I'm planning to plant peas this weekend. Aren't they OK to plant earlier? I thought I was late -- I've heard some friends say they've planted them already.

I have 200+ flower seedlings in my basement, but they're staying put until around Mothers' Day, except that I might put the California poppies out sooner, since they're cold hardy. I also have geraniums (the annual kind) and some gaillardias (all yellow selections from my garden) growing from cuttings in little pots, and I keep putting them outside to catch sun during the day, but they come in at night.

Does anyone know if it's OK to put a hardy perennial seedling out in the ground earlier than May? I know they can handle frost when they've been growing outside, but I've assumed they're too tender right now if they've been raised inside from seeds. Am I right?

When I lived in SLC I would get some tomato seed from some catalog marketed as 'frost resistant'. (Sorry, don't recall which catalog.) I would start a half dozen every two weeks and transplant them outside during these warm spells. I am guessing that I may have had a plant or two from a March transplanting survive once every 4-5 years.

I'm usually just a lurker here but I'll chime in. I planted my peas and some cold season greens this last weekend as well as some asparagus.

I also planted a couple of small desert shrubs in the dryland garden and plan on transplanting some self sown seedlings in the next couple of days. I've also direct sown some paintbrush seed in hopes of getting some established this year.

My peas, chard, lettuce, and garlic (from last fall) are up. I am planting a few tomatoes tomorrow in wall-of-water. Tulips are in bloom and the pear tree is ready to flower.

I planted 3 flats of pansies, also some broccoli and some lettuce this past week.
All were doing well, until this morning.... the brocoli and the lettuce... One of my rabbits decided he just can not wait to let them mature before he ate it right to the ground!
Bad boy bunny or bad gardener... not sure.
My female rabbit will sit near the plants, rub her chin on them, but will not eat even a nibble unless I hand it to her. I can trust her around produce.
The boy though is a sneaky peter rabbit!

I planted peas and radishes a week and a half ago. The peas haven't come up yet, and know with the snow I'm thinking I might have to re-plant. The radishes are up though and I hope they do OK in the snow.

Tyff

Tyff, I think your peas will be fine. They're an early veggie because they can handle a little frost, and if they're still underground, it won't even faze them, I think!

My grandpa was one hell of a gardener. The rules he always told us and lived by himself, was nevre stick anything in the ground before mothers day.
he had beautiful gardens, flowers and veggies. followed that rule for about about all of his 86 years, with the infancy being the exception.
Im glad to say I didnt jump in early with the snow we had last ngiht, I have about 3 inches on my lawn now melting away and my mom has about 7 inches 15 miles from me.
Im sticking with the advice my grandpa gave me.

*sigh*
We have eight inches of new snow on the ground.
I will admit though...during the nice spell last week I raked my yard. It was still pretty wet but the frost has gone out of the ground....

Lori

I've put numerous things in the ground, already. Including trachycarpus and needle palms, agave, cacti and yuccas. The cold we had this week is nothing - two days of low temps and then right back into the 50's and 60's - it's the January and February lows that are killers, where the daytime high recovers up to say 27f.

For the tender plants, Put a wall-o-water over them. They'll have a two month headstart. Even tender banana plants will thrive inside.

Best, and happy gardening, Alan

I planted sweet peas last week. I have never been able to get them to grow because I always plant to late. I hope its not to early since it snowed afterwards!

Other than planting seeds in containers, I haven't gotten anything done yet. I brought in my tender seedlings before the snow (wintersown many things) but left containers that hadn't germinated yet. I would have planted my cold-hardy veggies, but I don't have my vegetable beds built yet. I had planned to have one or two finished, but the weather hasn't exactly been condusive. lol We got something more than 6 inches of snow, but with these warm temps I expect I'll be working in the yard by Monday or Tuesday at the latest. Maybe my peas will be in the ground in a week's time.
Heather

Just an update....the peas have begun to germinate and poke above the ground. The three or so inches of heavy wet snow we recieved have melted and laid the ground for another round of seedling germination. I hope to see the beets, spinach and mesclin mix begin to show bits of green in the next while. I will wait a bit longer to plant out brocolli that I will have to buy this year as I forgot to sow seeds indoors. Is now a good time to plant out potatoes? I've never tried them and would like to this year.

I've also decided I want an area with a swath of orange california poppies interspearsed with blue flax. So I'm going to go buy some seed for the poppies and direct sow them today.

I'm still a bit of a sceptic about how cold tender plants (ie. tomatoes) would do planted out this early, even with protection. My grandfather plants his tomatoes out in early April with wall o waters next to his south facing foundation. He has good luck and very early tomatoes. One of these years when I have time and have started seed early enough I may test planting tomatoes earlier than May 15-17th which is when I plant mine out now.