Mon, 2009/02/16 - 11:57am
Is anyone sure what this phrase means?
Plant as early in the spring as the soil can be worked.
I'm not sure whether to interpret that as, "When the soil's no longer frozen, so you can turn it," or, "When the soil's thawed and no longer sodden," or... what. There's nearly a month's difference between thawed and no longer sodden. And thawed happens long before the last snowfall. (And semi-thawed happens multiple times.)
Seeds like spinach and sweet pea flowers give these instructions. I've read of people in the Northeast who plant spinach seeds during February thaw, and let them decide when it's time to come up. If the spinach seeds and seedlings don't mind repeated freeze&thaw, that would be the fastest way to have outdoor-started spinach, but you could do faster with indoor-started spinach. And for most plants, repeated freeze&thaw is more traumatic than staying frozen. Etc. It's just not clear to me whether I should put these out in early March, or early April.
Mon, 2009/02/16 - 2:18pm
#2
Thanks, Beth. I think I saw that section on GardenWeb that said to plant them now. Alas, February thaw lasted only a few days - containers never got thawed all the way down, then froze again. 
That's an added wrinkle - I'm growing food in containers, which freeze and thaw much more often.
My spring spinach last year was only hampered by the containers arriving in May - the spinach did great, for the short time it had. But the latest the spinach should have been outside was mid-April. Autumn didn't go well at all, for any of my greens.
Haven't found any CT-specific advice yet. 
Based on the general inconsistency of CT weather... March 1 - April 30 is probably the right guideline. Sometime in that 2-month window. 
Earlier being better since no matter how cold the spring, summer happens no later than June 21, and Indian Summer starts just after Labor Day. All else... including how hot "summer" gets... varies.
Mon, 2009/02/16 - 2:52pm
#3
Soil freezes? 
I've seen that happen once back in the late '80s, the north side of our house in the mountains had about 3 ft.of snow that didn't melt 'til June. Worse mess I ever saw, it was frozen solid then became a quagmire for two months. I pity you NE folks but then we're having the opposite problem, high temps and absolutely NO moisture in months. Where's a place with a happy medium?
Mon, 2009/02/16 - 3:29pm
#4
San Francisco? You lose the seasons then, though.
I rather like having 4 seasons. Especially years when the winter one is mild and short.
Mon, 2009/02/16 - 5:33pm
#5
You'll all be moving to the UK then. 
A little wet in Wales & Scotland but not bad in the South East of England, all 4 seasons as they were designed...
Mon, 2009/02/16 - 5:38pm
#6
Hi Peat,
I travel to Bristol for work from time to time - did you get the snow that London got?
Beth
Mon, 2009/02/16 - 5:49pm
#7
I don't live far from London, we had the heaviest snow I have ever seen here. The capitol ground to a complete halt, no buses running, trains cancelled and cars conspicuous by their absence. Peace and quiet. 
Gisette - last time I was in San Fran, I got sun burnt on the tourist boat we caught - such a lovely shade of red! 
Mon, 2009/02/16 - 7:49pm
#8
Not easy to get sunburnt in San Francisco - well done! 
My last time in San Francisco, we rented a 32' yacht for the day - nice! Sailed up the Sacramento River (that was sunny!), parked at Pier 39 for Kyoto coffee, and by that time the captain was so sloshed he decided to pull a U-turn under the Golden Gate Bridge about 15 minutes before the riptide. Almost spent the night out on the Pacific.
I've been to Bedford near London several times. Compared to CT, all of England is cool and wet!
Mon, 2009/02/16 - 7:58pm
#9
Hm. This one advises prepping soil in fall, then broadcasting spinach seed right over the snow. Also suggested refrigerating it before summer planting (for fall). That might help... And this one says to plant sweet peas after the harsh part of winter, a month before last frost - far more helpful than "as soon as the ground can be worked". Guess that really does mean as soon as the soil thaws.
Still not clear on when to transplant out, of course. I suppose I could plant some seeds, and when they sprout, start hardening off.
Mon, 2009/02/16 - 8:23pm
#10
Great job Peat, getting a sunburn in SF. Maere's brother lives there so we go now and then and love it but like gisette said, it doesn't have the four seasons I love so much. Here's a site that finds the places that match your criteria. I was beyond surprised at the results but one was the place I was living at the time, Alpine, TX.
Mon, 2009/02/16 - 9:24pm
#11
Interesting quiz. One wonders how they came up with some of 'em (what on Earth did I say to get them to recommend Houston and Oklahoma City 
?) But they chose Long Island (close enough - I'm on the other side of the Sound, 18 miles north ), and Fort Worth (9 years Dallas). Oddly, nowhere in Colorado or New Mexico, though I'm quite fond of both... Lots of places in North Carolina and Tennessee - which have always been on my maybe-sometime list.
Tue, 2009/02/17 - 1:33am
#12
WOW, you must have put something strange in there, I hate to even visit Houston or OKC. I just took it again, things have changed a lot in my life but my answers were fairly close to what I chose before. I noticed a lot of different questions than before and more of them. My top spot is St. George, Utah then Greenville SC and Tulsa, OK. Lots of places in Mississippi, SC, Alabama, even Bellingham, WA where the sun never shines and Gainsville, FL which I might visit if they paid me. Nothing in NM or west Texas but El Paso and I hate even driving through there. Oh well, it was fun.
Tue, 2009/02/17 - 7:49pm
#13
This is kinda cool - an online Old Farmer's Almanac. Gives planting times for everything (rather late opinion for spinach...) given your zip code, and its theory of how the weather is going to go this year. Dunno how reliable it is. But so far it's got this winter fairly well described.
Tue, 2009/02/17 - 10:40pm
#14
That is cool! I love "how to keep warm with just one log". Bookmarked!
Wed, 2009/02/18 - 1:35pm
#15
When do you plant tomatoes outside in ABQ?
Thu, 2009/02/19 - 4:17am
#16
The almanac says April 7-30 but it changes depending on where you live here. The foothills are about 2 weeks behind us in the north valley so that would match my mid to late March thoughts. We do it whenever we think about it. Last year was about September if I remember. 
87107 is our zip code if you want to plug it in the almanac but it really covers about three distinct climate zones.
Thu, 2009/02/19 - 12:03pm
#17
Was just thinking that with your lettuce out of the lettuce AG for a bit, might be time to give some tomatoes & peppers for your Earthboxes a head start.
Thu, 2009/02/19 - 11:57pm
#18
We neglected the earthboxes 'til early autumn last year when Maere put some perrineal herbs in some of them. I'm thinking that the AutoPots are so much less trouble that we'll use some outside and not mess with the earthboxes much more. We almost cried in '06 when we left for ONE day and our 8 ft. tall Indian Corn plants died from lack of water. Besides, we have better uses for the AGs any day now and are about to surrender the laundry room to tomatoes.
Do you have yours all planned out yet?
Fri, 2009/02/20 - 12:15pm
#19
I'm not sure about "all planned out". I have 3 growboxes for this year, and will do early crops (spinach, lettuce, greens, radishes, kozy coats tomato, pepper, cucumber), then summer crops (tomato, pepper, cuke, zucchini, eggplant, beans not in the growboxes). Already have some seedlings growing for the early crops. Still waffling on the exact configuration of what goes where, but then, I have quite a bit of time left. Early stuff should all be deployed outside by early April. Summer stuff mid-to-late May.
Wow, re the Indian corn. 
The growboxes won't always make it through a week without watering, with zukes or cukes aboard, but here they'll always make it 2-3 days at least. Cooler, moister, and the growboxes have more water capacity than earthboxes, I think. (4 gallon reservoir.) I used 'moisture control' potting mix and wish I hadn't - it doesn't wick well, and the tomatoes went dry with water in the reservoir at one point. But I may not bother to replace it all this year.
Unusually cold winter. I think we've finally seen the last of single digit temps, but I'm not convinced we've seen the end of the teens yet, and today it's in the twenties at noon, with the wind howling.
Sun, 2009/03/22 - 7:17pm
#20
Peat,
SF is often foggy but sometimes tha rays are stronger than you think. I go there quite a bit sometimes for work and also have friends in the area.
Ah, I still have fond memories of London from my 2 years living / working there a while back. I had been in London for about a week in August and about 5 days over new years to catch some theatre in the West End :D. It was cold but warmer than Canada and I remember the smallest dusting of snow and the whole city is in lockdown....
Mon, 2009/03/23 - 11:57am
#21
Hi Mary, you are right about the suns rays! Of course, I did not put any sun cream on - it didn't seem like that sort of day. I was OK till we got on the boat that went under the bridge and around Alcatraz - combination of the sea breeze, sun and water reflection I guess.
We stayed in a Hotel close to Fisherman's Wharf, just a short walk down to the sea front and Pier 39. 
Hi Gisette,
Yeah, that phrasing is nebulous. I go with what the Maryland Cooperative extension says (March 10-April 20) and then tailor it to what works in my garden. I haven't had much success with spinach. It goes from cold to hot so quick it always bolts. I tried fall planting and overwintering and the spinach was very sweet - ick -then bolted. Have you been on gardenweb? They have a winter sowing forum that is interesting. They'd say plant 'em now.
Beth