yea wait ... first i think of soil compaction.. you simply standing and working in your beds.. i know OH has a lot of heavy clay.. and tromping around your beds early .... MIGHT lead to cement later in the summer ... next.. it would depend on how far you want to divide .. and the potential for heave.. as the ground goes in and out of thaw ... if you are simply halving a giant piece.. you can probably get away with it.. but if you were dividing down to single plants.. you might find them all above the surface in a few weeks ... i too am anxious to get out there.. but there is plenty to do .. cleaning up a lot of stuff.. before i spend too much time actually walking in the beds .. or making cement ... actually.. the first thing i had to do when i moved here with a 3 year old.. was build a sandbox.. so the kid would stop digging up everything i just planted .. lol ... make any sense?? you know.. what it really comes down to ... i dont trust mother nature ... she will mess with you gratuitously .. i still expect her to throw winter at me, with a vengeance .... it may not happen ... probably not ... but i trust her as far as i can throw her. .. ken ps: i though you were a guilt momma.. lol ... and i was wondering what you were guilty about.. lol ...

I'm up here in NH, and my herb garden got whacked pretty hard. All of my thymes took hits, although the creeping ornamentals (woolies, silver, etc.) did better than the culinary varieties. Variegated lemon thyme and English thyme, which were over three feet across, looked dead early on. BUT, they are coming back, some at the tips (branches tend to root) and some near the center, although they look very scraggly. I've pruned heavily and replanted some new plants in the middle of each cluster to fill them out, but left growing tips from the old plants for sentimental reasons (hard to say 'goodbye' to a favorite plant). At the nursery, when I mentioned my herbs took a hit, the first thing the woman said was that thyme got hit hard this year because of all the freezeÂthaw cycles and the lack of snow cover. That was certainly the case at my place. We had a mild winter, only down to -8F/-22C a couple of times, which made it a mild Zone 6 winter by straight hardiness zone measurements. It had to be the lack of snow cover, constant freeze-thaw and the fact that some plants ended up in standing water that then froze into solid blocks of ice that did most of the damage. Just goes to show that you canÂt rely on the zone maps to tell all. Other herbs that got whacked, but are coming back: winter savory, roman chamomile and munstead lavender (from both the ground and some Âdead looking branches). Herbs that bit the dust: Berggarten sage (which survived the last two winters), salad burnet (another one that had survived two winters), Greek oregano (which I thought was indestructible) both Arp and Madeline Hill rosemary (grown as a failed experiment next to the south side of the house), bronze fennel and French thyme. In general, plants that stayed evergreen or put out fresh growth from above-ground stems were hit the hardest. Herbs that seemed relatively unaffected were those that die back to the ground every year, for example all mints, sorrel, chives, garlic chives, Egyptian onion (actually left a few green stalks all winter), comfrey, French tarragon (yea!), rue, and, surprise-surprise, anise hyssop. One odd survivor - a pot of Ma Huang that I started from seed last spring and left out all winter. It certainly froze solid, but the plant survived. IÂm probably missing a few herbs, but that covers the bulk of them. Potted herbs that over-wintered indoors, like Vietnamese coriander and broadleaf thymes, have not gone outside, yet. I did put my Mexican culantro out last week, and it does not look happy, but it will survive. So, whitegarden, I think you might have a chance with at least the thyme and the lavender. But, if they are really alive and just look bad, you might consider filling in the dead spots anyway with a few new plants to make them look better. narcnh

Sowing grass seed at this late date....doesn't stand a chance in your know where to come to anything approaching germination. Its too cold. One can throw figures out about what soil temperature they have and therefore, try to suggest it is warm enough for grass to come along. It cant....it wont....save your labor, your money and your sanity. Save the seed for next spring AFTER the soil has firmly warmed up. The post was made November 13....in zones 4, and 5, early September, in zone 6, mid September is the logical time to plant grass seed and expect it to germinate. Remember, its not just the soil temperature WHEN you plant it....it takes time and by the late tiem of germination, the soil has lost temperature and continues to lose its heat. If such grass seed were to germinate in November, it will be a lost cause by December....and not worth the bother of looking for in March and April. Let's use a little common sense....the purpose of your question suggests you already know the answer. We all like to look at an early spring.....or delay winter as long as we can.....but grass seed only knows a limited time window to germinate....and November...it is way past.

Well, I am quite thrilled to read these great responses! I live in Zone 7, but our Winter is still long. The zones just refer to the extremes in temperature, not how long it lasts. I have noticed volunteer tomatoes come out earlier than I would choose to plant out. So, I can watch for that as a sign. I do not have any trouble with legginess of my tomato seedlings. I have a picture window that faces full-South, and shelves there (for seedling starting in Winter) outfitted with shop-lights. I read somewhere that it is important to use fresh bulbs (fluorescent tubes) as the light diminishes over time. I do not get new ones every year, but if one seems to put out less (judging by the plants), I use that on my alpine strawberry seedlings or something else that doesn't mind. I want to start even earlier because I'd like to keep tomato strains true when I grow them out. I plan to grow out severl this year, and if one flowers first for a week, then they are in the clear, and I can mark those fruits, and then not really worry about the rest. I guess what I mean is that an early & staggered start will allow me to focus on each plant as it comes into bloom, selecting from that, and moving on to the next one. I do have some limitations (medically), so it would be easier to focus on them staggered rather then so many at one time. It may not work out the way I hope, but I figure it is a good experiment for this year. By choosing good varieties for this (my un-familiarity with varieties hurts my experiment here) I can better insure success. The funny thing is that I don't really eat tomatoes--except in spaghetti sauce. BUT, everyone else loves them, and I find there is a group involved with tomatoes that have a zeal for the plant like no other vegetable/fruit. A great deal of home-breeding is going on, and I find it the most fascinating thing. Tomatoes provide a great opportunity to study genetics at home, and to look very intensely at varietal development in plants. I guess I am hooked for a reason not common to most, but I am hooked. So, I will try my experiment this year, and see how it works for me. I am thankful at the varieties/categories I see mentioned. When mentioning "use determinate or dwarf" plants, how can I find out which is which? I have consulted some websites, but is there a thorough tomato base out there? Keep the posts coming! Happy Holidays, Robin