in my area, we are way above average on GDD from April 1 -13 we are at 95 and the 11 year average is 59. Temps last year were real cold for this date. Way behind but enjoying the warm weather

Not bad except for a few stupid things I did, all wind related. I underestimate what the wind is going to do and then things get destroyed. I now have a gigantic pile of old row cover that had been old but ok and now is old and not so ok and a big mess. Plus I lost several trays to toppling in the greenhouse and a tray of tomatoes to go in a hoop house to frost in the greenhouse since it has some holes. All my own fault! Other than that, it has been a nice spring. I have seeded everything on the best case scenario schedule. Spinach, radishes and peas are up.

I hate it when that happens Minnie! I had a few screw ups myself so far this year. Lost 4 flat of cauliflower and broccoli because I forgot to water them one night. I just moved them out in the high tunnel to harden off the day before. Same thing happened to several flats of lettuce.

Best $2 spent, I would second that! I use it all the time. Planting crops, poking holes in plastic, planting onions. For $2, you paid for it the first time you used it!

Too much rain. The things I have planted in the ground in the hoop house are struggling with wet feet. In a perfect world I'd have the HH at a higher grade, but it is in the only spot available, so the soil building/ grade raising continues. The tomatoes in containers are doing great, flowering this week. Outside I'm a bit behind due to saturated soil. Ironically, this is giving me time to install my new irrigation system. I had to sleeve a pipe under a sidewalk block to run the main line back, and as I was digging, I turned up a bunch of coal there. Maybe I should mine instead of garden.

not enough rain. had about an inch since April 1. Too warm and too dry for April in WC Il.

We had less than a 1/4 inch all of March. We have had 2.23 inches of precipitation since January 1st and 1 inch of that was last week (combination of 2 different storms) Dry has different meanings to different people.

We were dry going in to March like you are. 2 years ago we had over 6 inches of rain on April 17 with already wet conditions. last year was cold up till Mothers Day. I planned my production based on a normal year. I am not even sure what normal April weather is.

I have absolutely nothing in the ground. As soon as it just gets dry enough to do a little work, it rains yet again. It's cold too--low of 33 for Thursday. I have all perennials and trees taken care of (minus the sprays) but have only picked 2 lbs of asparagus. In addition to the weather, I keep landing in the hospital w/pneumonia, so I am woefully behind.

Take care of yourself first Brook. You don't want an extended hospital stay. When I went in for a kidney stone a few weeks ago I came to realize that they don't have anything to relieve pain, only drugs to make you drowsy or high so you just don't care about the pain.

Our weather is taking a turn for the worse in the next few days. I have yet to harvest any asparagus but I did see a few spears starting when I fertilized a few days ago. Seems that everyone's expecting it. A restaurant just emailed me about purchasing some and I know people are expecting it at our first spring farmers' market a week from today.

i've been harvesting asparagus here for about a week now. i have 300' of it and so far have been able to eat or give away whatever i got. my market doesn't open for a few weeks.

pneumonia sounds pretty serious. take care.

We have been harvesting some asparagus for a few weeks. Many years ago my wife planted 10 crowns so we only have enough for a few meals a week. All my greens in the tunnels are up to a harvestable size and radishes are on the small side of ready. I should have lettuce, but I killed off most of my first planting of lettuce transplants (lack of water and a forgot I moved them out to the high tunnel). I was able to save about 100 or so. I have another 400-500 to transplant now. I went ahead and planted cucumbers, melons and cantaloupe into black plastic. I was going to cover them with low tunnels, but that hasn't got done yet. Peppers need to be transplanted and carrots weeded. Always lots to do!


Still working on stringing up tomatoes and getting the place cleaned up. I have a tour of 25-30 extension agents coming on Thursday.

Hi Jay and everyone,
I think this is my first post on this forum since GardenWeb became Houzz (I am Slimy_Okra).
Spring started off much earlier this year and I think I will be 2 weeks earlier to market compared to last year.

However, we have not received a drop of rain so far this April. With fierce windstorms and overnight freezes into the teens every night (because it's so dry), nothing outside high tunnels is growing. High tunnel veggies are doing very well. I planted my extra chard and kale transplants outside and they got dried/frozen/sandblasted into oblivion.

I think I need more high tunnels!