I'm in 5b/6a, so a little warmer. All my peppers ripened. What really made the difference was buying a cheap cold frame. It increased temps outside by 20 degrees. So when it was 40 degrees I could put pepper plants out as it was 60 degrees in the cold frame. I brought them in at night. I did this for about 3 weeks, what a pain, but what a harvest!! By the end of three weeks they barely fit, and it was still kinda cool outside. i think they were slightly stunted when taken out, but were pretty much hardened off. I used a fan inside, so they were ready for wind etc. My tomatoes were in there too. My first tomato was around June 28th. Still have some as a matter of fact. When it got to be 60 outside I had to vent the frame as it was 80-90 degrees inside. The peppers grew like mad in it! When planted out they were over 12 inches tall, all had flowers. here's a photo of them in the cold frame

Hi there, A winter gardening book is "The Winter Harvest Handbook" by Eliot Coleman. He is in Maine, and has lots of good ideas for season extending. He does grow crops all year, many in unheated moveable greenhouses, and under row covers and so on. He has all kinds of good ideas. If I really wanted to garden somewhere, I would go to soil conservation service maps and find the best soil in the area I was looking at, that I could afford, to begin with. This might save time and anguish later. I did this when I bought my house, and I am glad I did. I really think that it mostly takes wanting to have a garden, and then the rest of the details sort of fill themselves in. Every area has it's good and bad features. I would just pick where I wanted to live, and then make a garden on the best soil I could find. Think loam.... Also, check for covenants before you buy or rent a new place. Some places around here won't even let you have tomatoes in pots on your patio. Good luck!

Sunday was fabulous, on the cool side, but so clear and sunny, it's rare to see the sky so crystal clear in May, this is the sort of weather you normally get late in the Fall in Central California and mid-Winter in Southern California. I am actually glad the weather has been cool as I discovered several fireblight strikes in my Asian pear tree. The cold weather stopped the infection from spreading. Plus the lack of heat and late rains has meant that I've not had to turn on the irrigation system yet. There is a thick layer of wood chip mulch in the orchard, and underneath it the soil is soaking wet.

Carol, I bet it did grow well there in spite of the short growing season. I'm assuming they started their transplants indoors to get them large enough to plant out once the temps were in the appropriate range. And it is the exposure to sunlight that made the celery so green. Most commercially-raised celery is that whitish-green because the celery is blanched. I think the blanching is intended to keep the stalks tender as too much sunlight/heat gives you tougher stalks. Seedmama, Here's how Jeff Cox grows celery: GROWING CELERY: Several years ago I purchased a book by Jeff Cox called "Jeff Cox's 100 Greatest Garden Ideas". It is a terific book and I love it. One of his ideas is a way to grow celery even if you can't give it the marshy conditions it prefers. If I ever tried to grow celery here, I'd try Jeff's method. To start his seeds, he sows them 10 weeks before his last frost. He soaks his seed overnight before sowing them in peat pots and setting them on top of the fridge so the heat can help them sprout, which can take 2 weeks or longer. He digs a below-grade trench about a foot wide and 14" deep although he says you can do the same process with a raised bed if you'd rather build up than dig down. If growing in a raised bed, he recommends a minimum height of 6" and cautions anything raised any higher may get too hot for the celery. You still need 14" of depth, but with the 6" tall raised bed, you only have to dig down 8" instead of the whole 14". You remove the soil to a depth of 14" for the trench or 8" beneath the eventual raised bed and remove all the soil. Add compost and other organic amendments to create an enriched growing mix that will hold lots of moisure and refill the trench or, for the raised bed, refill the dug-out area and build the 6" tall raised bed above it. By the way, he recommends six celery plants per person. If you want, you can add tin cans with the tops and bottoms both removed or pieces of PVC pipe inserted vertically into the ground about to the same depth that your celery is planted, or a couple of inches deeper than that. To water, fill each can or piece of pipe with water and let the pipe carry the water down to the root level of the celery plants. In the illustration in the book, he has one vertical can or PVC pipe in between two celery plants in a sort of checkerboard pattern. (Texas tomato plant growers use this method to water tomatoes, only they use large flower pots or huge, instituitional-sized cans, to water the tomato plants...it is called the Texas Pot method.) After you harden off your seedlings, transplant them into the enriched soil which you've pre-moistened so it it nice and damp. He waters his transplants with an organic fertilizer consisting of 1 T. fish emulsion and 2 T. seaweed extract per one gallon of water. Mulch the top of the bed with leaves. As the plans grow keep adding leaves so the stalks are blanched. Blanching celery stalks (but not their topgrowth leaves which need sunlight to grow) helps improve their flavor and keep them tender. This is especially important in a hotter climate where heat stress can cause the stalks to get woody and tough. He recommends feeding monthly and watering as often as needed to keep the bed moist and damp but not soaking wet. His recommendation is that you harvest the plants roots and all before frost arrives in the fall. Store them in a box in a cool basement or similar area. If the storage area stays cool enough, celery will store for months. You also could store them in an extra fridge in your garage or laundry room or whatever. If you ever run across Jeff's book, it is a wonderful book with projects grouped by the season. Dawn