I am wondering if I should put them in partial shade even though the seeds haven't germinated yet. The reason I'm debating doing this is because I know cool weather veggies have a difficult time even germinating if the weather is really hot. With the exception of lettuce that typically has germination issues above 75F or so SOIL temps cool season veggies love warm soils. Germination rates and speed are usually better and faster when seeds are sown in the summer and plants mature in the fall. Most folks seem to sow the seeds into cool/cold soil and have the plants mature in the summer which is 100% backward from how most of these cool season crops do their best. They like warm soil and cool air, not cool soil and warm air. I am not suggesting we all quit sowing seeds for a spring crop, just that the fall crop will germinate and grow faster due to warmer soil temps and longer days. The soil mixture I'm using is a combination of equal parts spahgnum peat moss, regular peat moss, Miracle Gro potting mix, and topsoil. The peat does help the soil to retain longer water. I don't know if prolonged water retention will help cool down the cool weather veggies I'm planting; I also don't know that if prolonged soil retention due to the peat moss helps them keep cool if it prolongs how long they're kept cool as a result of this. I just figured I'd bring it up. Sphagnum peat moss is 'regular' peat moss ;) I don't know why you would add topsoil to this or any other container mix, it's not going to do your plants any favors. The mix itself isn't going to do anything in regard to the internal temperature of the container. Here is what I suggest. If these containers can be moved to a shady place do so. Not so much because of the temps in your area, but because the bare mix in the sun is going to dry down on the surface from evaporation quickly and you don't want it drying out when trying to germinate seeds right in the pot. Once you have germination, move them back into full sun for best growth. If moving the pots isn't practical then don't do it. It will be fine. In the event something like the lettuce doesn't germinate in say 10 days-2 weeks it was too warm for it and just resow.

We are building a cold frame with a sliding glass door panel that I got for free. It's double pane heavy glass, and I'm intrigued to find out how much warmer it will keep things. We're hoping we can harvest things for a long while here in New Hampshire. It will be fun to see how the experiment works. The special autumn edition of Fine Gardening magazine had an article about greens and lettuces that are good for colder weather. As far as lettuces, to sum up: if it has "winter" or "artic" in the name, it's been bred for cold resistance. I bought some "Winter Desnity" romaine and some "winter Marvel" butterhead, among others. The French use cold frames much more than we do, and evidently there are many French bred varities of lettuces that do well in cold weather - d'Hiver means of winter. I also have Elliot Coleman's Four Season Harvest book. In addition to corn salad (mache), miner's lettuce (claytonia or winter purslane), arugula and spinach, he suggests endive (especially frisee type), Chioggia radicchio, buskshorn plantain (minutina), mizuna, sorrel, escarole, chicory, and even swiss chard. He also mentions several other of what I think of as the more unusal salad greens.

I plant my 2nd wave of cool weather veggies in August. It depends on the weather, and amount of water we are getting as to the exact date...to be safe, mid-august. I've not grown kholrobi here, but at church we plant the hardier veggies: cabbage, chard, and broccoli a bit later, as they overwinter very well. Your warm weather veggies will catch up after this rain, and some warmer temps and sun. This has been an unusual year so far. GGG

I am not sure when these veggies should be planted but if you have a local farm and garden center where they sell seed, they should be able to tell you when to plant them in your area. I see you have pink eye purple hull pea seed. Are they the real Mississippi pink eye, the older variety? How many do you have to trade. Nancy