Well, Dawn, you live WAY further down south than the rest of us. For you, it might be over... but I am not holding my breath for it yet. :)

No maters get planted at my house till later.

Moni

We bottomed out at 32 this morning with a heavy frost. Everything stays in the greenhouse for at least another week before I contemplate making the spring exodus.

Sunday night looks like it has the potential to be a little on the cool side. :-)

randy

It's over here. Spring is here to stay... at least for two weeks before summer suddenly slams us in the usual way. I'll likely start planting out this weekend, assuming "things" go as planned.

"Things" = hubby having enough time to spare for garden chores. We have a new batch of chicks that are getting a new coop and run in the kitchen garden area so he needs to mark what space will be devoted to chicks and what to garden. Just got a new batch of sheep, too, and they're in a portion of the lower garden at the moment. Gotta get them moved elsewhere.

I love the chaos of spring!

Wellll...Gary England said yesterday, if your plants survived the last freeze, they will be fine. He seemed to think that is the coldest we will get. He wasn't saying no more freezes though.

I, myself, declare winter is over and spring is here!

Lisa

I mentioned on another thread that I wasn't 'feeling' it as far as planting out yet. Well, this morning I started planting out some of the larger, hardier seedlings. They've been hardened off and were even exposed for a few hours during the day during this last cold snap. Still have backups inside, waiting another couple of weeks on those.

As far as seed, I'm direct sowing some of my warm crops that don't transplant well.

Getting some of the marigold and nasturtium seedlings outside and planted as well.

If we get another freeze, I'll have backups ready, cover everything else and hope. But I felt that it was time to go ahead and things would be fine :)

Besides, I'm ready for that first fresh from the garden fried green tomato!

When Cliff and the kids get home, we're going to set up the shaded bed for more cool weather veggies.

On another note, for those keeping up with it, I'm having the spinal fusion surgery on May 26th. I should be home again three days later. My two youngest boys (12 and 9) are going to go to their father's in Texas for a month to allow me to recuperate and heal, so I don't stress over not being able to watch over them. Cliff and the older boys will take care of the gardens until I'm able to start helping again. Cliff will water for me and my grown and gone sons will come over on the weekends to weed, mulch, etc. My 16 yr old daughter will be home with me during the day, then go to work in the evening, Cliff will be home with me in the evenings. So, it's looking like we're getting everything covered.

I'm thinking spring's finally here and none too soon! I want veggies growing well before the heat hits hard!

Kathy

I'm not planting anything until the last week of April :-)

I wish you the best with your surgery, Kathy. I hope your hubby does well with it also.

I would have voted for spring being here to stay until I saw that 36 in the forecast for early next week. Still, some tomatoes are in the ground now here, and more will go in this evening. They were getting so big (many have little tomatoes on them), I just decided to risk it.

I am waiting a couple of weeks to put out tomatoes here in Moore...I just don't think it is time yet, but I may put corn seed in.

I'm going to say yes, it's over, with caution. My goal is to plant out as many tomatoes as I have buckets to cover, should the need arise. I've already put cucumber seed in the ground, operating on the catch as catch can basis. Okra has been winter sown for addition to the perennial borders. Corn and bean patch is not quite ready, which is just as well. Onions and peas are doing well.

I hope so - if all goes well I will plant out on Monte Thursday - maybe Good Friday but I hope to get them out looks good in Lindsay and I am one of the last guy still waiting - how be it one guy down the road is now on his third batch of tomatoes. So waiting is hard but I might be the only one with a good crop thanks to Dawn.

This is my first year gardening, and I learned 3 valuable lessons with my cool weather stuff this spring.

1: I need a windbreak for my pretty garden patch at the top of the hill,
2: Harden off EVERYTHING started indoors, no matter how "sturdy" it looks, and
3(the most germane to this thread): DON'T Push it!

The only reason my more tender cool weather stuff was sturdy enough to survive the nonstop winds and late freezes was that I put it in about 10 days later than I planned, and the only reason I planted late was because life got in the way. I'm going to start hardening off my tomatoes and peppers next week, but they aren't going in the ground until the end of the month. That said I'm up here in the cool (by OK standards) & damp part of the state, so YMMV.

First I always remember what they say in the Panhandle and SW KS. Only fools and newcomers try to predict weather here. Our soil temps have been stagnant for a month. Like I mentioned on another thread. I have always watched the corn farmers. And 3 years ago only lost the top out of 3 plants when many of them had to replant due to so much damage. This year none have started and most are saying probably around the 20th to 25th in soil temps rise a little and the long range looks ok. Last year we got down to 28 on May 10th. The latest hard freeze I've ever seen. So will wait and see. I will start putting some more direct sown seeds in and cover with buckets and plastic. Hoping to get an early start and have some early veggies for the market. But besides the direct sown maters mine will stay in a cold frame till around May 1st. And I don't ever put out peppers till May 15th. May put a few out early in WOW's. With the winds I will have protection for anything that goes out. Jay

NOAA says 35 degrees Friday night for Grove. However, I did get all my veggie seeds in the ground today so I have all fingers, toes and eyes crossed against a late freeze.

I don't know when I will plant. Thought I'd start today, and fully intended to, but instead spent the day at horrendous wildfires and just got home a few minutes ago. We just went from fire to fire to fire.

I expect tomorrow to be much worse since we have a Red Flag Fire Warning and tomorrow's wind will be much higher than today's. We apparently have an arsonist or more than one of them out there setting fires because the number of fires in the last 10 days in unreal.

So, even though I thought all along that the weather was going to dictate when I get to plant, now it looks like the person or persons starting these fires is setting the agenda.

This is so frustrating, and our volunteer firefighters are completely and totally exhausted.

Our forecast looks really great here--with nothing lower than about 44, unless the forecast changed today while I was out with the VFD. So, I'll plant when and if I get a chance. It was hot here today--84 degrees, and the humidity was down to 15% by 1 p.m. After that, though, I was too busy to check the humidity to see how much lower it fell.

Tomorrow is supposed to be an extremely critical fire weather day. We already have 4 coolers full of drinks and ice, and 6 more cases of Gatorade and 4 more cases of water to take with us. The pickup is loaded NOW and ready to roll in case trouble starts early. Now, with all this going on, I don't know when I'll plant. I still hope to do it as soon as possible--so I can get the plants in the ground before we start hitting the 90s!

Dawn

Sorry to hear about all of the fires, Dawn. I'll never understand why some people get kicks from starting fires intentionally.

I'm hoping we're past the freezing temps. It's supposed to be a mild night, so I'm letting my little seedlings spend the night outside for the first time under my covered porch.

I'm going to wait at least until next week sometime, to start putting tomatoes out. But most are already sitting out, in flats. I bring them in when it threatens to go down to the 40s.

Cultivation in the gardens is falling way behind, as usual, for this time of year. Anyone driving by would suspect that I'm not gardening this year. But my work always becomes more demanding, as does the work with our animals, and taxes; at this time of year. I've pretty well had to scratch doing beets and carrots this spring. No time to get them in.

George
Tahlequah, OK

I'm sunburned (just a little and it's not painful) and a little sore, but that's more working those 'gardener muscles' that get lazy during the winter rather than from my back issues. The raised veggie beds are WONDERFUL! As easy and comfortable as it was to plant my hardier seedlings and seeds, I know it's going to be comfortable to tend the plants and harvest as well! I can reach halfway into the beds from any point from one side and that will keep me working the muscles that will need gentle exercise after the surgery with the need to get up and move down a few feet. The height seems perfect, though I'm sure right after the surgery anything is going to be uncomfortable. But even Cliff, who is not a gardener, he just does what I point to him, is looking forward to taking care of the veggies in these beds while I'm in that month long 'Do Nothing' stage right after the surgery.

So, I got several things planted out, got to feel the sun and light wind, got dirt under my nails and was 'glowing' according to Cliff when he got home at being able to be outside and getting dirty before the surgery!

Checked on the seedlings this morning while sipping my first cup of coffee and it doesn't look like I'm going to deal with much transplant shock. Only two tomatoes looking a little tired, but I have backups for them if a few days of babying doesn't take care of it.

Dawn, you are all in my prayers with all the fires and I know more are expected today. You guys be safe and I hope they catch the bugger that's doing this. It's bad enough when someone does it unwittingly.

Kathy

i think it is over. people keep telling me to plant after april 15 and we have no lows up to the 13th, but maybe on the 14th? i don't' know, i think i will continue to just weed to make room for my plants.

I'm sending out all my cabbage and brussel sprouts today. I got in about 3/4 of the brussellies yesterday and I'll do the rest today before the big storm waters them in for me. I'll wait for a less windy day to plant my flower seeds and the tomatoes, basil and such aren't going anywhere yet. I planted sunflower seeds yesterday though and put out those poor sunflowers I mistakenly tried to start out of peat pots. I never imagined they'd grow so fast and be so spindly! I figure they're nearly all goners, but I might as well stick them out there and see if any make it. They certainly won't if I leave them in.

I think the main part of the winter is over, though it's not time for heat-loving plants like tomatoes yet. Good time to plant corn, maybe.

Oz,

Thanks. When we had this kind of a fire season in 2005-2006, we thought it was sort of a once-in-a-lifetime bad year and that we'd surely never see anything similar again. So, here were are just a couple of years later, and the 2008-2009 fire season is worse for us, I think, that that one was. What the heck is going on in Oklahoma?

George, I'm always behind at this time of year too, and it makes me crazy. I hate struggling to catch up and stay "on schedule", and I am not doing a very good job of it this year either. What schedule?

Kathy, I am glad you had some quality time in the garden. I think gardening is wonderful therapy! Thanks for the kind words. I have no words to describe the horror of today's fires--will try later. Don't know or understand how they started, but they were all over the place....from central Texas to Kansas. We had such poor visability here! People's homes, vehicles, barns, etc. have burned today and my heart is broken for them. I am exhausted and I need to get to bed. DH and DS are still out fighting the fires but I had to come home, feed and put up the animals, etc.

Jessaka, You can go to accuweather.com and click on the 15-day forecast and see if anything horrible weatherwise shows up.

Gamebird, I hope to plant corn any day now. Usually I plant it the last week in March, so I feel terribly behind. However, since we just went down to 19 earlier this week, it is just as well that I hadn't planted "on time" this year.

Hope the wind didn't beat your plants to a pulp.

Dawn