The last week of March had been so lovely that I decided to ignore the Farmer’s Almanac and get a head start on spring. I planted tomatoes and put a few squash plants in the ground. Since then, I have had to put bowls over my tomato plants on most nights to protect them from frost and my unprotected squash plants went belly up.
It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature.
Some say April 15 is the time to wait to get warm weather plants in your garden while others think May 1 is much safer.
Early April is way too early, but the 80 degree weather had lulled me into a false sense of spring security.
Some plants – lettuce, radishes, cabbage, peas, broccoli and the like – can handle cold, spring mornings, but the others really prefer warm soil. Peppers, green beans and okra fall into that category.
Maybe I have learned my lesson, but probably not. I get so antsy to plant in the spring, that each spring I try to rewrite the Farmer’s Almanac, and I don’t do a very good job.