Paula, All southern peas are true heat-lovers and perform best if planted in really warm soil and after daytime and nighttime air temperatures are staying consistently warm. (i.e. not in the upper 30s with frost on the blades of grass! lol) Technically, you can plant them anytime your soil temperature at planting depth is at about 65 degrees for at least 3 straight days. I like to wait for it to hit 70 though. Seed planted early tends to just sit there and germinate slowly, and seed planted in cool soil tends to give you weak plants that are prone to damping off. Because all southern peas (crowders, blackeyes, pinkeye puprplehulls, lady, cream, etc.) love heat, I use them as a succession planting for cool-season veggies like broccoli or lettuce or onions. I don't think I've ever planted them in April, and only rarely in May because my garden is too full of cool-season stuff then. Spacing depends on how you grow them. If you are growing them in single rows, space the peas 2" apart and the rows 24" apart. If you want to waste less space on pathways, plant a double or triple row, with 1' between rows and maybe 4" to 6" (last year I used 12" and could have halved it) in between the plants. Some southern peas are bush types, some are vining and some are semi-vining. There are many types of pinkeye purplehulls and some of them are semivining and some are bushy. If your seed envelope from the swap says pinkeye purplehull and doesn't say 'knuckle' or 'BVR', then they probably are the semivining ones because they're probably the plain old every day pinkeye purplehull. They grow like half runners...upward 12-18" or so and then sometimes they go off on a wild, horiontal tangent. Sometimes they sort of vine and wrap around one another a little bit. However, if there is a row of tomato cages in the adjacent row or raised bed, they've been known to reach across the pathway, grab hold of a cage, and climb it to the top. It is odd how they do that. This year I might plant them right next to our 7' tall fence just to see if they would climb it. I bet they would. Plant lots of them. Lots and lots and lots. No matter how many you plant, they are so good fresh that you'll wish you had planted more. If you've never grown purplehulls, here's a tip: pick them when the hulls are purple. Not a little purple, not kind of purple, but fully purple. I'm going to link the Pinkeye Purplehull Festival website. On that site you'll find all sorts of cool stuff, including growing information and recipes. If you've ever wanted to make purplehull jelly, the recipe is on this website. Disclaimer: I am not responsible if your DH or anyone else's DH sees this website and decides they want to enter the rotary tiller races. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Purplehull Festival and Rotary Tiller Race

I get out the sweaters and jackets when it gets into the mid 60's. I grew up in the bitter cold Indiana winter weather, moved to the south in 1969, and never want to live up there were it is so cold again. My son is in the Army and stationed at Fairbanks, Alaska. I only go to visit him during the summer months.

Warren, with all the herpers you met this weekend, I dont know if you'll remember me (I was there when you found the yellowbelly basking near that log), but it was nice meeting you. Kieth, I wonder if this weekend would be the best one yet. It has been theorized by some that the main migration hasnt even begun yet. This makes sense to me for two reasons. 1.) I didnt see many snakes at all along the bluffs this past weekend. Most densites that had many snakes in or near them last year were empty this year. 2.) Except for one night last week, these past 3 days have been the first cold snap of the year. The warm days of this weekend would surely get the snake moving. If I had it to do over again, I would have waited until this coming weekend to go. I hope somebody gets down there this weekend because I would love to know how the snakes moved.

Matt, I ran into a guy on Sunday morning who had seen 5 cottonmouths on the road and had seen many many cottonmouths on the bluffs that morning and who had lifted tin the day before and seen very little. Either someone else had a very similar weekend to yours or it was you. Out of curiousity was it you? Sounds like you had a great trip even with the lack of species diversity! The cottonmouths were definitely out Sunday morning. I didn't get to herp the bluffs, but even on the road I saw 9 in one there and back pass.