Hate to break this to you, Kawaiineko gardener, while there is a technical last and first frost date for Boyne City and the rest of northern Michigan, these are just averages, and ... well, as we all know, there are always outliers. Frost can and does happen every month in your part of Michigan. My uncle lives about an hour south of you near Cadillac, in a place called Tustin, and my sister lives just outside of Manistee. Both of them have had hard freezes in mid to late June and again in early September, and both have reported frost even in July and August, albeit light ones that didn't really hurt anything. It happens. Last year was especially challenging up there, with late, hard freezes in May and hard frosts in June. My uncle lost his garden twice to frosts, first around Memorial Day, and then again about 3 weeks later after he had replanted. Both of them said it was really hard to find transplants at the local greenhouses because everyone got wiped out and had to do it all over again at least one time, some people twice. The year that my sister moved up there for good, 1993, they also had 4 inches of snow on August 28th, although it melted away by 10:00 the next morning. We had it really cold, wet, and windy the same day, with a high around 48 and a low around 42, but no snowflakes, thank goodness. And, it turned around and got up to like 93 the next week. Michigan weather is just plain WIERD. I hope this year will be better. Even down here near Detroit it was COLD, COLD, COLD all summer. July had several nights where the thermometer in my backyard hovered around 38 degrees, just above the point frost could begin to form.

Cheyboygan's frost dates are 5-30 (last) and 9-25 (first). Traverse City's dates are 6-9 and 9-17. You are between them. Of the two, Traverse City's is the shortest season, so unless you have something that makes your area colder than that, those dates should be relatively safe for you. Just keep in mind that the frost dates listed for ANYWHERE are just averages, they aren't engraved in stone. Keep an eye on the weather report, and if a frost is expected, run out and cover your seedlings (except for cole crops, which should be okay). Or, contact your most-local Cooperative Extension Service and ask: Phone: 517-355-2308 Toll Free:1-888-MSUE-4MI (1-888-678-3464) Fax: 517-355-6473 (their email address info was having problems) Sue

Yes, for items that are normally directed seeded (as are radishes, corn, lettuce, squash,etc.) it is # of days from planting the seeds. For those items that are normally grown from transplant (tomato, pepper, etc.) it is the # of day from transplanting. However it is important to remember that DTM (days to maturity) are just a general guide, an "average", as many variables can affect it. Dave

The charts have been updated. You can ask your pediatrician for information about the chart they use (when was it put into use for example, to see if it's recent). Sometimes, maybe most of the time people do stay on their growth lines into adulthood. Sometimes they don't for no good reason at all, or at least for no known reason. Babies who have been small, and who have been small as children can sprout up tall with the changes of puberty. Some can go the other way, as if they just started out fast and caught up to themselves in adolescence and adulthood. Because I've seen both of those happen (plus a lot of people who seemed to maintain their same percentiles) I wouldn't plan on anything too much. The percentiles are mainly to catch problems. Babies can't give detailed verbal information about their symptoms. Tracking their head circumference can be the only way to catch some scary problems early. Tracking their height and weight percentiles can be the only way to catch or even know to look for some metabolic problems or things that can cause a 'failure to thrive' which is a major symptom. The cdc charts were revised in 2000. Prior to that they were dated from 1977 and tended to be more representative of formula-fed babies. These page address can give up to date information. The first address is to the 'background' page which explains the differences and how the 2000 charts are different. The second page has links to those updated clinical charts. They appear to be printable and in pdf format. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/about/major/nhanes/growthcharts/background.htm http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/about/major/nhanes/growthcharts/clinical_charts.htm This page address has a kind of intermediate chart set for breastfed infants. They were prepared in 1994 and is based on (only) 226 breastfed infants who did not have any solids before 4 months of age. These are only age/length and age/weight charts. (The units are weight in kilograms, length in centimeters, and age in months). http://www.promom.org/bf_info/growth.html make sure your pediatrician is using the most up to date charts