Impatient Gardener!

[vette-kid]

For some reason I just can't resist! Big box stores stay selling starter plants here in February and I just can't seem to resist. So I have broccoli, cauliflower, Romain and spinach in the garden right now. Plus carrots and iceberg, but they like the cold. Forecast now has three nights in a row that will be below 40! Daytime temps will be in the 50s those days but have been bracketed by 70+ degree days.

Is this going to stress my plants to much, should I just plan to rip them out and start over?

 

[Chuck]

For some reason I just can't resist! Big box stores stay selling starter plants here in February and I just can't seem to resist. So I have broccoli, cauliflower, Romain and spinach in the garden right now. Plus carrots and iceberg, but they like the cold. Forecast now has three nights in a row that will be below 40! Daytime temps will be in the 50s those days but have been bracketed by 70+ degree days.

Is this going to stress my plants to much, should I just plan to rip them out and start over?

NO!!! This is exactly the kind of weather these plants like. Now is also the time to buy smaller seedlings of tomatoes and peppers if you have a very sunny and warm place to keep them. They will soon outgrow their little containers and you will have to repot into larger pots but by doing this you will have much larger plants and will have earlier fruiting when you finally put them into the ground when the soil temperatures are correct.

 

[vette-kid]

My warm sunny place for right now is at the nursery! If I had a little greenhouse I would consider buying starts earlier. I did put two in the garden, but I'm not crossing my fingers for them. I just started a tray of peppers and I'll be placing an order for starts to deliver at the end of March. I can never seem to get the timing of everything here worked out. Maybe one of those little greenhouse deals just to hold a few dozen starts and grow them out until it warms a bit is the way to go.

 

[Chuck]

My warm sunny place for right now is at the nursery! If I had a little greenhouse I would consider buying starts earlier. I did put two in the garden, but I'm not crossing my fingers for them. I just started a tray of peppers and I'll be placing an order for starts to deliver at the end of March. I can never seem to get the timing of everything here worked out. Maybe one of those little greenhouse deals just to hold a few dozen starts and grow them out until it warms a bit is the way to go.

I did just that for a few years until my little greenhouse got demolished by hail. I would set out tomatoes that were18 inches tall and had been repotted twice. Always had tons of early tomatoes.

 

[Pepperhead]

If you have some indoor space, maybe try a small grow room until your last frost is gone. This simple 3'x2'x3' uses only some 1x4 lumber, cardboard and aluminum foil with a grow light and a small fan. Super cheap.

These plants are overdue for re-potting, but you can also house your seedlings (in the back of the pic, but you can't see 'em) for now, too.

 

[vette-kid]

This is about all the space I could come up with right now!