Digit! I canÂt believe it! I just linked that same page over on your soil temps thread! Kristie, ditto what Digit said! If it stays cold, you may have a problem with the cukes and the pumpkins, but donÂt give up on them until itÂs been warm for a couple weeks in a row. If the ones you already planted donÂt make it, thereÂs LOTS of time to replant them. I donÂt plant pumpkins since I donÂt have room for them, but I wonÂt be planting my cukes out, sown directly in the ground, for a few weeks yet. They grow FAST once they get going! And, as Digit says, with the carrots, be sure you keep the surface moist till you see them coming up. ThatÂs important, because if the seeds germinate and then completely dry out before theyÂre visible, theyÂll die. (If they dry a little before they germinate, they shouldnÂt be affected.) With our hot sun, and with the WIND weÂve been having latelyÂand tend to have much of the time, you need to check them at least once a day, and maybe even more often, and moisten the surface anytime itÂs looking dry. ItÂs not a matter of keeping everything WET, just keeping the surface moist at least down to the depth of the seeds. An easy way to do it is to set a little sprinkler where the seeds have been planted and then to just check a couple times a day and turn the sprinkler on for several minutes when the surface is drying. Carrots, in my experience too, can take a while to show themselves, so donÂt give up on them! Your peas and lettuce and spinach will definitely be fine! Over on DigitÂs "This will never work!" thread I just posted how quickly mine came upÂeven in the COLD! Enjoy your veggie garden! It is SO much fun to watch when things start coming up, and even more fun when you start getting things to eat! Skybird

I have successfully rooted just one rose this summer, Polarstern, a HT. Its parent generally does not need winter cover here in Iowa to overwinter. It is about 4 inches tall w/ lots of new leaves and a couple tiny branches sprouting. I have had it in full sun now for about three days w/ no ill effects. It is in a 4" pot. Can I plant this in the ground and mulch well, and will it make it through winter? Should I plant it now, or wait until we get a freeze. If I left it in an unheated dark shed instead, how would that work? I am guessing I'd need to water all the time and put the plastic liter pop bottle over it, but w/ roots above ground that would seem a harsh environment? Thoughts please!

I too am itching to get at it. I started my spanish onions on Feb 5 and my tomatoes on Feb 22. Onions all doing fine but the tomatoes have a range of success. I planted seeds of 8 different kinds (none CS or PB though) and some have excellent sprout success and some only moderate. The minimum number of sprouts is 8 with the highest 16, with 16 of each being planted originally. I grow a lot of kinds, searching for the taste of a Bonnie Best, but with a larger fruit, more fruit to a plant, and much more disease resistant. No luck so far after more than 15 years of searching. I have to grow hybrids in order to get any tomatoes to last into August and September, but they just don't have the taste that the wife and I prefer. I have grow many more than 100 varieties in my search. I find I get earlier tomatoes by transplanting from the original flats into 2 liter pop bottles with the tops cut off at the rounding. I strip off the leaves along the stem and only leave the top leaves, filling the container with the soiless mix and roots grow throughout the container producing a large root ball that makes the plant more forgiving in stressful times. When I plant, I remove the tomato from the bottle, dig a trench, and plant the tomato horizontally, stripping off the leaves on the stem above the root ball and leaving the end leaves sticking out of the soil. New roots grow along this stem also, and the sun makes the leaves and tip grow upwards for a normal looking plant. Planting horizontal leaves the root ball close to the warm surface. I buy a lot of seeds from Stokes Seeds, and last fall, I queried Stokes how Walla Walla seed in my first year growing, was a squat onion, but in the next two years produced a normal globe shaped onion. I never received a reply and eventually called them and was told the person responsible for that topic was away and would call me the following Monday. Never heard from them again. Its frustrating to spend so much over the years, and get that treatment. I still have to buy from them because I can't find other suppliers of seed that I want to grow for many vegetables.

Carol its easily -50 windchill just a few miles from you! LOL I am speaking in my direction! Thermometer is reading -14 right now and the wind is blowing harder than it has all day! DH's wind gauge is showing steady 45mph most of the time. How much snow do you have over there? I thought the very eastern part of the state wasn't supposed to get this, but I saw Fargo on the national news tonight, looked worse there. Bismarck area had 11.5 inches at 6 am this morning. I know we haven't got near that (thank goodness) only maybe 6??? Thats a guess, its too blame hard to tell! We have a drift waist high in front of the house. Shoveled 3 times for the dogs so far, betcha its gotta be done once more before bed.