Lettuce, spinach and cilantro can definitely go into the ground now. (My cilantro that self seeded last fall is looking good and I have a few spinach plants that escaped the deer--also from last fall. These two are TUFF!!) I have direct planted carrots and beets the first week of March many years and had them succeed. but I have also had them freeze back a few times and have replanted. Since you never can tell, I always take the chance.

But do a search for the discussion on peas. If you want to plant sugar snaps you will probably have better luck starting them inside.

You can plant everything Dorothy listed....spinach, cilantro, lettuce and probably chard and kale as well. I've got Sugar Snap peas started in flats on the back porch and will try to get them into the ground in the next couple of days when I plant onions. I'm not convinced the cold weather is done with us yet, but need to get the cool-season crops into the ground anyway. I do have enough of my frost-blanket type floating row cover to cover up the peas if really cold weather threatens.

I'd wait until the first or second week to direct-sow carrots and beets because they germinate so much more slowly in cold soil that they tend to rot if planted too early.

I have tiny broccoli and rhubarb plants sprouting in flats on the concrete patio, but they'll come inside on cold nights and then go back outside on pretty days, and won't go into the ground for a while yet.

Don't let the occasional pretty day trick you. It is still winter.

Dawn

yeah, I definitely could be susceptible to the pretty day tricking me! I gots lots done in the garden today... took the newspapers off the beds, sifted compost and put it in the beds, planted my onions and some spinach. I went ahead and planted the peas, aware of the risks, but I put a sheet of glass over them, like a cold frame kind of, its an experiment, we will see how it works! It was a great day to be outside!

I don't have anything other than a few sweet peas in the ground yet, but the garlic is sprouting up through the straw. I may have to cover it back up if it keeps snowing around here. It's nice to know that I can go ahead and put out some cilantro. The garden beds aren't prepared yet, but I think I'll seed some in a few pots to make it feel more like spring. My kale is under the lights and just starting to get some true leaves. I've also got broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, leeks, chives and peppers getting a little size to them. The first tomatoes just sprouted through last night after seeding them on Wednesday. On a day like today, it's easy to pretend we're through with winter--it was so nice out.

It is easy to forget that cilantro is a cool-season crop so it tolerates a really early sowing, and if you have it in the ground in the fall it often survives a surprising amount of cold weather. Some years, if I let it go to seed for coriander and then don't get around to harvesting all of it, it reseeds. As a bonus, if you let it flower, the tiny pollinators and beneficial insects seem attracted to it.

It was gorgeous out, but I still have too much mud to do much of anything in the garden. This darned old heavy clay takes forever to dry out.

Some of the tomato plants (purchased) I have in pots for extra-early ripe tomatoes seemed to really enjoy the sunlight and heat today, but I'll have to bring them inside tonight. Three of them have blooms and the largest plant has 8 or 10 blooms. I hope the blooms form fruit. I've thumped those blooms several times to help them along.

The tomatoes I'm raising from seed have two true leaves and I've been potting them up from starter flats to 9 oz. Dixie cups. I'm about half done but likely won't get anymore done this weekend because our granddaughter is here. Once all the tomato plants are in their individual pots, they'll grow pretty fast. I hope they don't get so large that they outgrow the space on the shelves under the grow lights. Spring is supposed to be cooler-than-usual and that is a bit worrisome.

Dawn

When it's too cold for me to be out without a coat, I just can't see putting much into the ground. I think I will be starting a lot more things inside this year. It was cool today and the wind was blowing. Not fun to be outside in that wind.....not that I had time anyway.

Carol, I'm not rubbing it in or anything, but it was not coat weather here today. Sunny, blue skies, 63 degree high after a really cold night/early morning that dropped 6 or 7 degrees below what was forecast (but our high was higher than was forecast too).

The moon is full and there are no clouds. I bet tonight will be colder than forecast again but I don't really care....I've moved all the plants back inside except for the peas on the screened-in porch and they should be fine....they have a floating row cover over them.

Tomorrow is the last day of February--and good riddance! Now, let's hope March shows us a little mercy so we can finally begin accomplishing something outside.

Dawn

I went ahead and planted my potatoes today, as well as onions. I also widened one of my beds to 8 ft by 32 ft. This is my biggest bed. I also have 3 4'x8' beds, a 4' x 20' bed, a 3'x10' bed, a 4' x 15' bed and a 6'x8' bed. All this on a typical sub-division city yard. My wife is worried that there will be no grass left in the backyard if I keep digging.

Almost all my seeds now at this point have two leaves on them, and I think I will be repotting those. I just don't trust the weather yet to get any direct sowing done. I am going to "play it safe" and wait a little while. I was down at a local nursery today (TLC) and one of the workers there asked me "you are not going to plant those yet, are you? too early for that" to some herb plants I was looking at.

James,

Who needs lawn grass? What purpose does it serve? LOL

I'd rather have beautiful beds of flowers, herbs, fruit and flowers that produce something useful.

Imagine if every American family had even half their lawn area growing edible crops instead of a flat, green carpet of high-maintenance grass? I mix ornamentals with veggies in my so-called 'flower beds' and non-vegetable growers seldom notice all the veggies mixed into my ornamental beds because the plants are so attractive on their own.

In general, I am not one to 'gloat' but.....when I am in a grocery store that charges very high prices for organic produce, I do gloat a little bit when I see how much they are charging for organic produce that I have growing at home "in the yard". I feel the same way when I see bouquets of cut flowers sold in grocery stores....I think to myself how glad I am that I have those same plants at home and can cut all the flowers I want and make my own bouquets.

It continues to baffle me that people will spend a small fortune and a lot of time maintaining a turfgrass area that could be converted to growing local, fresh, healthy produce. A lot of these same people will drive a hybrid vehicle or use solar power (or wish that they did/could) for the sake of the ecosystem, but they'll go buy food that travels an average of 1500 miles (and often much more) from the grower to the grocery store. I don't know how much fossil fuel we use moving produce around the country and the world, but I bet the total amount is staggering and I just don't see the logic in that.

So, back to my original question....what useful purpose does lawngrass serve...exept it gives the dogs and children a place to run around. My DH seems to love his lawn as much as I love my garden beds, but my garden beds give us a nice return on the time/money spent on them and he can't say that about his pretty, neatly mowed and edged lawn.

Dawn

Dawn, well said. Besides, I would much rather be tending a garden than mowing grass any day.

Dawn, That 63 degree weather sounds wonderful!!! I think it got up to 49 here the other day. I thought that was pretty good. But that extra 14 degrees would've been great for the muddy messes around here.

I know I'm a little later than most of you all; however, I got all my seeds started today. This gives me about till the end of April or first of May before putting them out in the ground. Reason I am waiting so long is due to the recent years of planting. A few years ago I had everything in the ground and we got so much rain in April that it flooded my garden and I lost everything except some tomatoes, peppers, a cantalope plant and a watermelon plant. I had to start all over. I was very discouraged. So, I've decided that I would rather start later than have everything just die bcz of the crazy unpredictable Oklahoma weather!!!

Now I just have to wait for little sproutlings and then put them under the lights. Gotta get that set up now. I am going to try to do some container gardening this year. I think I'm putting my cukes into 5 gallon buckets and letting them vine up on a trellis. I'm thinking about putting the sweet banana peppers, chile's, and cayenne peppers in containers also.

I really wanted to start me some evergreen bunching onions, but the ground is still so wet. I walked out into my small bed where I planned to put them and it was very mushy. Think a hair dryer would help?!?! lol
I also wanted to plant some red candy onions, but once again....mushy.

MUSHY, MUSHY, MUSHY!!!

Do have little sprouts in my wintersown container of broccoli, lettuce, and cabbage.

Oh..Dawn, I also agree about people spending a small fortune on the veggies in the stores. It amazes me at how small the veggies are and how big the price is. I have doubled up on my plants this year hoping for a big harvest. My hubby is even trying to figure out how we can keep a tomato plant growing inside during the winter.

Hoping for some definitely warmer days quickly!!

Melissa

I am eventually xeriscaping my whole backyard to be raised garden beds, then my front yard will be rocks, succulents and mulch. --> I hate grass. I hate to mow even more! So does my DH. So its all good, as long as that grass is gone. :)

I am thinking I have a mud pit for a garden! So I decided to start my potatoes and onions in large black pots that I bought a few fruit trees in last year. I put a layer of hay at the bottom, then some potting mix, then the potatoes covered by more potting mix. It only filled the pots half way so i am hoping once they get pretty tall I can top them off with another layer of hay and soil kind of like a tire stack potato method. Who knows, I thought I would give it a shot with it being so muddy in the garden. I just HAD to get out there and do SOMETHING!

~Danni Girl

I'm with Dawn, who needs grass? And I mow two acres!! But we never do anything to "maintain" a lawn. No fertilizer, no water and the mowing is to keep down the fire danger around the house and to provide some grass clippings in early spring to heat the compost pile. If I lived on a city lot, I wouldn't have grass in a backyard.

Americans as a whole have become lazy and uninformed. We've lost the gardening tradition in this country. I was in Italy 11 years ago, in Jan-Feb and was astounded at all the cold frames, tunnels and small greenhouses, that were full in a very cold winter. It got to 13 F several nights. That country is very crowded with lots of small lots in the towns and small acreages in the country. And it is incredible what use they make of their growing space.

It's such a shame that it takes an economic crunch to turn people's thoughts to saving money with a garden, but at least more people are trying it. Maybe they'll be so enthralled with the taste of good fresh veggies that they will continue after better times return. Here's hoping.

Okay all. To keep you up to speed I planted a ton of stuff last summer and we moved on a whim in July. I sprayed where I planned the vegetable garden with that killer stuff (how can I have a senior moment at 36?) and I put cardboard down about a week ago. Started lots of flowers and veggies in milk jugs (wintersowing). How can I best get that plot ready? No tiller, bad back, but great husband.

One more thing. Land has a peach tree on it that bore lots of fruit last year. Do I need to do anything to it?

Oops. One more. Have huge oak leaf hydrangeas. Need to prune?

Feels good to be back and I can't wait to show you all the azaleas when they bloom!

Amanda

Dorothy,

I agree with everything you said about the loss of our gardening tradition in this country. I have high hopes we're seeing that change not only for economic reasons, for also because the freshest and best food is food grown locally.

Hi Amanda,

Your oakleaf hydrangea blooms on old wood, so the ideal time to prune it is after it blooms. So, this spring I wouldn't prune anything unless you discover (when it leafs out) that severe cold killed some of the limbs or tips of the limbs, and in that case, you have to prune back to remove the dead wood.

All stone fruit trees perform better with annual pruning, although it is not strictly necessary. There are some organic advocates who leave the trees unpruned. My dad didn't prune his peach trees in the later years of his life (we offered to do it, but he'd decided they didn't need it) and still had a great crop. However, they were harder to pick. Pruning helps you shape the tree so optimal sunlight reaches the inner portions of the crown and also helps you keep the tree at a manageable height.

I've linked the OSU fact sheet on pruning fruit trees.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: How To Prune Fruit Trees

We are planting onions, and seeding lettuce, spinach, radishes, beets, carrots. Bought the potatoes yesterday, will cut and sulfur them today to plant next week.

And the first batch of snap peas will go into the garden next week when the second batch goes on the germinating bench--really need two benches. A hundred broccoli seedlings are off that bench under the lights, all in one flat, but still too small to pot up.

The purple and white crocus are blooming as always a month after the first yellow ones, and the first daffs opened outside yesterday. ANd the lovely little round lobed hepatica is the first of the wildflowers to bloom again.

Happy gardening everybody, now that it finally feels like spring.

A hundred broccoli seedlings--wow!

We are doing our beds a little differently this year and aren't quite ready to plant. What do you think the latest date to direct sow peas would be? Or should I start them indoors. I'd prefer to put them straight into the ground, but probably won't be able to for another week or two. Will the heat keep them from producing if we put them in that late? I'd be doing potatoes and all of my cool weather seedlings then, too.

Dorothy,

I'm about at the same place you are in terms of planting cool-season veggies. I hope to get everything exc. broc and taters in the ground today and tomorrow (with the assistance of my 2-year-old GD, so that slows me down a bit). My broccoli seedlings are about at the same stage as yours, and I hope to get my potato bed soil ready tomorrow and plant next week after the forecasted stormy period of Sun-Mon passes. (It won't bother me if the rain misses us.)

Megan, The latest OSU-recommended planting dates for most cool-season crops is March 10th. Of course, you can plant later, but the later you plant beyond the recommended dates, the greater the chance your crops won't produce as well as those planted on-time. Potatoes do pretty well as long as they go into the ground in March, and broccoli does the same.

Direct-sowing peas is tricky. Peas grow best in cool soil and cool air temperatures, but germinate best in warm soil. That's why some of us start our peas indoors using various methods to get faster germination than we would outdoors, and then transplant them out quickly so they can grow in the cooler conditions they prefer.

Look at Tom Clothier's chart on soil temperature's effect on seed germination that I've linked below. For peas, you'll see that it takes peas 36 days to germinate at a soil temperature of 41 degrees, 14 days at a soil temperature of 50 degrees, and only 8 days at a soil temperature of 68 degrees.

Right now, according to the OK Mesonet soil temperature charts, the 3-day average soil temps for most of Oklahoma are in the upper 30s through upper 40s, so peas direct-sown now will germinate fairly slowly. So, if you direct sow, expect germination to be slow. Because our spring weather air temperatures can get too hot fairly early, peas need to be sown as early as possible to get a good harvest.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Tom Clothier's Germination/Temperature Chart

Thanks re: oak leaf hydrangea and peach tree.

Best thought on preparing soil (with grass still on it that was sprayed last fall)? I wasn't thrilled with my crop last year, although since we moved in July it's hard to make that judgement. Would like to do beans, peppers, toms. Since I have no other direct sun than this tiny part of my yard I think I'll do sunny annuals on one side of the garden. The space we've alotted is probably 4x10, but I'd like to make it bigger. Depends on how much we have to dig up!

BTW, I've started more vegetables than I'll need...there's sure to be freebies!
Thanks!

Ah, ok I guess I'll be looking for a place to put my trays of peas this weekend. I didn't start them in time to beat the Dallas heat last year, so I definitely want to make sure that we get our fill this year. I'd love for us to get the beds ready before it starts raining on Sunday, but I'm highly skeptical. I'm off to work on it now!

-Megan

Amanda,

If the soil was sprayed with Round-up, the Round-up has a short half-life in the soil and the soil itself is safe to plant into.

If the soil needs improvement because it is heavy, thick, dense and slow draining, then the advice is the same as always....work in copious amounts of organic matter like compost, bagged humus or soil conditioner (which usually is a blend of humus/compost/pine bark fines), peat moss, chopped or shredded leaves, old spoiled hay or straw, etc. You can build beds on top of the ground if it is truly dreadful. You know the routine for that, right? If y'all did not remove all the sod after spraying it with Round-up last fall, you'll likely have some resprouting. Round-up does not do a very thorough job on bermuda and every piece of stolon that survives will resprout. You also could purchase a bulk delivery of a top soil or top soil/compost blend but BE SURE you visit the soil contractor and look at the kind of soil you're ordering because some of them sell crappy sand as sandy loam which it is not. Most soil purchased like that will NOT be weed-free either.

Megan,

The battle to beat the heat here is just as crazy as it was in Dallas, although sometimes the nights stay cooler longer here. At least you know what you're up against since you've already had experience fighting the heat battles in Texas.

Dawn

All 3 of our garden beds are ready so tomorrow....we're planting. This is the last weekend the Dixondale's will be viable since we received them Feb. 15. We also have Adirondak Blue and Red potatoes that are ready to go in, the yukon golds aren't quite there yet so they can wait for St. Patty's day. Also going to plant cabbage and romaine. They've been spending about 6 hours a day outside so I'm hoping they're ready. Mulberryknob - I have 95 broccoli starts that have been spending 6 hrs a day outside too, but I don't think they're strong enough for planting out yet. Plus, we've still got to get the fencing up. I didn't realize I could plant the cilantro now! I got some of the "slo-bolt" from Bakers Seeds so I may try some of that too.

My daffodils still only have buds...but last year I planted about 80 tulips across the front of our house. Nothing came up. I was totally dissappointed and vowed never to buy bulbs at Sams again. Guess what? Most have come up this year and are about 4" tall now! Can't wait to see if they actually bloom.

Paula

I have in the past germinated pea seeds in a bowl in the kitchen--just til the root was as long as the seed--and then direct seeded them in the garden, thinking that maybe I would get a crop that way. Nope. Got NADA. Part of the seeds rotted but most became gopher dinner. So for several years I have invested in the peat pots, soaked the seeds overnight and waited to see the root as long as the seed, put the good seeds in the peat pots on the warm bench took them off when the sprouts were an inch up, kept them til they were 2-2&1/2" and then planted the peat pots, being sure to cover the whole pot so it wouldn't wick out moisture. Sprinkled hair and bloodmeal to discourage critters and usually get a bumper crop. That's my experience for what it's worth.

Crap. Didn't know I should have removed the sod then. Someday I'll have an existing garden to tend...

Nah, I think the soil is fine here. I'll just do some basic amendments. Thanks Dawn!

Crap. Didn't know I should have removed the sod then. Someday I'll have an existing garden to tend...

Nah, I think the soil is fine here. I'll just do some basic amendments. Thanks Dawn!

Amanda,

You're welcome.

If you leave the sod, the chances are about 95% that some of it will regrow. One treatment with Round-up generally doesn't kill 100% of the bermuda....it kills it back above ground, and then in about a month or so during the warm growing season, you start seeing some re-growth. If you don't want to remove the sod, just cover it with several layers of cardboard, put mulch on top, and kept a small hand-held bottle of Round-Up handy to re-spray anyplace the bermuda regrows. Be very careful, though, because a light mist of Round-up can travel through the air and kill your vegetables. Tomatoes are particularly susceptible to herbicide drift like that.

I think there is a newer form of Round-up that claims it does a better job and keeps the killed 'weeds' from coming back for up to 6 months. I haven't tried it and don't know anyone who has, so can't say if it is any more effective on bermuda grass than the regular Round-up but it might be.

Paula, Have fun planting.

My broccol isn't ready to go into the ground yet but it has made good growth this week out in the real sunlight after seeming like it wasn't doing much indoors under lights, so I guess it needed the more intense sunlight.

Dorothy,

I have had some success with pre-sprouted peas if planting them into a raised bed that I have pre-heated by covering with plastic for a couple of weeks during a sunny winter. All of that is so much work and there's no guarantee you'll get a good stand of peas so I'd just as soon start them in plantable pots and have a sure thing.

Dawn