As someone else who gardens in a cold climate with a short growing season, I tend to agree with Flora - you started your beans too early. Your bean transplants are nearly ready to go into the ground, with warm weather still weeks away. While I can direct seed most common beans here with a good chance of success, I use a lot of bean transplants. For heat-loving beans such as limas & yardlongs, transplants are virtually necessary in my area to ensure a good harvest. It is also good practice to use bean transplants if you have limited seed or temperamental Spring weather, since it overcomes cool-soil germination issues & means that nearly every seed which germinates will survive. And if growing a bean for seed, it increases the chance of getting dry seed before wet Fall weather arrives. I would never use flats filled with soil though, for the reasons given in the OP. My preferred method is to use peat strips, with sterile soil less mix. Planted pot & all, this avoids root damage during transplanting. 32's work well for larger beans, and 50's for smaller beans & Vignas (cowpeas, yardlongs, adzuki). To further lessen transplant shock, place a little sand in the bottom of the tray & nestle the peat strips into it after planting. Provided the sand is kept moist (but not overly wet) those long bean roots will not be air pruned, but will grow into the sand. At the time of transplanting, those roots can be gently pulled from the sand. Working quickly to keep the roots from drying out, gently coil them into the hole beneath the plant, then water immediately. I have had virtually no transplant shock using this method. As a rule, I consider beans to be ready for transplanting when they have their first true leaf. This generally takes about 2 weeks, so I start bean transplants that much earlier than the recommended date for direct seeding. If transplanting is delayed by bad weather, I've held bean transplants up to a month before planting. Much beyond that, though, and they will become stunted. For squash & cucumbers, I use the same procedures as above, except I omit the sand. It is worth noting that it takes an intense light source to grow beans, cukes, and squash indoors, or they quickly become leggy... shop lights are not up to the task (spoken from experience). If at all possible, those transplants should be placed in direct sunlight as soon as possible after germination.

I use both the gardening by moon phase site and FA together. So, take tomatoes.. According to the FA, planting dates in my zone are favorable from April 7th - 30th. Makes sense.. Also in FA, the moon is favorable from April 7th to 9th and then from the 24th to 30th. Boogie over to the Gardening by Moon Phase site and for toms, it is suggested that they be planted while the moon is in Scorpio, Cancer, Pisces and Libra. Back to FA.. April 4th - Cancer April 11th and 12th - Libra April 13th - Scorpio April 22nd through 24th - Pisces Ok, so it looks like these don't jive HOWEVER they say to set seed during the waxing of the moon a couple days before the full moon which would be the 7th - 9th (9th being the full moon). New moon is the 24th in case you were curious. It may sound like hogwash to a lot of people but I set seed some days before the full moon and got nothing. Figured I screwed up. A couple days before the Full Moon.. BAM. Holy Seedlings. Coincidence? Perhaps.. So bottom line, I am shooting for the weekend of the 11th of April to transplant outside. This is a school of thought that I have started getting into and I'm transplanting anyway so I figure, pay attention to what the moon is doing and take notes. Did that make sense? I got side tracked with visitors .. Try it and :) Happy Spring! Erin

Campbell's finally got their 22.5 million tomatoes donated. Now the graphic grows to a large vine -- no, wait -- it's growing in a tomato soup can, so it's a 10" dwarf with a spindly 1/8" stem, tiny leaves, and currant-sized fruit. No dicots -- the first leaves grow at the top of the plant, and the stem elongates at soil level, with new leaves added at the bottom of the plant.... All that we've seen before. But now blossoms appear magically on the leaf stems -- yes, you read correctly: no fruit trusses, blossoms growing on the leaf stems. Giant blossoms, much larger than the 5/8" fruit, which lack stems and seem to hover in mid-air.... Well, why are we surprised? We're tomato lovers. We know the plant is magical.... Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.helpgrowyoursoup.com/

Activity slowed down from last week (rainy weather) but yesterday and today saw the first females. This past week though we think we had a first. For years every spring/summer we Orioles in the tree tops. Been trying for years to attract down too the feeders. Finally saw the first one coming regularly this week too a feeder! (Bad zoomed cellphone photo...lol)