I have had a difficult past 2 weeks. My husband has been in Daytona Beach Florida, working Bike Week. Not only have I done my own chores, dealt with children and taken care of my father, but I have done my husband's chores as well. I must say that I admire my fellow homesteaders, or anyone that can manage several children and a heavy work load on a daily basis.
I am tired. I have so much work that I don't seem to sleep any more. Yet I did choose this way of life for a reason. So much for me to be happy for. And I am so grateful that my husband is home.
This week we will be tackling the garden. As I mention before, our cool weather greens, roots and vegetables go in this month. Although it will be in the upper 70'sF today, we have a chance of frost for another month. Before planting anything that doesn't fair well in temporary cold snapps, check to see what date your region is out of the frost threat. This will save you much work and a lot of heartache. The tilling is my husband's job.
- 1 USDA Zone Last Frost Date June 15 First Frost Date July 15 Minimum Number of frost-free days 30
- 2 USDA Zone Last Frost Date May 15 First Frost Date August 15 Minimum Number of frost-free days 90
- 3 USDA Zone Last Frost Date May 15 First Frost Date September 15 Minimum Number of frost-free days 120
- 4 USDA Zone Last Frost Date May 15 First Frost Date September 15 Minimum Number of frost-free days 120
- 5 USDA Zone Last Frost Date April 15 First Frost Date October 15 Minimum Number of frost-free days 180
- 6 USDA Zone Last Frost Date April 15 First Frost Date October 15 Minimum Number of frost-free days 180
- 7 USDA Zone Last Frost Date April 15 First Frost Date October 15 Minimum Number of frost-free days 180
- 8 USDA Zone Last Frost Date March 15 First Frost Date November 15 Minimum Number of frost-free days 240
- 9 USDA Zone Last Frost Date February 15 First Frost Date December 15 Minimum Number of frost-free days 300
- 10 USDA Zone Last Frost Date January 31 or earlier First Frost Date December 15 Minimum Number of frost-free days 315
- 11 USDA Zone Zone 11 has no frost
6 comments:
Huh, your map shows our date as April, but all the local flower stores advice mother's day as the frost free date. We had a major frost last year the first week of may.
We're doing four square gardening this year. My husband is building the beds out of logs. We'll mix compost, topsoil and vermiculite to put in the beds. I'm hoping to get larger yeilds from the smaller spaces. This also allows us to move the garden where the sun is, even if that spot is full of rocks it doesn't matter because the garden sets on top. I am concerned about the root veggies not having enough depth...we'll see.
I enjoy running the tiller, always have. However, I notice this year my knees complained about it, the next day.
In case you're interested, the Arbor Day Foundation has published a newly updated hardiness map for the US.
My zone was just promoted recently with the new USDA map.
But the last frost dates are just averages. Everything is always a gamble, especially with the wild swings of climate change upon us.
I'm so happy to be in Zone 8 :) Planting time is a'coming!
With the square foot gardening, last time I used 4'x4' 6" tall beds and found that they weren't deep enough. The carrots and all the root veggies were fairly stunted. It could have been that the ground underneath was too compacted, though (or that the kids picked them all before they had a chance to grow).
This time around I'm building 12" high beds to hopefully make it easier for them to grow.
For some reason this year I can't find vermiculite in any of the nurseries. So I settled on perlite. I hope it's an okay trade off.
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