pays to be" verryy "cautious this time of the year, MOST years. we'll have a frost, or cold snap about may 10 here.i , myself.
, never consider myself safe till then--but-this years unusual, to say the least. thanks, jay

Worked really hard and got tomatoes and some dahlias planted yesterday and today.Heard about the colder weather on the news tonight.Thanks Jay for sharing what makes the Ozarks so special.I may have to get out some bottomless milk jugs or a row cover.Posy Pet

I heard the local weather this morning and he said basically the same thing.."possible frost in the higher elevations". Don't think we have a threat here but don't have the maters out yet anyway.

Heard the same forecast. decided to wait till next week to plant tomatoes. I'll injoy the cooler weather to plant the new daylillies from homestead farms. already got the hostas out. Could'nt resist Captain Kirk hosta.
Vickie

Yep, wait until the extended forecast will take you past, or up to, May 10. There is a reason for that "frost proof" date. Even then it can stay cool enough to keep some plants just sitting there looking sick. Hard to believe after temps climb to near mid 80's. Wait until mid May to plant okra seed...soak it, test soil temp, cross fingers, etc., and maybe it will come up like it should. ;O) Once it moderates, next week, it should be safe to plant corn and beans.

Yeah.. Jay, I saw on t.v. last night and this morning that we will have cold front is coming tonight and Saturday night. I will have to move my seedling eggplants and tomatoes back indoor this late afternoon. I have been waiting for dogwood blooms finished and then planting eggplants and veggies in the raised beds. I have been plant new daylilies last week. I believe it will not hurt them.

I love Missouri..................*bangs forehead on puter desk

I just hope that it comes quick and goes quick! Does this give extra "life" to Spring blooming plants by chance? Just looking for the bright spot here....LOL

HHH

HotHouseHen, want to know how to give extended life to spring bulbs? Dig them in summer and leave on an unheated, west facing back porch, through the horrible heat of summer, cold of winter, and then plant out in late March. LOL Dumb things bloomed, but don't ask what will happen to them next year.

I just finished covering the strawberries with Remay and moved all hoophouse plants to floor and made a tent over them and turned on the electric heater! Keep you fingers crossed for me. I just couldn't see moving all those flats inside and out for the next few days. I have a Hi-Lo thermometer so it will be interesting to see what happens.

My potatoes will get zapped, but they come out of it eventually. I think the broccoli will be ok, don't know about my seedling onions. Ain't Missouri weather great?????

GD

So tonight's the night. I've got all the tarps I can scrounge and dozens of rocks to weight them down with for 200ft of beans and 300 ft of potatoes. I was two days away from planting out 150 tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants, but held off.

I'm planning to lay newspaper over squash and cucumber sprouts, then sprinkle some wood chip mulch over that. The forecast is for upper twenties in places like my valley tonight. Calm winds and clear air too. Hope for the best for all of us!

yup--tonights the night!! carried in everything i can, have feed sacks and hay ready to cover the rest up soon as sun goes down--everyone knows, i guess not to put plastic over anything that it will touch? hope the peonies dont suffer, loaded with blooms-but so are the apple trees.- nectarines, pears and peaches are thru blooming, so hope they'll be ok. onions, caulif. broccoli and radished should be fine. good luck to everyone!!

My dad was joking about it being Blackberry winter also but of course its not because that doesn't occur in the spring. It's normally a cold snap in late June/early July when the blackberrys bloom.

I tried to cover my daylillys with an old matress pad but the silly dog that lives behing us was pulling it through the fence with his teeth so they are just going to have to fend for themselves. I did however cover my hydrangea, my climbing rose that is covered in buds and my just emerging gladiolias with sheets. I also brought in winter sown zinnia and tomatos that are in recycled containers.

It's 5:34 am and I am patiently awaiting sunrise.......temp is 32*sigh

It looks like a combination of halloween and me trying to grow pots in my yard. Fruit trees are covered with sheets, all plants have some type of bucket, pot, or other large container over them! I am SOOOO glad that I decided to save a large stack of plastic mineral feed tubs for our cattle, because that is the only thing that was big enough to cover some of my stuff.

My fingers are cramping from being crossed so long and I have a headache from thinking about and wishing for warmer days to follow.

My first year of "serious" gardening has proven to be eventful to say the least. My plants have so far survived hail and wind, now waiting to see what today holds.

HHH

Marty wrote:
"It's normally a cold snap in late June/early July when the blackberrys bloom."
Marty, I'm just south of the border here in Arkansas(south of Mountain Home), and my blackberries have buds just ready to bloom. my berries ripen the first two weeks in June.

Temp was 15 degrees at 6am on some of the tarps covering plants in the lowest part of our valley, which is known to be a 'frost pocket, and 22 degrees 4 feet off the ground.

We'll see what happened later this AM.

I have NO FROST! Does anyone recommend how long I should leave the covers on before removing? The sun is up and shining bright, but the computer temp says 31.

HHH

We got frost!!!!! It was 32° when I got up a 5:30 AM so probably dropped some at sunrise. Our west field is white with frost. I got the strawberries covered with Remay, but my poor potatoes will be nipped! The hoophouse is still standing (this is its last year!) so I hope the plants inside the interior tent with the heater are ok. I wonder what will happen to my tiny apricots and cherries.....Don't you just love Ozarks weather.....Just talked to my aunt west of Nixa and she said it was 40° there.

We live about midway between Fort Smith and Little Rock, AR. We did have frost this morning.

Everything got covered last night; only things left uncovered were a small patch of cosmos and a wildflower patch; just ran out of pots, sheets and blankets. :-) They come up quick so can be replaced if they're goners. Anxious to see if the tomatoes, still in pots in the mini greenhouse, are OK. I covered it with a blanket.

Thank goodness we had this warning. Best of luck to all.

~Mary

I ended up having some good luck. Saved 200 ft of snap beans with tarps, but 1/2 of my potatoes got cut to the ground that I couldn't cover. I had about 70 squash and cucumber plants just making their first true leaves. I set a fist-sized rock next to each to avoid crushing them, layed a double sheet of newspaper over it, then put one shovelful of wood chip mulch on top, patted down. They all were found perfectly preserved. I plant to sell these crops, so having to start over would have meant losing 1-2 weeks paycheck.

I'm smack in the city of Springfield, and we had frost on all the rooftops. My things were all spared, though. I had sheets on the hydrangeas and pots over all my newly planted coleus and impatiens.

Don't know how far down it got here in Marshfield, but no major damage that I could see. I moved everything movable to the south side and looks like it all survived just fine. I didn't get around to wrapping my azaleas and they were on the north side, and they looked just fine today.

I'll leave everything back there another day or two.

GingerBlue, I used to live just south of SMS, and it does seem like there is a good microclimate there. Probably what do you call that? Urban heat island effect?

Leesa

I covered the tomatoes with rose cones and some early started dahlias with remay and plastic only the plastic wasn't quite big enough and I had about 3 feet with just the remay.All those beautiful dahlias froze to the ground.The tomatoes are fine and the other dahlias that just had plastic on them are fine.So much for remay(flimsy stuff that it is).We had a good frost!Oh yeah,the dahlias will probably still grow.Posy Pet