Should you plant yet?
Many of us are excited at the prospect of planting our gardens and our flowers, but is it too early for us to do so? Climate data can be extremely useful in deciding when the best time to plant is.
Anytime we’re talking about climate trends, there’s always going to be an asterisk by hard dates that we give. Climate data is gathered over a 30 year period, and usually there are days that are outliers from what we’re talking about.
In this case, we typically see our last freeze in April. By May, our low temperatures tend to stay above freezing, but that’s not always the case. For example, we’ve seen several instances since we began keeping track of our last freeze where lows fell below 32 degrees Fahrenheit. As you can see, we can have overnight freezes as late as May!
Climate data can be very useful for farmers or your next door neighbor who loves to garden, but this week, you may want to hold off the planting with overnight lows likely falling below freezing.
For more information, check out this guide from IPM at the University of Missouri.
