Lots of people are overcome by spring fever and plant too early. What is the average last frost date for your region? I'd expect that it might be sometime in late May, considering your zone. You'll never make this mistake again, by the way. Check with your local county extension office for the last expected frost date and plan to plant a couple of weeks AFTER that date....next year.

I grow citrus in containers and they tend to need re-potting often. Bark based media is the cheapest in this area but it tends to break down in a year or so. My back explained to me that lifting large trees in and out of pots was something only young people should be doing so I came up with a plan. Instead of real pots, I make these wire mesh cages that I line with landscape fabric and fill with media. The wire mesh is sold as rabbit cage wire or hardware cloth. I get the 30 inch tall roll and take an 8 foot section and loop it around to form a ring which I bind together with zip ties. When the trees start to show signs of needing new soil I can snip the plastic zip ties used to hold the whole thing together, peel back the fabric and carve away old soil. It sort of root prunes and freshens soil all in one easy motion. The drawbacks are that the "pots" take an obscene amount of media to fill and that you really can't move them. If your trees make a dense web of roots (like citrus can) then after a year or so you probably can scoot it across the floor by pushing on one side. I haven't tried that yet.

I have some of the same problems. Hosta like acid conditions. I live in an area that was once an ocean, therefore the subsoil is limestone. Not only is the soil alkaline, so is the water. I think that some hosta are more susceptible to this problem than others. I've put Ironite in my pots that last couple of years. For the coming year, I bought some Miracle Grow Azalea food and am going to try it and see how my hosta do. It may acidify the pots enough to solve some problems. A couple of years ago, I sent a piece of my Blue Angel to Texas A&M to determine the problem with it. It had anthracnose and was too alkaline. You just have to deal with what you have the best way you can. If you want to grow blueberries or hosta, you just have to figure a way. If it doesn't work, find another plant to grow. You can overcome some stuff, but not all. You can't grow a pin oak here. Once they get too big to acidify the soil, they die. You just can't afford how much amendments it would take to grow a dogwood here. bk

Bon, Really, it isn't even time to put any warm-season edible plants in the ground yet except for corn in far southern OK, but I wanted to start some zinnias and basil and a few other warm-season things indoors. I don't even remember the OSU-recommended dates to start putting warm-season plants and seeds in the ground---probably April 10th for most things. Since I plant by the combination of soil temp, air temp and forecast, I don't remember the OSU dates as well as I should. I've got everything in the ground that I can plant at the present time except for a few flats of flowers I'm raising from seed, so I'll play around with starting a few herbs and flowers that I can put in the ground 4 to 6 weeks from now. Having had high temperatures this week in the mid- to upper-80s, I am worried we'll get too hot too early so went ahead and planted beans and corn this week. It is early for the beans, but we are unseasonably warm and so is our soil, so I think I'll get away with planting them early. It still is too cool for peppers, melons, okra, squash, cucumbers, southern peas and the like. Some years it gets so hot so early down here that plants that are heat-sensitive, like beans, start dropping their blossoms almost as soon as they start making blooms, so if there is anything I'll push in the ground a tiny bit early, it is bush beans. I don't rush pole beans or Lima beans quite as much as they don't seem to tolerate being planting a touch early as well as the bush beans do. Most of the veggie gardens we drive by on a routine basis on our way to town are either plowed or rototilled and bare, some with big puddles of water standing in them, so not many folks here have planted anything yet. A couple of them aren't even plowed or rototilled yet. I wouldn't have planted anything if I didn't have raised beds that dry out more quickly. I wouldn't dare put anything in the grade level soil yet because it likely would just rot. Even folks near us who usually get their onions in the ground here no later than the OSU recommended dates (and often much earlier) don't have onions in the ground yet. As far as Fred and I know, I'm the only person who's planted onions already, and it is getting terribly late in southern OK to plant short-day types. This may be the first year I've ever had my onions in the ground before everyone else. I just keep an eye on my soil temperatures, my air temperatures and our 8-10 day forecast when making planting decisions. I won't plant if the soil is too cold for whatever it is I want to plant because seeds won't germinate and transplants won't grow while the soil is too cold. Our soil has been shockingly warm this week in the raised beds, which made planting beans and corn possible. I need to tackle the weeds growing in the mulch in the grade level areas because those areas are too wet to work so they haven't been touched since autumn and are growing a healthy crop of cool-season weeds. It is warm enough that 4 o'clocks, daturas and the dreaded bind weed are sprouting. Ugh. I hate bind weed. Today is so windy and cold that I may not go out to the garden at all except to harvest asparagus. I might spend tomorrow catching up on the weeding in the grade level soil if it is dry enough. It it is too wet and big clumps of soil come up with the weeds, I'll just have to wait another day or two for it to dry out more. I will tackle the clean-up of the back garden next week. It is all grade-level soil with no raised beds, so has been too muddy for me to venture into it at all. The perennials back there are up and growing well, though, so apparently the constant moisture hasn't bothered them. So, what's a gardener to do when they can't garden? Starting seeds indoors is about all that's left to do on a day like this.