Average Last Frost Date is April 25ish.

Well, I don’t know what I was thinking! After looking back into my manual, it appears that the average lost frost date for my county is April 25, not Memorial Day…a whole month earlier! I must have had Memorial Day in my head from before we moved down here. Kane County, where I lived for over ten years, has an average last frost date of May 5th. Still not as late as Memorial Day, but somebody must have told me that and it just stuck. I was just winging it back then. I had never gardened before we lived there. I was always pretty happy with the results, though. I guess it was just beginner’s luck. Hmmm.

Now that I am paying better attention to what I am trying to do…
Well, one thing that I have learned is to keep a gardening journal. Another thing is to do some research. It certainly doesn’t hurt…better than ‘winging it’ for sure! Advice to self: research, take note of the experience of gardeners before me, but also don’t be afraid to experiment a little.

That said, since my last post, I was trying to figure out what I wanted to try and ‘winter seed’ outside. I referred back to my Master Gardener class manual for help. It is February tenth and so ten and a half weeks before our average last frost date. Actually, I could even push that to ten weeks…we are bordering on the line between April 25th and April 20th. And those are just averages after all.

According to the manual, “Very Hardy vegetables will withstand freezing temperatures and hard frosts without injury. They can be planted as soon as the ground can be prepared. Spinach and lettuce seeds may even be broadcast on late snows over soil prepared in the fall.”

What I am thinking is that this would apply to direct seeding in the garden where there is no protection from the elements. Since I am wanting to get some things started outside under protection, where the temperature is several degrees higher, would it be such a risk to try starting those ‘very hardy’ vegetables right now? I have plenty of seeds, so I can try my luck now with some and also save some to start later.

Here is the list from the manual: seeds to plant 4-6 weeks before average frost-free date: kale, kohlrabi, leaf lettuce, onion, pea, rutabaga, salsify, spinach, turnip. So tomatoes and peppers are not 'very hardy', but I knew that, didn't I? There are a list of transplants as well, but I will address those later.

I have all of these seeds on hand. Some of the seeds that I have are old-- kohlrabi, turnips, etc. I will not necessarily need to save any for later seeding. If my 'pushing the limits' with these is not successful, I will just buy fresh seeds to try again later. Tomorrow, I will sterilize my seed trays and get this gardening season rolling!