I've heard from several sources that you never put your tomatoes out in Portland until after Mother's Day. I had May 15th circled on my garden calendar to put my tomato starts out and the week leading up to it was gorgeous. Warm, sunny weather with cool evenings, like you would expect for mid-May around these parts. Then, May 15th came and the weather turned to crap. It's been unexpectedly cold and rainy....and hail-y. I didn't put my tomatoes out yet, because I checked the weather and wanted to wait for a less tumultuous weather pattern to put out little plants that were going to be shocked enough as it is going from a warm windowsill to the big, bad world of the yard. Well, I'm still waiting. I woke up this morning to the sound of hail pounding on my bedroom window and the high temperature tomorrow is only supposed to be 52. I want to wait to put the little guys out there, but I'm afraid I'm waiting too long. I suppose a couple days waiting is better than killing them all in cold weather and hail.
i put mine out and they died. so... never hurts to be cautious!
ReplyDeleteMy dad said you should wait just a couple of days. He planted his yesterday because he went out of town for a week this morning. He said this week would be good, but a couple more days will definitely not hurt.
ReplyDeleteI really hate hail, along with my car that looks like it was a driving range target. Everything I've heard says to wait until temps are consistently above 50. Have you thought of using pvc hoops with plastic, like a mini greenhouse? It might be hard to make it look nice for the front yard, but at least it'd be functional. I just used starter plants and I worry about all the hard work and money going to waste. I'd have to make my garden like a tank if I put all the time into seedlings.
ReplyDeleteI will probably do one bed next year with a mini-hoop house out of pvc and plastic. The plan is to extend the garden into the side yard, so then I can definitely dedicate a raised bed to just the warm-season veggies. I put the tomatoes out yesterday and they got seriously dumped on with rain - cross your fingers! If they don't make it, I'll just go buy some starters.
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