Last week I planted sweet corn and bush beans. This week I will be planting cucumbers and, then, either late this week or early next week, okra, summer squash, southern peas and lima beans if soil temperatures are warm enough. (They're probably warm enough today, but I'm waiting to see if they stay that warm after the cold fronts roll through.) Later in April, depending on soil temperatures: cantaloupe, watermelons, and winter squash. Sometimes the soil temperatures aren't warm enough for those last three until May, but I think this month we'll be warm enough for them, and likely sooner rather than later.

It is too hot too early and the cool season plants are showing heat stress because of it. For some reason they aren't loving the high temperatures in the upper 80s these last few days. I guess the upper 80s don't feel very cool. With the heat pushing the cool-season leafy plants almost to the point of no return, 'm just rolling on with warm season plantings as fast as I can so I can keep up with the changing seasons. I'm trying so hard to do things on time (planting by soil temperatures, not by calendar) and not get behind.

It is hard to explain how mixed up all the plants are, but I have cool-season volunteer plants like fennel, dill, larkspur and poppies sprouting at the same time that warm-season volunteers like southern peas, squash, tomatoes, zinnias, four o'clocks, and basil are sprouting. I keep having to dig up volunteers and move them somewhere else so I can plant my planned crops in their designated spots. I was going to dig and move fennel this afternoon but then the front porch thermometer in the shade hit 88 degrees and the fennel and I both shrugged and said "it's too hot" and I came indoors. Maybe tomorrow.

thank you both.i don't have room for corn but cukes,summer squash and okra hit a chord :)

Everybody seems busy, here is what I have been up to. Planted several plants yesterday, so to day the wind beat them up. I swear this wind is getting on my last nerve. I think Friday is suppose to be calm I can finish what I have left to plant. NW is on fire again, I hate to,see all that ranch land, homes and livestock in danger, again!!!!!! We need rain hope we get some next week.

Dug up some Iris and daylillies that were coming up next door in the pasture (tornado left overs). We will see what colors we get?

loving the warm weather, even though it is way to early for the 80's.

Bought a couple of cherry tomato pants for the little man. Have some pumkin and sunflower seeds to plant with him also, but I think I will wait till late April for that. Going to start my morning glories and moonflower seed tomorrow.

next week I will start bringing out the houseplant and cactus.

i can hardly move at night but I love it!!!!, so much to do and so little time!!!! My list just keeps getting longer and longer. I think the warm weather has me in panick mode. Haha

Home sick with a migraine so I did easy stuff. Potted up a bunch of winter sown tomatoes and basil, planted some bush beans and gourd seeds. And over the weekend planted peppers and something else (my note taking has gotten slack lately).

leava, You're welcome.

stockergal, I have put off planting while waiting for the wind to calm down. The wind shift line that crossed through the state overnight is just beginning to arrive at the northern edges of our county. I'm hoping that after it blows through (all the flats of plants are in the greenhouse) then maybe I can proceed with planting. Our wind forecast is lower today that what it had been, so I think I'll be able to plant today instead of waiting until tomorrow.

I can hardly move at night too, and it makes me feel so much older. I just get up the next morning and push through the muscle stiffness and soreness. My body can recover after I'm through planting or after the gardening season ends, whichever comes last. Ha!

The early heat bothers me. While a few warm days and early spring seem promising, once it is much too hot for too many days, it starts feeling like it might be an omen that a bad summer is on the way. My lettuce, kale, snap peas and spinach were miserable yesterday in the upper 80s, full sun and wind. I hope the next few days of cooler weather make them happy again. I'd hate to see those cool-season crops finish up too early because of the early onset of heat. Some years it is so hard to get a cool season harvest because the hot season arrives too soon, and this might be one of those years. The cool-season flowers are much happier either. I'm still sowing succession crops of lettuce so that when the early lettuce (which is nearly full-sized and which I've been harvesting using the cut-and-come-again method) burns up in the heat, we'll have younger lettuce coming along. I've been contemplating growing lettuce and spinach indoors on the light shelf in the spare room for the rest of the spring/summer, because the early heat makes it seem like it won't last very deeply into the warm season this year.

After the tomatoes are planted, I then can focus on planting the flats of warm-season annual flowers I've been growing. They've been sitting there patiently waiting for their turn to go into the ground, and this week they finally will get planted. I hope. You know how that goes. You go outside with a plan in your head and sometimes things happen that divert your attention elsewhere.

The early warmth kind of has me in panic mode too. I'm actually not only on track but have many things planted earlier than usual, yet I feel the warmth breathing down my neck, urging me to hurry up, hurry up, hurry up. It is crazy to feel behind when I'm really ahead and it makes no sense. On the other hand, walking up onto the shaded, east-facing porch and seeing 88 degrees on the thermometer in the middle of the afternoon in early April makes no sense either. I like May/June weather, but would rather see it in May and June where it belongs.

Jen, I hope you're feeling better. Miagraine headaches are no fun. I had them often until after going through menopause, and then they vanished. I am overjoyed about that. I don't even bother keeping notes any more. Even if I remember to jot stuff down, I misplace the notebook and then find it a couple of years later and say "oh, there it is". So, what's the point of keeping notes to begin with? I save myself the time and effort by just not bothering.

I can't wait for the sun to come up and the wind shift line to roll through so I can go outside and get those tomato plants in the ground today. Or, at least I'll start. I might not finish in one day since I plant so many, and I plant slowly and deliberately, staking, labeling, caging and mulching as I go. Otherwise, if I leave some of those tasks to complete on another day, I have a hard time getting back to them and completing them. I do better when I make myself do the whole thing all at once. There's nothing worse than planting without caging and then not getting around to it and suddenly realizing one day that the plants are too big now to get cages around them/over them. I also know that whenever I have a plan to plant all day, it seems like our fire pagers start going off and ruining my day, so I won't say that I am going to plant all day......but it is what I'm hoping for.

Dawn