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Week by Week Guide for Starting the Spring Garden
On this last day of January 2019 with a good portion of the country caught up in a polar vortex, I find myself longing for warmer weather and green vistas. Fortunately we have a mild weekend in the forecast. Mild weekends in February always get my garden gears going, but I have to remember that no matter what the groundhog says, there is more winter ahead. While it’s still too early to start any new crops outside, it’s not too early to put a few seed trays in sunny windows. Typically I start planting seeds indoors right around Super Bowl Sunday. In Raleigh, NC, our average last Spring frost date…
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Before the Last Frost (0 Weeks)
If you live in Raleigh, don’t plant today or tomorrow. I’m holding my breath for spring (and for the pollen to be washed away). If you have already planted, consider cloches or floating row covers to protect tender plants. I’ve used buckets, tarp tents, plastic cups, and cloches all to varying degrees of success. Yesterday I noticed that most of my pumpkin and watermelon seedlings were done for, so I will be direct seeding after this weather passes. My tomatoes and peppers are sunning on the kitchen table and will be moved back out to the deck for the day to keep working on hardening them off and making sure…
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Before the Last Frost (1 Week!)
I’ve looked at the 10 day forecast and don’t see any freezing weather ahead. Here in Raleigh (Zone 7b), we are finally down to one week until our average last frost date. Today is actually Good Friday, which sometimes falls after this date. It looks like we still may have a an evening or two in the 30s, so I will wait to plant the peppers since exposure to cooler temps can impact fruiting later in the season. I moved out herbs, pumpkins and watermelons. The herbs are all hardy, and pumpkins and watermelons are so easy to seed outside, I’ll just drop in more seed if these starts don’t…
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Before the Last Frost (2 Weeks)
We have only two more weeks before the statistical last frost date! In previous years I had put out tomato plants by this time and was desperately attempting to protect them from frost by either covering them or digging them back up. I didn’t make that mistake this year, thankfully as we are in a spell of night temps below freezing. There was ice in the bird fountain this morning. Instead of putting out spring and summer veggies, I’ve tried to fill open spots in the seed trays where veggies didn’t germinate as well as re-potting the tomatillos and watermelon sprouts. Garden Edits I’ve also been busy moving trees and…
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Before the Last Frost (3 weeks)
We finally got our spring weather back after a cold week, and I went overboard digging in the yard. I’ve found that in our fenced vegetable garden, there just isn’t enough room to grow melons. I’ve noticed that the neighbors who successfully have grown them have long vines that trail out. For several summers, my vines have not grown long and the leaves have been dwarfed. I’m hoping this new sunny patch will do well. I went ahead and planted a row of purple and red potatoes from Trader Joe’s that were growing soft and starting to grow leaves on my counter top, and I will come back with pumpkin…
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Before the Last Frost (4 weeks)
There are 4 weeks left before our statistical last frost here in Raleigh, NC, which is zone 7b. I have trays of tomato and pepper sprouts that could use some liquid fertilizer. In another week they may need larger pots. Looking ahead at the weather forecast, there are still plenty of chilly nights so I’m not risking transplanting sprouts outside yet. It feels like winter has returned in Raleigh, so I was lucky to have that warm week to get some dormant perennials in the ground when I did. After last week’s perennial planting, my arms are covered in poison ivy. Originally I thought I had been scratched up by…
