Posted by Alice on March 20, 2009 
Happiness is vegetable seeds arriving, and 70 degree days that remind you you can plant soon.
Click to embiggen.
Even better is when those seeds are given to you by a farmer friend, so you have way cooler varieties than you would when you just bought them through the seed catalogue.
Now, when is that last average frost date again?
Now, when is that last average frost date again?
Sometime in February, around here. It it isn’t already well started, it ain’t happenin’ cause the heat will get it before it’s well established.
Fortunately, the runner beans are off to a vigorous start, the basil survived the winter, the okra [1] are bursting out, the herbs and tomatoes are doing well in shady spots, and the beds are well prepped to have the eggplant, tomatillos, squash, and peppers transferred to them this weekend.
[1] Lovely plants — I grow them as ornamentals. Bear in mind that one okra bush can feed a family of five for the summer, and I have nine of them. Fortunately, I work with a lot of people from South India who are all bugging me daily for the first harvest.
70 degrees?! We woke up to snow this morning!
/Jellus
I love getting seeds and planning out a garden. I’ve just got a small balcony for my “garden.” Sounds disappointing, but it actually works out since the last frost is in June and the first is in September – I often have to move things back in the house fast! Maybe for grad school I’ll live somewhere warm with a backyard I can cover in veggies and flowers. I can’t wait to hear about how your garden progresses!
@D.C. Sessions I grew up in the South and I can’t tell you how much I miss fresh okra. I’d never heard of anyone growing it as an ornamental before, but I do remember the flowers being beautiful!
In West Lafayette, the last frost date is “around Mother’s Day” according to folks I knew when I lived there. Since I saw snow the weekend before mother’s day, I believe them!
I love gardening. I possibly outdid myself this year and ordered $50 worth of seeds from an heirloom seed site. I planted my six strange varieties of tomatoes last weekend and thought I really screwed something up since they didn’t start sprouting until yesterday.
However, last night I dreamed about having fields and fields of striped tomatoes, purple tomatoes, etc. They were growing as huge as pumpkins. Not that you should care about my dreams, but I’d like to think of it as an omen for a fruitful gardening season. 
Snowed here yesterday. 20 F when I hopped on my bike to go to work this morning. It will be a while before planting.
You are going to love your Cherokee Purple Tomatoes! They have such a wonderful flavor! But… they damage very easily, and mine have never produced well. Coddle them, and they will repay you many times your effort.
March 20, 2009
March 20, 2009
March 20, 2009
March 20, 2009
March 22, 2009
March 23, 2009
March 23, 2009