garden plantings in such a way that plants that go into the garden pretty late, like southern peas, watermelon or sweet potatoes would follow them, that probably would work out better than if you're intending to follow them with green beans, peppers or tomatoes. Hope this info helps, Dawn