Ahhh…Spring is in the air! Or is it??

Apr 19

If you’re in Idaho, you know this rings true.

Technically, Spring begins on March 20, but Idaho always struggles to figure out how to make the transition. One day it’s beautiful in the 70’s, and the next it might be snowing. Sometimes, this happens all in the same day!

This is where we find ourselves today. Mother Nature has teased us with some sunny and warm days only to be knocked down with a cold snap.

“Patience is a virtue, and I'm learning patience. It's a tough lesson.” Elon Musk

We had to learn this valuable lesson the hard way. Our early seedlings, started in February, were ready to be planted out and we needed the space for the next batch, as our basement space is limited.

So on a gorgeous Saturday morning, we bit the bullet and planted our tender plants, only to have the temps dip below freezing the next day.

Needless to say, they didn’t make it.

Our happy little seedlings growing in the basement under grow lights…

Our sad little Snap peas freezing outside.

Usually in our area, peas can be planted out early because they generally do well in the cold. But as a good rule of thumb, you should wait until after March 15 if you don’t want to take any chances. Even then we can still dip below freezing.

Here at Rustic Blooms, located in Meridian, Idaho, the South-West portion of the state, our zone is listed as USDA Zone 7a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)April 15

Average Date of First Frost (fall)October 15

I found this great resource for our zone. It lists what can be grown here in the Treasure Valley and important planting and harvest dates by crop. https://frostdate.com/zone/7a/ You can customize this for any zone. If you don’t know your zone, just select your state and a map will appear with your zone information.

***Cover your crops to protect against freezing nighttime temps.***

Here you can see we cover our young veggie plants and seedlings with ***frost cloth*** and small ***hoop tunnels***. Be sure to ***take the cover off on warm sunny days*** so your plants can take in the natural sunlight.

**Harden off your tender seedlings**
When starting seedlings in the basement under grow lights, as we did, you'll want to be sure to ***harden them off when they come outside.***
***Hardening off*** ***is the process of preparing your tender seedlings to be planted outside.*** We moved ours outside to a makeshift pallet table with hoops. On warm sunny days, we ***protect our seedlings under shade cloth to avoid sunburning*** and ***add a layer of frost cloth to protect against freezing night temps***.

We need a GREENHOUSE! Like Yesterday…

I’m so excited Toby let me have some input on this project. If you know him, you would know that he’s a pretty serious grower. Me on the other hand, I like to add a little something special to our projects.

I spent many Saturday mornings, over the winter, scrolling through Pinterest and drooling over all the greenhouses made out of old windows, while he watched gardening programs. You can imagine my excitement when he said he wasn’t closed off to the idea of incorporating repurposed windows into our greenhouse.

That’s all I needed to hear!

I quickly began collecting windows and doors through Facebook Marketplace. If you’ve ever bought anything there, you know you have to jump right on it when you find the deal you are looking for.

The only way we could make this project work and stay within our budget was to find our materials CHEAP or almost FREE. Otherwise, it would end up costing more in the long run than just using the polycarbonate sheets for the project.