Frank, Hate to hear you giving up on peaches. You're such a big fan of them. I assume you are still going to do container peaches? I think many places Michigan had some areas which were hit harder than others. This is what Southeast MI reported today. "Peaches continue to look tough, with many varieties not leafing out. I have not seen one peach flower this season. In the last week or so, I have seen a few leaves emerging from the most vigorous shoots in the tops of trees. It is too early to tell if this is a sign of hope that these peach trees might survive the extreme cold winter and be viable to bear a crop of fruit in future years. I need to watch this growth carefully over the next few weeks or so to see if this growth continues or collapses when under the first stress of the season. Trees that were under stress last season or are past their prime-bearing age appear to be dead or dying. Cambium tissue in twigs, scaffold branches and even trunks that was damaged from cold temperatures this winter is turning to a darker brown color. This is another bad sign for the potential of longer-term injury in peaches. It appears that there is extensive winter damage in peaches this season, comparable to cold damage that occurred in the winter of 1994." Mamuang, I know you are going to really like those Autumnstar peaches when the come into production. Good flavor, good texture. They are also a naturally large peach. I agree it is strange they are one of the first to bloom and one of the last to harvest.

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 gather than you don't have the option to wait til fall, so if it were me, I would try to dig them now before they leaf out, leaving as much soil as I could around them & transplant them into their permanent spot immediately. Of course, if these are really old clumps this would be hard, but I would try to keep as much intact as possible, not dividing them now. I know all the rules say they won't bloom the following year if you move them in the spring, but I have divided them a couple of times-before I knew about the rules-& they bloomed remarkably well the following spring. Keep in mind that some varieties may adapt more easily.

sorry I didn't see this sooner. I agree, Eliot Coleman's books are great plus you can see his posts on Facebook about what he is doing in his high tunnel. A local market farmers also posts his photos and sells fresh veggies at the winter market here in zone 5B NH. I have a greenhouse plastic covered wood frame high tunnel. The ground never freezes inside but the air temps as mentioned by another poster get just as cold inside as outside when the sun goes down. We have a thermometer in our kitchen with sensors in different places so I know what the temp is in the high tunnel as well as outdoors. There are some easy tricks to keeping things warm like putting Agribon fabric over plants. Some of the market gardeners are using supplemental heat early in the season to get an early start on tomatoes. Johnny's Selected Seeds website has some good info about high tunnels. Yes, you can plant cold hardy things earlier but you also have to know that there is a Persiphone period during winter when there is not enough sun so plants go dormant. My simply plastic high tunnel seems capable of being a zone or two warmer depending on how much extra protection I give things. I overwintered rosemary and variegated sages successfully (but not last winter). I'm planting in the ground. Cilantro, kale, claytonia self seed in my high tunnel but not outside. I don't think beans are cold tolerant. Spinach and chard are. I had a goal of picking salad greens for Thanksgiving dinner. I might have done Christmas, too. You will need to read up on varieties because some lettuce is hardier than other varieties. I have had some lettuce start regrowing in early spring. Surprisingly, even with the sides rolled up and double door open, in summer the temp is easily 100 degrees on sunny days. In winter there can be a huge temperature difference. I have a yard hydrant so I can have water in winter but that requires an underground pipe from the house. My tomato plants are healthier than those growing outdoors. I still start seed indoors under lights. Between Johnny's and Eliot Coleman's books you can figure when to plant seeds outdoors under plastic to provide fall and winter harvests. I did not do winter crops this past winter because voles and other furry creatures had caused too much damage. Went to undercover a late crop of broccoli only to find every head gone. Also be aware that it gets too hot to be working under plastic in the summer and even some spring days if you don't get out early.