Kaycei's Journal - Don't eat dehydrated garlic!

[kaycei]

I left the cold of Wisconsin almost 2 weeks ago, with the temperature barely above zero, for the fifty-plus degree weather of southern Illinois for a week to visit my parents. They have daffodils down there.

By the time I got home Sunday, the snow was gone and the weather was above freezing. I want to get my plants in the ground, but I know it isn't safe yet. We had snow flurries the past couple days. But the ground is softer and my large pots are no longer frozen to the ground.

We bought a tiller and a lawn mower this week too.

Spring is coming!

Of course, I am wondering how much bigger my tomato starts are going to get before I get them in the ground in 6 to 8 more weeks.

 

[clstratton]

We haven't even started our tomatoes yet. But we did start broccoli and jalapeno peppers on Monday. I found a nifty chart in my Master Gardener stuff that had suggested seed starting dates for our area. It says to wait until April 10th or something to do tomatoes. So we will wait. Our newspaper pots seem to be doing well. Took forever to get the water all the way to the top of the pots though. Hopefully they do okay, and that they don't get too wet, since they are sitting in a little bit of water now.

 

[kaycei]

My newspaper pots are getting a bit moldy. I aired the indoor greenhouse out my first day back. Tomatoes are getting bigger, and starting to get a bit leggy. I want to repot them, so the stems can be buried further and root better, but they are already in my 3 inch newspaper pots, and I really don't have room to put them in anything bigger. Its too cold to move them in the basement, so they need to stay in the greenhouse.
I could probably more some other plants to the basement, but half my plants are in Jiffy peat pellet starts and the other half are in the dirt starts. If I move the plants from the dirt starts, I have to repot them, and then I start running out of room again. And, when I planted everything, I didn't use foresight to keep all the cold plants in one tray and all the warm plants in another tray.

 

[freemotion]

AAAAARRRRRGH!!! I feel your pain! It's the kind of thing I would do, so thanks, I will be starting my seeds this week and hadn't thought of grouping them.

 

[dacjohns]

When do kids start listening to their parents?

 

[punkin]

When do kids start listening to their parents?

That's where we got the "I told you so" phrase.

 

[kaycei]

I was excited. Plus we thought we'd put up the greenhouse this year, so that would have let me put my plants out sooner.
But, there's more important things to do around the house, like fix the water seepage in the basement, and the lack of insulation in the basement.
I have started some of my plants when I was supposed to, like my brussels sprouts and broccoli.

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

When do kids start listening to their parents?

When they see their own kids doing the same things they did!

 

[clstratton]

I made the mistake last year of starting too early. Glad I've been my normal self and procrastinated big time this year. Good thing I have Carl to keep me on track, so we didn't procrastinate too long. You could do some row covers and start transplanting the cold stuff. If you want another project that is. As for the tomatoes...buy some Wall O' Waters or something, and then you'll be able to put them out a little bit earlier than you otherwise would be able to. When is your average last frost?

 

[kaycei]

When is your average last frost?

Average last frost looks to be around 5/21. I found some planting lists for Zone 4 and will probably go off that for putting things in the ground.

I've been thinking about getting the ground covers, but I'll just keep an eye on the tomatoes and see what happens. Plus, if the basement warms up as the weather does, I can move them down there and have more space.