GardenBanter.co.uk - View Single Post

12-04-2005, 07:56 PM

In article says...
I just hate it when people say "you can't plant the garden until after
Mother's Day". Where did that idea come from anyway?

Here in Zone 5 Chicago our last frost date is May 15 which is around
Mother's Day. Technically you're not supposed to plant things outside,
like tomato seedlings, before May 15 that will die due to a severe frost.

That said everyone takes risks and plants early. I won't transplant
seedlings before May 1 but there is a lot of other gardening work that
needs to be done in April such as preparing/building beds and planting
seeds. When Spring planting wildflower seeds, I usually try and get the
seeds in the ground around the 3rd or 4th week in April. This year
however, April in Chicago has been very warm and deceptive. Usually we
don't get regular 70 degree days until Memorial Day but this year we've
been seeing them for the past week or so. I went to Menards yesterday
and they haven't even received their springtime shipment of dirt yet it
feels like we should be planting things now. A couple of my perennial
herbs are already a foot high.