I am in a zone CaN or a zone 4 US and the best time to sow poppies is in the spring like any other annuals. As for columbines, wait for another few weeks closer to the first frost. Columbines can be wintersown and so best to get them to germinate in the spring. Get them to germinate now would probably kill them off. There won't be enough time for them to lay down deep roots. As for those living in zones where there is hardly any snow and there's hardly any freezing, Iwould suppose it's safe seed columbines now but would wait till spring for the annuals

Both of these are warm-season crops and cannot tolerate freezing temps, so don't plant until at least a couple of weeks after your county's last frost date. (Remember that the last frost date is an average, so in 50% of the years, your last freeze will fall before that date, but in the other 50% of the years, it will fall AFTER that date.) If you are going to start your plants from seed sown directly into the ground, wait until the soil temperature is at least 60 degrees and has been for a few days. You can take your soil temp. approximately 2" beneath the surface using a soil thermometer or meat thermometer, you can check the mesonet data for your county or (at least our local TV station does this in the spring) listen to soil temp. data on your local news. If you want to plant purchased transplants, you can do that, but I wouldn't plant them into the ground any earlier than the date you can sow seed as they will not grow fast until the soil is warm enough for them. Plants that are transplanted into soil that is too cold for them tend to just sit there and sulk. To make matters even worse, squash and cukes that are planted too early and exposed to too much cold weather can remain stunted and produce poorly for the rest of the growing season. I have planted squash and cucumbers as early as late March here in southern Oklahoma, but only if we have had a really warm spring. Late April is much better and, if we have cold weather late into the spring, mid-May is even better. As far as recommended varieties, if you are purchasing transplants, you won't have a really big choice. You'll be restricted to whatever the nurseries or big box stores have on hand, and sometimes they only offer the more common varieties. If you are starting your own from seed, you will have many more varieties available. Here's a few squash we've grown and enjoyed over the years: FOR SUMMER SQUASH: YELLOW STRAIGHTNECK: Prolific Yellow Straightneck (AAS winner), Multipick, Lemon Drop YELLOW CROOKNECK: Early Golden Crookneck (AAS winner), Dixie, Goldie SCALLOP (PATTY PAN): Peter Pan (a light green one) or Burpee's Summer Scallop Hybrid Mix (has a yellow one, a golden one and a pale green one in one seed packet), Sunburst ZUCCHINI: Butterstick (a yellow zuke), Eight Ball(a round zuke), Burpee Hybrid (an old variety that produces glossy, medium-green zukes on fairly compact plants), Senator, Costata Romanesco (Italian variety, very tasty) FOR WINTER SQUASH: HUBBARD: Baby Blue, Red Kuri, Blue Ballet, Chicago Warted KUBOCHA: Confection, Sunshine (an AAS winner) BUTTERNUT: Waltham (an AAS winner), Early Butternut BUTTERCUP: Buttercup, Bonbon SPAGHETTI: Hasta La Pasta (very compact plant that produces early), Tivoli ACORN: Table Queen (an heirloom that predates the Civil War), Burpee's Bush Table Queen (bushier plants that are more manageable and can even be grown in large containers), Table King, Cream of the Crop, Tiptop DELICATA: Cornell's Bush Delicata, Sweet Dumpling, Carnival PUMPKINS: Technically, pumpkins are squash, so here's a few: Sugar Pie, Long Island Cheese, Howden's Field, Big Moon CUCUMBERS: You didn't say if you wanted them for slicing/eating or for making pickles, so I'll list some of each. PICKLING: Picklebush (compact, great for smaller gardens), Burpee Pickler, Homemade Pickles, Miniature White, SPACE-SAVING BUSH TYPES: Salad Bush (VERY compact, slicing cukes) BURPLESS: Sweet Success (an AAS winner), Tasty Green SLICING: Straight Eight (an AAS winner decades ago and still popular), Fanfare (also an AAS winner in more recent times), County Fair (great resistance to powdery mildew), Dasher II, HEIRLOOM: Lemon Cucumer (yellow, round, makes great bread-and-butter pickles, and also great as a slicer) SPECIALTY: Mexican Sour Gherkin (tastes 'pickled' fresh off the vine) Hope this helps. If you have more questions, ask. Dawn

In March, when the last chance of frost has passed. Depends on what variety you are planning on planting if you will need a second tree. Most citrus will set fruit without another pollinator. Let us know what type of citrus you're thinking of planting and we will tell you if you need another tree nearby. Evan

It seems you are getting confused. Here is an outline for the full year taking everything into consideration. Seed NOW, this weekend. If you have dead grass on the surface, rake that away until you see the bare soil. Try not to disturb the surface too much and definitely don't dig it up. If it is not level, then move soil from the high spots to the low spots. Roll the seed down with a rented roller. If it is a small area, then simply walk over every square inch of the seed to press it down onto the soil. Then water 3x per day for 5-15 minutes depending on how your soil retains water. The idea is to keep the soil moist and not mushy. If your grass mix has only rye in it, then water for a week before backing off on frequency. If it has rye and fescue, you'll need to water for 2 weeks to get 80% germination of the fescue. If it has Kentucky bluegrass, then you'll need to continue the 3x per day watering for 3 full weeks to get the KBG to germinate. If you stop watering early, the KBG will not give you the benefits of KBG. The reason to seed this weekend is so the grass can come up this season and you can evaluate whether to seed again before winter frost closes the seeding window. You don't need fertilizer right away as the seed itself contains enough nutrients to get the grass to the rooting stage. If you want to fertilize now, I'd stick with an organic fertilizer because there is no way to make a mistake by adding too much. In late November the grass will stop growing. When it has fully stopped growing, that is the time to winterize the grass with a high nitrogen, fast release, chemical fertilizer. Something like uncoated urea is good. Use at half the bag rate this first year. In February put down a preemergent herbicide like Prodiamine. It will last for 3 months, so keep that in mind as you can reapply in late April. In mid April (tax day) apply the 2,4-d herbicide. The reason for waiting is to allow the weeds plenty of time to become healthy before you slaughter them with the herbicide. Healthy weeds die better than sickly weeds. Do not use weed n feed products, ever. In late May apply the first fertilizer of the year. There is no need to apply fertilizer earlier for 2 reasons. 1) you used a winterizer, and 2) what happens in the soil over the cold winter is magical, and the sins and illnesses of the past seem to go away. Grass always comes back in late March and is very healthy until the natural nutrients run out about late May. Don't listen to the advertising on TV or the Internet. The lawn does NOT need fertilizer in Feb to jump start it. Nature is jump starting it for you. So ignore your neighbors and all you see. Just enjoy the spring. Labor Day. Time to fertilize again. Also consider whether you need more seed. Do you have thin spots in the yard? If so, then add more seed. Fescue grows well in the shade and remains green all winter. Rye and KBG must have full sun and quite often turn brown in the winter. KBG is the only one of the three which will spread to fill in thin spots by itself without further seeding, but if your thin spots are in the shade, then you will need fescue seed. Mid Sept. If you have more weeds, then you can use another dose of the 2,4-d herbicide. You are certain to have questions about what I've said and not said. I do not recommend using any other pesticides unless you absolutely have identified the pest (insect or disease) and have looked into natural remedies. Why? Because the biology of the soil is your partner in this lawn effort. Insecticide and fungicide are extremely hazardous to those microbes living in the soil and helping out with the fertility. I have not used a chemical fertilizer since 2002, and firmly believe that using an organic fertilizer at least once per year will avoid other problems in the future. My preference is to use alfalfa pellets and/or corn meal, but you may find soybean meal easier to find at your local feed store.