Gardening

[marypaintscars]

Any other gardeners in this community?  I have been here a few years, and don't quite get the growing season.  My parents are in Alabama, so they're no help with timing - they can grow almost year round!  I just need someone to tell me when to start seeds, when it's safe to plant, and when it's safe to uncover my roses, because I always

Comments

[fkmedocrity]

Hello! 3rd year gardener here, so I'm still learning too! I'm starting most of my veggie seeds this weekend, and hope to have healthy 6-8" tall seedlings to plant after the last freeze. Our last freeze will probably be in early May...keep an eye on the weather patterns.

[oushi]

Hi! I'm a gardener, mostly veggies, so I'm not much help for roses! I usually start my seeds towards the end of March, I consider the safe transplant outside date to be May 1st. Maybe as early as April 15th, for hardy tomatos. You can direct sow squash, corn, beans, etc. on May 1st though. I then secondary sow two weeks and four weeks later. Our First Frost date is...well, that's hard to guess. I was still picking tomatos October 15th last year, but Sept. 15th the previous year! I play it safe and just start obsessivly watching the five day forcast in Sept.

[oushi]

*snerk* Just have to add - fkmediocrity and i are sisters - and apparently share the rabid gardener gene!

[marypaintscars]

That's cool... I couldn't imagine my sister growing any vegetables... she still won't even eat salad! Those are good rough guidelines. Roses are a problem because of the wide array of information on them. Nobody even agrees on how to winter them over in cold climates. I've had one last a few winters, so I added a couple last year, and I really hope they come back this year.

[marypaintscars]

Thanks! It's days like today that get me antsy. My parents have been talking for weeks about their daffodils blooming, so that doesn't help either!

[rapier1]

Pittsburgh is a weird place to grow. You can get late spring freezes out of nowhere that will kill everything you've planted in a night. Usually I start my seeds in the next week or two and transplant in mid to late April. That being said, I keep an eye out on the temps and I'm ready to tarp everything at a moments notice. I should point out that the grow season here has been getting marginally longer over the years - usually on the fall end. Of course, some years spring comes late, some years it comes early, some years we get too much rain, some years we don't get enough... its makes the process more... shale we say, interesting than some other locales.

[ta_laitha]

I start my seeds outside directly in the ground. Usually around the last week in April, first week in May. Depending on the weather forecast. The exceptions are tomatoes and peppers, which like others mentioned, I start around this time of the year indoors.