I think it is a fine time to start those seeds. The seeds/plants can go into the ground any time the soil temp at planting depth is staying consistently at or above 70 degrees. Your soil temps might not be staying that warm at night yet, but by the time the seeds sprout and the plants are large enough to be transplanted, the soil in your containers should be staying that warm.

Thanks for the confirmation, Dawn!

Susan

You're welcome.

I may have jumped the gun, but last week when it was so warm, I planted seeds of cants and watermelons into the garden and put the started plants of cucs and summer squash in too.

Dorothy, I have two purchased zucchini plants and 2 yellow squash plants in the ground too, and I planted them about Tuesday or Wednesday of last week. I have three butternut squash ready to go into the ground too. They were an impulse buying/planting thing because I was walking by and they looked so good and the weather was so warm and I hadn't even started any seeds yet. My ground temps are good although the temperatures are more moderate than they were in March. The squash plants seem happy and are putting out new growth.

So, if you jumped the gun, I jumped it too. I haven't done anything yet with late corn, melons, okra, southern peas, cukes or the squash I'll be raising from seed, but I figured a couple of early squash plantss wouldn't hurt. What's the worst thing that can happen? They'll die and by then I'll have new transplants grown from seed that are large enough to set out.

With the lovely weather and rainfall, it seems like a good year to gamble a bit.

Dawn

I think we may have all jumped the gun this year, but we have to go for it when the opportunity presents itself, and this has been one of those years. I planted cuke seed in the ground this week just before the rain, and as I mentioned earlier, I planted squash seed which is starting to come up in a raised bed. As soon as I saw the first plants, I covered it with row cover.

I can see a Chinese cabbage which only had four or five leaves on it which is already going to seed, so I know for sure that everything I tried won't be successful, but it never is. Most years I can raise beautiful squash plants, but sometimes before I pick the first squash, the squash bugs hit and take them out. It's all a gamble, and we win a few and lose a few.

I don't really have room for southern peas, sweet potatoes, winter squash, and melons until the early crops are removed anyway. I have saved room for okra, but haven't started the seeds yet. Last year I planted directly into the garden just as I normally do, and had very little germination. I think I will start mine in cups this year and see if I can transplant. I hate to do it that way, but I don't want a repeat of last year. Since I don't plant many plants, maybe I can make transplants work.

Some of my tomato plants have small holes in the leaves today. They are small plants so I hate to see insect damage starting now.

The little holes might be flea beetle damage. That's what I have been seeing here, and it is pretty typical at this time of year.

Dawn, I always have flea beetles, but it just seemed too early for that, but I guess the bugs are as confused as I am. The only thing I am seeing around the plants are crickets. How weird is that? I will start watching for flea beetles. The plant they had damaged the most was Tess, and I have a replacement if it doesn't look better in a few days.

I am still seeing only May Flies. We had large numbers of them this year - both at my house and my daughter's. I don't know much about them, whether they snack on plants or what. Need to check that out. I haven't found any damage that I could attribute to them anyway. I have had some slug damage and cutworms went to town on my Cuphea, but that's about it.....so far.

What I am concerned about is Squash Borers and Squash Bugs. and I have about made up my mind that I need to cover the few plants I am growing and hand pollinate the blossoms. Sorry, bees! I actually have plenty of bee plants.

I do remember now seeing a Cicada Killer last week - way early for them, and I don't want them digging a bunch of holes in the garden beds....grrrrrr.

Seems we have a good possibility of hail today, which means I have to go out and move some plants/seedlings under coverage of the big pines. I don't know how you gardeners with big gardens do it! I struggle with my few plants in comparison.

Susan

Note: Just read that May Flies or Crane Flies are harmless. Larvae feed on decomposing plant material, thereby helping the process along. So, they are beneficial. Adults do not feed on anything.

Susan, I am almost afraid to say this, but hail hasn't been a problem for me so far. The threat has made me run and cover things, but I have not had a bad damaging hail storm here, and I know it will happen at some point. When we have a threat of hail, I turn lightweight plastic nursery pots over my plants and put something heavy on top, like a brick or rock, but that only works until they are 12-14 inches tall.

I normally have ample rain and some years I struggle to get crops in the ground because I have too much Spring rain. That hasn't been a problem for me this year and I have most things planted now.

Now that sounds like a perfect garden spot, doesn't it. HaHa, I usually need to teach my plants to swim in April and May. I have every bug you can think of, including Japanese Beetles, flea beetles, squash bugs, borers, and plenty of slugs to go along with them. The first few years, I never saw a ladybug, but went out one morning to find my cucumber plants looking funny. They were on a trellis and were taller than my head but were covered with aphids. In a few days the ladybugs showed up, but not in time to save the cucumbers. Since that time, I find a few ladies every winter that are trying to over-winter here. At some point, I hope to have a balance of good bugs and bad ones, but until that time, I will probably use a lot of Agribon. LOL I only have it over my squash bed right now, but it is impossible to grow eggplant without cover. The plant has to get big enough and strong enough to stand a bug attack before I can take the cover off, or when the majority of the flea beetles move on.

I normally have no horn worms, but some years I find a few. I really haven't had anything that has bothered my tomatoes until this year, so I was surprised to see the leaf damage. I suspect the location has something to do with it because it is near a fence and there is some vegetation giving it a little shade in the afternoon because the plant is still small. I didn't notice any leaf damage on the plants that were getting full-time sun, but I need to look at them more closely today.

I don't have a lot of early blooming plants but I am seeing a few butterflies. I have not looked to see what they are, but they are mostly very large black ones. I put out hummingbird feeders the day that Dawn posted that they were at her house, but I haven't seen any here.

Carol, Down here I can see flea beetle damage on radishes and beets as early as February of most years, and they will hit the tomato plants, eggplants and pepper plants as soon as they are transplanted into the ground. This year, I think the flea beetles have hit them in the greenhouse and when I have the plants outside sitting in full sun and full wind. (The greenhouse can protect them too much once the shadecloth is on it.)

Something else is eating big holes in the leaves of everything I planted. It looks like grasshopper damage but I've only seen a small number of hoppers. Whatever is doing the damage, I don't see that insect in the garden during the day when I am out there. Maybe it is the June bugs? Who knows? Seems like it will be a bad bug year for sure.

After saying I hadn't seen any aphids, they showed up on the Piricicaba broccoli around Wednesday or Thursday. By Saturday, the lady bugs had shown up, so I am sure the lady bugs will take care of the aphids.

We have a lot of crickets, and before the weather turned cooler, they were making that cricker/hopper/locust humming racket in the woods at night that we hear most of the summer. I was SO not ready to have all that to listen to. Once the temps dropped, they got quieter again.

Susan, We have about a half-billion June bugs and a billion crane flies. They are just driving me insane. Every time we open a door they fly in, etc., etc. and they are all over the yard, garden, greenhouse, garden shed, garage, etc. I've never seen so many craneflies or June bugs. I'll be glad when they are gone. We're also seeing tons of ticks and mosquitoes.

I haven't seen any cicada killers yet, but lots and lots of spiders are out building webs, and I noticed spittlebugs on the grasses in the pastures this weekend. The fire ants are appearing in epic numbers for this early in the year.

Every day I am seeing more and more butterflies and moths. I've been watching for luna moths because I usually see them in April, but haven't seen any yet.

Carol, Our hummingbird population quadrupled over the weekend, making me think the first ones I saw were the early birds (pun intended) and that the main migration is now occurring.

If you move your hummingbird feeders to a new location every spring, you'll quickly learn which birds are new to your place and which ones were there last year. The returnees from last year inevitably go to the spot where the feeders were last year even if there are no feeders in that spot this year. That's how I can tell if any are "returnees".

I have seen a few green lacewings and a ton of tiny bees and parasitic wasps.

The bird population is huge this year, and I hope they all stay busy eating the bad bugs.

Dawn