When to Plant/Transplant...

I was looking at the weather forecast for next week and beyond and I saw sunshine, warm days and few freezes.  It is about all I can do not to get out there and begin planting my garden even though I know that our last freeze date is mid-April and nature has confirmed that the last two years.   But, if you're like me and you MUST PLANT, then here's some ideas to get you started.

Plant Cool Season Plants.  Obviously, cool season plants can be seeded and transplanted now.  It's not too late for broccoli and cauliflower.  You can still start sugar snap peas, kale, spinach and the other greens from seed.  Of course, lettuce can be planted every two weeks for the next several months.

Warm Season Plants.  Now for the tricky stuff.  My mother-in-law plants green beans March 1st.  It takes a couple of weeks for  them to get up and many times, they can survive through a light frost.  If not, you are only out a dollar's worth of seeds.

Then There's Tomatoes.  We have a contest in the family for the first fresh garden tomato each spring.  I have tried every trick in the book with varying success.  Frost protection is the most important.  Five-gallon buckets, tarps, blankets, my coat if I run short of other materials, etc. have been used.  Still, very little can influence a tomato to begin producing early.  Soil and ambient temperature matter as does length of daylight.  Still, you might get your first tomato a week earlier.

My Favorite Gadget is the wall-o-water.  It is a plastic sleeve with cylinders built into it that you fill with water.  It creates good insulation and protects the plant down into the low 20s.  It also acts like a mini-greenhouse which the plants just love.  I highly recommend everyone have a few of them for early transplants.

Cheating is something I not afraid to do and I'm pretty sure that garden cheating is not a sin so I think I'm safe.  I start my tomatoes in the greenhouse and continue to pot them up in progressively larger pots until it really planting season (April 15th or later).  Many times, I already have tomatoes set (but for the contest, I always move the plants outside before I pick the winning tomato).

Heirloom Tomatoes do better in our area when planted early.  I start them early, pot them up in my greenhouse and transplant around April 1st using walls-of-water.  What's nice is I get the heirloom tomatoes in May/June and the hybrids such as Celebrity come later and finish the summer.  If I take care of them, many of the indeterminate heirlooms will produce again in the fall giving me garden tomatoes 8 months out of the year.  If you are trying to grow huge "pounder" tomatoes, you need the extra time as these varieties are usually 80-90 days from transplant to fruit.

My Earliest Tomato Date:  April 21st.  Try to beat that!