Well I planted them anyway (as well as my zuchinni, and yellow squash) because I seeded them way too early and didn't want to wait any longer for increased risk of transplant shock. Besides I have a backup batch just in case. I guess it was better to seed more than I knew that I would need after all. My soil temp today in my raised beds was 66F and the air temp was approaching 80F with a moderate amount of humidity. Not bad considering the long-overdue rain in the Northeast most likely cooled the soil a few degrees. Will report back on Tuesday with my results, fingers crossed. BTW, if the forecast calls for cooler temps than low 40s what if the quickest way to cover them with something commonly found in a house? I posted two videos in another thread today ("will my veggies drown") so you can get an idea of my garden setup and the size of my seedlings (not even sure I can still call them that).

Some of my pepper plants manage to survive frost (we only have a handful of frosted nights though). I guess this depends on the location as well as the variety. Sweet pepper plants are not as hardy as hot peppers, in my garden anyways. Most fruits does not taste as good after frosts with the exception of one variety of hot pepper. They taste like... frozen peppers. I usually try to consume or give away as much fresh peppers as I can before frost. Like cmonkey mentioned, peppers can be eaten green. Love young peppers in dips. If you have hot peppers, you can dry them and use year round (maybe check out the harvest forum?).

The new plants I would pot and put in the shade and not unpot until fall. I would pull up those I planted and pot them, too. It will not kill them but the extended heat and drought could cause rot and death. Some other things I have done over the years during prolonged heat and dry spells. I have used sawhorses and laid plywood on top of them, anchored by bricks or cinder blocks in case the wind blows too hard. Some people have used bedsheets or old quilts, anything to make shade. I have also wrapped plants with newspapers and clipped the paper to the fans using clothes pins. This has stopped the bleaching of the fan. I have also gotten wooden shingles and made teepees over the irises to keep the hot sun off of them. Some of these suggestions if followed through will tacky up your garden, but it's only for a short time and you don't want to lose your investment. Who cares what the neighbors think or care? Save your plants! No overhead watering. Water will collect at the base of the fan and steam the iris in the heat. Walter Moores

Almost everything survived here. I don't think anything perennial died in either year, except for the strawberries. I lost some annuals both years, but that was after I stopped watering them in July or August. The only thing we lost that really mattered was the strawberries and I didn't expect them to survive once our highs were over 110 degrees since they were in full sun. They were in a large container and I thought I was watering it enough in the summer of 2011, but we were out at wildfires day and night in much of June through August and it may be I missed watering them a few times and don't even remember it. Last year, we planted two small bare-root peach trees we bought at CostCo and I was worried they wouldn't survive, but they did. The "Jane" magnolia started looking really bad in August or September last year and I thought it had died, though there was a chance it only was going dormant. (I thought I had watered it plenty!) Then, it formed one bloom this spring that opened up on the morning before we went down to 19 degrees last week. Of course, that flower froze and I thought maybe that was the last dying gasp from that plant because normally it is covered in flowers by now. This week I noticed new flower buds forming and leaf buds too, so surprisingly it appears it has survived. However, in our approximate 10 acres of woodland, lots of huge and well-established trees of all types have died. Of course, they were not irrigated. I actually am pretty impressed by all the plants that did survive the drought. Daffodils that I never, ever, ever irrigate are 15 years old now and they survived the droughts of 2011 and 2012 and bloomed just fine this year. I had a rosemary plant in a pot and I forgot about it when I stopped watering the garden. It was in a shady spot in the SW corner of the garden where you'd have to walk back up into that corner to see it, and I never stepped foot in there for weeks after I stopped watering. It survived for 2 or 3 months in a pot with no irrigation and with precious little rainfall. I was completely amazed by that. It is in the greenhouse now where it has spend a very relaxing winter. That's probably my best drought survival story. Well, there was the Piricicaba broccoli that survived in 2011 in that same semi-shady SW corner of the big garden with no irrigation after July. When I "found" the plants in the fall, they were alive and starting to produce heads. That was a surprise too. Most of the smaller understory plants in the woods did brown out and go dormant both summers, but they didn't die.