Ezzirah, Be careful about trusting average last frost dates. (This is where personal experience in your location, or lack of it, comes into play and you find yourself trying to guess what the weather is going to do.) And, even if you have successfully gardened in your location for 5 or 6 years or longer, the weather still can fool you. My average last frost date is March 27th. Prior to 2006, I routinely transplanted my tomato plants into the ground beginning as early as the first week in March, knowing I'd have to cover them up about one cold night a week until the cold weather passed, and I seldom had to cover up the plants more than once or twice in April. So, essentially, my last frost date seemed pretty accurate and "was working" for me. Then, something in our regional climate changed. Since 2006 we have had later and later and later cold nights. We've had snow in March around my so-called "average last frost date", snow in April well past our average last frost date, and our last frost has come the first week in May (consistently on May 3rd or 4th) for the last three years. In 2006 or 2007 I planted a week later than my last frost date only to have a prolonged cold spell including sleet and snow hit well after I had all my tomato plants in the ground. When I saw the forecast deteriorating, I knew I had to do something and do it fast or lose over 100 tomato plants, which by then were between 10-20" tall and some even had blooms. I ran to the store and bought 2 or 3 large rolls of heavy 6mm clear plastic and several rows of duct tape. First, I filled every 5-gallon bucket, 3-gallon bucket, 2-liter bottle and gallon jug I had with water to serve as solar collectors. Then I got busy building temporary hoop houses over 7 rows of tomato plants, using the tomato cages as the support for the plastic and using duct tape to close up the ends of the plastic to keep out wind. I also used U-shaped metal ground staples (normally used to hold down fabric mulch) to ensure the ends of the plastic would stay down on the ground and not blow up into the air. It looked like I was covering up furniture in preparation for painting an interior room in the house. It literally took me from sunrise on the first day until after sunset on the second day, but I did it in a desperate race to cover up the plants before the cold front hit. I also piled up mulch all around the plants but not on top of them which would have caused disease issues. My poor plants then sat there under those 'temporary' hoop houses for 3 weeks until the cold air, rain, sleet and snow had passed. It was horrible. I don't think I lost many plants, but I had to monitor them carefully because it is easy to get diseases on plants grown under plastic since the plastic restricts air flow and I also had created artificially high humidity with the solar collectors full of water under the plastic. Sometimes, if we had an almost-warm day with lots of sunlight (mostly it stayed cloudy during that cold spell), I had to cut open the ends of the temporary hoop houses to vent out the much-too-hot air during the afternoon, and then retape them before sunset. Covering the plants with plastic alone wouldn't have kept them warm enough during that time because some of the nighttime lows were in the 20s, but with the solar collectors catching heat all day and releasing it at night, the plants survived. If I had to do all that again, would I? Maybe, but I've tried to avoid having to go to those lengths by planting later and later every year. Even with later planting, I still get slammed with the hard frost in the first week of May. After 3 years of that, though, I have accepted it as "the new normal" and keep floating row cover/frost blanket type material, heavy-duty plastic, bedsheets, bedspreads, tarps and old sleeping bags handy so I can cover up everything during our "surprise late freeze" the first week in May. Remember, my average last frost date is March 27th. And the issue isn't solely that I am in a lower-lying area than much of the rest of the county (although I am) because from 1999-2005 the average last frost date seemed to be accurate even in our low-lying area. You can't even necessarily rely on short-term forecasts. I think it was in 2007 (could have been 2008, as the years run together after a while) that I left my plants uncovered the first week in May because our overnight low was supposed to be 50 degrees. It had been 50 degrees pretty much every night for a week, so I had no reason to think the forecast was incorrect...but it was. Instead of dropping to 50 degrees, our overnight low dropped to 32 degrees and almost all my tomato plants suffered freeze damage. Some froze back to the ground, while others only had scattered damage. Only one row---the row of black tomatoes (Black Krim, True Black Brandywine and Black Cherry) that sat at the highest point of my sloping garden--survived unscathed. I thought my 50-degree-forecast-that-gave-me-32-degrees instead was a fluke that never would happen again, but then the same thing happened to George in either 2008 or 2009. Luckily, it happened right before our annual spring plant swap so some folks (I think Carol was one) who had raised tomato plants like his Baker Family Heirloom from seed he sent them were able to bring plants to the swap for him to replace what he'd lost to the freeze. So, I suggest you take all "average" dates and recommended planting dates with a grain of salt. Something has seriously changed in our local climate during the last half of the first decade of the 2000s, and we're still operating with 'averages' computed using data from the 1970s, 80s and 90s. Even after you plant, you have to watch the forecast very carefully and some of us have learned we can't even trust a forecast low of 50 degrees. It pays to always have material on hand to cover up plants when there is even a slight chance of the forecast being horribly wrong. Dawn

I'm in south Louisiana and have been harvesting tomatoes since early May. I'm starting to pull plants. Will keep the Sun Golds as long as they continue to produce, but most of the beefsteaks will be pulled within the next couple weeks. While it's true we can grow a fall crop of tomatoes here, I find them more problematic and not worth the hassle. You could seed okra now. I don't care for it, but grew the burgundy variety one year for the colorful flowers.

Do you take mulitvitamin/multimineral supplements such as One A Day or Centrum Nallah? The minerals used in these two and nearly all supplements are chemically created minerals produced by humans and the exact same minerals used in so called non organic fertilizers for plants. Such as potassium chloride, magnesium oxide, dibasic calcium phosphate and many more. We use the same elemental elements as plants do. and extract them only in their pure form known as chemical elements found in the periodic table of elements, if you remember high school science. Chemically created synthetic fertilizers are simply a combination of two or more organic elements, sometimes using high heat, to extract the pure chemical element plants can take in, along with humans. We can't eat phosphate rock or limestone but we can extract the elements of phosphorus and calcium we can consume, same for plants. Soda drink has phosphoric acid in it along with tooth paste, Phosphoric acid comes from treating organic phosphate containing material with sulfuric acid, Sulfuric acid is a natural organic salt of sulfur and also organic. So where is the danger? The idea that man made chemical fertilizers are dangerous is a myth and this is where the danger is. I say a dangerous myth because without man made synthesized fertilizers over half to three quarters of the world population would starve. Not may but would without a doubt. People who think only organic is fine only if they know the facts and not try to force everyone to do the same. it would take 30 tons of cow manure to fertilize 1 acre of crop land to produce half the yield they do now. 30 tons of cow poo requires about 4 cows. 4 cows require 8 acres of good forage land per year. Removing the manure to fertilize your crop land would then reduce the forage available next year. The next year even less, and so on until your 4 cows starve. If you did the same with alfalfa each year the source land would become depleted, and any organic source would quickly become depleted. The world would starve, and organic vs chemica is a major rant of mine because people don't know how sensitive the world food supply is and could easily collapse with the wrong laws by the wrong people. 2,7 billion acres are used to feed the world population and people are starving now, this doesn't include land used for livestock. 2.7 billion acres would require manure from 11 billion cows to support the land by ORGANIC means, but wouldn't last long. You can use organic fertilizers as a personal choice but please be aware most of the worlds population would die without man made synthetic fertilizers made from natural elements that are perfectly safe.

Thanks everyone for your helpful feedback. Maifleur, I‘m going to follow your caution and will trash in any foliage and not reuse the soil for gardening. olejoyful — clever idea for your roll out/roll in planter. carolb, i agree the seed is probably some ratty undeserving mutant. I’m viewing it as an experiment. I’m going to give it a haircut, repot with new potting mix. Maybe add a bit of fertilizer with minerals. I may even get to Sal age some of the Thai Basil that got taken over. I have a bit of dilute “near edible” orchard spray that I put on some seedling to prevent damping off. Oh, and maybe circulating air. I just don’t want to infect any other plants. I’m thinking ii is a mineral deficiency, since the nearby geranium, fern, ground cherry and sage look healthy. I run out of energy so easily. Big ambition, no oomph! At least spring is here, finally. oh, and carolb, I hope you’re not near Piney Point. What a horrible mess In such a gorgeous area.