re: 2025 Spring Garden Thread

For future seasons, you need to look at the USDA zone map for the date of your first frost (fall garden) or last frost (spring/summer garden).

USDA Plant Hardiness Zoning Map

If you're in Mississippi, you're likely 8a or 8b. Then you need to look up the date of your last frost. This tells you the best time to plant. Some people plant earlier, but they know they may have to cover for a potential frost. Pretty much anywhere in Mississippi is safe to plant by the end of March.

Things like tomatoes will need to be transplants. Many people start those seeds indoors in early January. Your local nursery will have tons of varieties of small plants to choose from.

You can direct sow squash, zucchini, beans, okra, collards, and cucumbers with no problem. Those are fast growers and they just need warm soil to get going.

Good luck!

Little Sausage fished the pond this afternoon so I was on my own listening to today’s A&M baseball shite show and doing some weeding.


Picked up some walking onions to try:

Hopefully, on pace for Easter green beans:


Squash are racing the borers.

Potatoes are going strong

Carrots are just about ready to start getting picked.

We’ve really enjoyed having the lettuce but this is about done.

Broccoli is heading out.

And the mockingbirds have some painted rocks to deal with now.

Baby plants are all hardened off and ready for the garden, but Spring is finally getting ramped up here in the Ozarks with 4-7in of rain and strong winds expected this week.

Gonna have to wait and cover empty beds with tarps this week.

You aren’t getting a freeze this weekend? Calling for 6-8” of snow this weekend in panhandle.

low of 47 next week for me.

They need to be hardened off and IMO they're not big enough to transplant yet. Cucumbers do not transplant well so you want to make sure you've really hardened them off with full days' sun prior to transplanting. Even then, you still may lose a couple.

you gonna thin those out, or will they be fine like that? had some "giant" rose ones planted that don't look like they will be nearly as big as I was expecting, and was thinking about putting down some seeds I had saved from some other zinnias I had last year. Thanks

I probably should thin them but I’m not going to…I figure five or six plants per SF will dominate and shade the others out. Zinnias look great no matter what. can always pull plants as needed as they mature

I started a sungold select variety from seed this year that was supposed to be more resistant to cracking that the standard sungold. Wind broke it yesterday and it's not looking like the old jar and water trick is bringing it back, so that's a bummer.

Other than that, things seem to be growing pretty well. Plants have enjoyed the warmer weather this week. Cucumbers, squash, watermelon, and cantaloupe are all germinated.