Chris McKeown
| Special to The Enquirer
Cincinnati Zoo Little blue penguins excited for warm weather video
Watch a parade of little blue penguins march outside for a beach day at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden.
It’s hard to know when you should start planting at this time of the year in the Midwest. It seems like every time we get a few nice days with temperatures in the 50s and 60s, the temperature takes a nosedive back below freezing. With the temperatures varying so much, what can we plant now?
If you want some colorful flowers to plant in your containers, or in a flower bed you can plant Pansies. When I was growing up Pansy was used as a derogatory term for someone who was perceived to be weak. In the flower world Pansies are very tough. Most of the other bedding plants will not tolerate cold temperatures. Pansies will.
Pansies can tolerate frost as well as freezing temperatures. You can plant them, enjoy the blooms and not worry about having to protect them when frost is expected. You can also plant Violas. Pansies and Violas are in the same family. Pansies have large flowers. Violas have smaller flowers and stay shorter. Pansies are bold. Violas are cute.
They do have a weakness. They will tolerate the cold, but they will stop blooming when the summer heat arrives. You cannot plant Pansies now and expect them to last into the summer. Pansies are for providing early spring color and later replaced by your favorite summer blooming annuals.
The target date for planting summer annuals and vegetables has been moving over the last several years. For many dates the average date for the last frost was May 15. Now the average date for last frost is listed as between April 16 and 23. If you have learned how to garden with family traditions the date most people use is Mother’s Day. Given the moving target of dates, Mother’s Day is still a solid plan.
When it comes to planting summer annual flowers and vegetables the soil temperature is just as important as the air temperature. The plants need warm soil to grow roots. When you plant you want the roots to take off and grow before any other part of the plant.
When you start with strong roots, you grow a strong plant. The soil temperature should be 65 degrees when you plant. You should monitor the weather forecast for the soil temperature continues to rise. You can find your soil temperature online.
I realize some people cannot wait to get their gardens growing. However a little bit of patience can pay off when it comes to planting annual flowers and vegetables. The selection of plants to buy will always be best in the first couple of weeks of May. Planting outside too early can slow the plants down. This is because they have the best growing conditions possible in the greenhouse they are produced in.
There are cool season vegetables that are also great for starting now. These are vegetables that need to grow in cooler weather and will not grow in your summer garden. Here are some of the vegetables you can be planting now.
Peas, spinach, arugula, carrots, beets, kale, radishes, lettuce, and potatoes can be grown now and are easy to start from seed directly sown into the soil. You can also plant broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, and kale. It is best to start these as transplants, which means getting plants that are growing from a greenhouse or garden store. There are also a few herbs you can get growing now. Chives, cilantro, dill, fennel, parsley, and oregano can be planted now.
Trees, shrubs, and perennial flowers can be planted anytime. However, the selection will be very limited early in the season. The selection will improve each week. One thing to know about garden centers. There is never a time when they have all the plants they sell at one time. Plants grown in nurseries are crops maturing at different times throughout the year. There is always something new coming!
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