On Fri, 06 Apr 2007 17:48:40 -0700, gonzo wrote:


Friar, if you are flying solo and relying on the internet for expert
help, do yourself a favor and go get a gardening book or two. I can
recommend the New Victory Garden, it has excellent step-by-step info
with a monthly planting guide. Starting indoors in zone 5 can take a
little patience - I keep rushing my tomato seedlings out before the
last official frost, assuming that I can manage to keep the frost at
bay, and 3 years running haven't managed to.. This year I'm really
going to try holding off until May before planting them out! Even if
the things threaten to walk out on their own, I'll try to keep them
in!

I've been using Square Foot Gardening as my main guide, but I also went
out and bought Burpee's The Complete Vegetable and Herb Gardener on
Thursday and it has answered many of my questions.

Right now frost isn't my biggest problem. Over the weekend I lost all of
my seedlings to a mouse that managed to get in to my basement (D'Oh!),
though it was only lettuce and broccoli so I'm still ahead. The 30cm of
snow we received on Saturday isn't helping me get my beds prepped either.
Oh well; improvise, adapt and overcome.

Good luck with the tomatoes, etc.!

Thanks!

Another Zone 5 denizen

--
The Good Friar