Spring has Sprung

April 15 is the average last frost date here, but our most recent hard frost was early March I think.  We had a frost-on-the-cars-but-nowhere-else morning on April 10, but I didn't find any frost thing on any blooms.   The mild Winter seems to have put everything ahead of schedule. The crossvine is already in full bloom now -- a good week to ten days early.  Now all it needs are hummingbirds to adorn it.

The greenhouse is full of seedlings ready to go.  The tomato/pepper beds are prepped  and I'll probably get plants in them the last week of April.  I've got "green mulch plastic" for warm season plants this year.  It's supposed to suppress weeds as well as black plastic, but warm the ground more than black (though not as much as clear).   We'll see how that goes.


The oddest thing so far has been the germination of my peppers.  I planted Marconi seeds (2012) and  Yum Yum Gold seeds (2009).  I expected lower germination rates from the older Yum Yum Gold, but I didn't expect the huge range of germination times.   Eight of the Marconi came up in about two weeks.  The first YumYum did not appear until three weeks after seeding.  Another two came up 24 days after seeding, and another four came up five weeks after seeding.  I assume they are done germinating now, but who knows.

Meanwhile, my Golden Star Hybrid seeds (2012) have done nothing in three weeks.    Doh!