T-Minus 21 Days.....

...and counting, until April 21 and the Frost Free Day arrives here in Zone 7A. We had ten straight days last week and this of high 70's/low 80's temps and nice sunshine. (A cold front moved through on Friday, but it's warming up again today.) We moved all the seedlings outside to take advantage of ideal growing conditions and they have rewarded us with some stunning growth.

Just Monday morning, I counted 23 squash plants that had germinated; the end of that same day, the count was up to 40! I wish I'd had a video camera on them. I don't think I would have had to speed up the film much at all to see the plant pushing through the top of the starting mix. National Gerographic slow-motion action. By the end of the week, the count was closer to 60. That's a lot of squash!

Perhaps we're delusional, but we've convinced ourselves there won't be another cold snap harsh enough that we can't cover our seedlings and save them. So later today we're planting carrots, beets, lettuce and chard and we will transplant a large number of the squash if we have time. The weather report shows rain tomorrow, which we need desperately, so we're working ahead of wet soil for the next couple of days. Chop chop.

On tap for when it's too wet to work outside: start the herbs. Basil, rosemary, chives and a couple others.