Goodbye frost, hello veggies!

If you look up when to when plant summer vegetables like beans, tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers, it will usually say something like "after all danger of frost has passed" or "2 weeks past your last frost date." Many gardeners eagerly start planting as soon as the plants start showing up at their local garden center, and are simply willing to cover them if temperatures dip below 40 again. Others point out that heat-loving plants like peppers and cucumbers do best when nighttime temperatures are consistently above 50 degrees, so it would be best to plant 2 weeks after your average last frost date. as a rule of thumb.

I fall somewhere between those two camps.

Here in Middle Georgia, heat can be as much of an enemy of plants as cold, even for tomatoes. Last weekend was our first weekend after our "last frost date," and the forecast said we would have a couple of mild rainy days before temperatures jumped into the 80s. (Also, I sort of had the itch to plant things.) So I went ahead and planted transplanted a few of my healthiest-looking seedlings.

It turned out to be a mix. Some of the seedlings I pulled had enough roots for transplanting, but some didn't. I already pulled them out of the soil, though, so into the ground they went. At least I planted extras of everything, so if one dies, I'll just replace it. Ideally, though, you want your seedlings to have lots of roots, which usually comes after it's gotten a few leaves.

I planted tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers. The tomatoes and peppers went into the brick bed I built last month. I had built it nice and tall, so I filled it in with a mixture of peat moss, vermiculite, and compost before planting the tomatoes and peppers. The compost will provide nutrients for my new plants for now. The cucumbers went into an older bed, so I mixed in some organic fertilizer before planting and mulched with a little Black Kow composted manure for good measure.

Potatoes, peppers, tomatoes, and my one 5-year-old strawberry plant

Tomato seedling

Cucumbers and fertilizer

This is my first time trying to grow cucumbers, but from everything I read, it seemed like they're easiest to grow vertically. I spaced them a foot apart, and then tried to figure out what to use for a trellis. I looked at several different things online before I decided I would just use some extra trellises I had at home. I don't know if they're tall enough, but at least they're free. As an added bonus, my trellis would also help me contain my asparagus shoots that were flopping everywhere. Now I feel fancy!

Peas, cucumbers, and asparagus

In the excitement of trying to figure out what to use for a trellis, I think I forgot to water in my cucumber seedlings after planting. Even though the soil was damp from recent rain, and scattered showers were forecasted that day, it wasn't enough. By the next day, my cucumbers looked just about dead.

I gave them a good soaking, and then babied them with water twice a day when temperatures jumped into the high 80s a couple of days later. They don't look like the healthiest specimens, but they're still alive at least. I'm thinking once they get established they'll grow new leaves and look just fine.

I also planted zinnia seeds this past week! Last year I planted some zinnia seedlings a friend gave me outside my window, and I was pleasantly surprised to see hummingbirds feeding on them. I'm planting even more this year just for the hummingbirds.

Of course, the only thing you can count on in Middle Georgia is that the weather will change... After a couple of hot days, the weather turned a little cooler again. The lows even threaten to jump down to 39 this week! At least my peas and potatoes are happy. I'll just bring my seedlings back inside for a couple of days if it turns out to get that cold.

Enjoy this weather while you can!

My roses certainly like this weather.