confused about planting times

I have been seeing a lot of people around my zone talk about planting their carrots already, but Mel's book says 3 weeks before last frost (mine is end of April), and the seed packet said not until no danger of frost. I have found varying dates on just about everything. Is there an easy way to figure everything out?

Lisa - I get my planting info from Emily at http://www.mysquarefootgarden.net/

She sends an email every week telling me what I can do this week. I also use the spring planner from Little House in the Suburbs: http://littlehouseinthesuburbs.com/2010/03/free-spring-planner.html. It's all trial-and-error for me. I'll keep you posted. My spinach isn't coming up yet, but the peas and onions look fine. I just added broccoli, leaf lettuce, and a few carrots yesterday.

n.

Lisa when I was doing zone research it seemed that there was no state more divided into more zones then your state of Ohio. It was just crazy how many times different zones said "and (some part) of Ohio"

Gardening is like the game of Othello (do people still play that? maybe I should say chess) It seems easy to figure out but developing skill and experience is helpful. You only get those by getting your hands dirty. Your state has multiple micro-climates. Keeping records, learning to listen to the seasonal clues and the prophecy of the weatherman are helpful skills.

Carrots are one of those crops that can often survive an early jump on the gardening season, but not always. Gardeners can usually afford to gamble a few seeds and replant if frost kills the seedlings (we can also take action to cover our small gardens.) Farmers cannot afford to risk an entire field of their cash crop. Nor can they do to an entire field of (carrots or ?) what the SFG can to protect from frost. Most seed packet information comes from the experience of farmers who need solid information to bring a cash crop to market.

We gardeners like to risk a little to get a jump on the season, that is why we are posting that our carrots (or lettuce or beets or chard or whatever cool season crop) is in and growing. One hard freeze can force us to start over. But IF (big if) the season starts early, we can brag about our early start. Then again we could just have chilly weather that our seedling have a hard time recovering from and still have late veggies (does that make sense?)

Deborah ....who just likes to get out and get dirty

lisaphoto wrote:I have been seeing a lot of people around my zone talk about planting their carrots already, but Mel's book says 3 weeks before last frost (mine is end of April), and the seed packet said not until no danger of frost. I have found varying dates on just about everything. Is there an easy way to figure everything out?

Lisaphoto: I hear your pain. I'm also hearing conflicting data about when to plant what. It seems that most seed packets I've seen will just generically say to plant in May in my area. Even if they're cold weather plants, that's what the packets say. I've just started looking on the internet, and trying to find a few sites that agree on planting times. I've also found others on the fourm have lots of experience and can help.

As for myself, I'm going to try planing my carrots 3 weeks before the average last frost day. Hopefully they come up.

lisaphoto your frost date is April 29

The problem is spring is just unpredictable. You never know when you'll wake up to snow on the ground (like here this morning). Or when it will turn too hot for the cool weather plants. It's always a gamble. I like to play it safe on the early side. If your plants freeze you can always replant. If you wait too long it will be too hot before the plant is ready to harvest and that could ruin your crop and you can't replant for a few months.

My husband just shakes his head when we would plant tomatoes twice a year. The first ones having froze because I am too early. I am getting better at timing but I still know that I may loose a few plants every spring.

[quote="Lavender Debs"]Lisa when I was doing zone research it seemed that there was no state more divided into more zones then your state of Ohio. It was just crazy how many times different zones said "and (some part) of Ohio"

I would certainly agree with that! Crazy weather is part and parcel of living in OH. Last Friday I had 3 inches of snow and today it was 85 degrees! I did print out the planting guide from www.littlehouseinthesuburbs.com. That is one of the most user friendly I have seen.

You could do what I did and turn your bedroom into a nice greenhouse. Cabin fever hit early and those shiny little seeds called to me from thier little paper packets.... "plant us, you must plant us".... so mid feb I planted onions and leeks.... after all the package said that they can be put outside weeks before last frost. I will admit that is only 4 weeks to last frost and my onions are still in the bedroom looking kind of sad really. Not my fault... but thats another story. Then went the flowers... those nasturims are about to take over the bed posts... then strawberries and huckleberries.. did you know strawberries can take up to three years to bear fruit? Yeah, I didn't either . So I'll be buying some.. much to the annoyance of my dear patient loving hardworking husband (just in case he happens to read this). I also have broccoli and cauliflower plants... which look exactly the same... falling over the sides. My pepper plants are looking good but considering they only have two leaves I figure I'm safe for another two weeks. My tomatoes are debating coming up and have halted all process after poking thier noses through the soil... so the jungle I call my bedroom will soon be outdoors. When suddenly a freakish frost will hit and I will have to replant everything again ... isn't gardening fun!!!

Selandra where do you sleep? in a hammok lol you gotta post a picture of your jungle room cause if its anything like my imagination is leading e to believe i feel soo sorry for your DH