Normally, I do my planting during the last two weeks of April but this past April was the 6th wettest April on record (according to ABC 33/40) in central Alabama. The soil in my backyard was completely saturated the entire two weeks that I would have done my planting.
Eventually, I began to wonder what would be worse, planting in saturated soil or planting late when our summer temperatures begin to heat up. I decided to wait to plant, with a deadline of mid-May. If the soil was still saturated then, I would begin to plant anyway, disturbing the soil as little as possible.
The first half of May turned out to be completely dry--no rain in my backyard at all. I went to work. It took me three weeks to get all my new plants and seeds in their beds and containers. I didn't finish until around May 20th.
During these early weeks in May, I also picked up some good gardening essays about timing for planting. They emphasized that the most important factor in determining a planting schedule is soil temperature. They asserted that most of us are planting too early because we plant according to air temperature, which in the spring is usually warmer than the soil's temperature. Reading these articles made me feel a little better.What has made me feel much better has been watching my newly planted seedlings and seeds take off in this last week. Seeds that usually take a week or more to germinate (with an April planting) are sprouting within days. I can almost watch the tomatoes and pepper plants growing. They all have buds, and the early tomatoes already have fruit. If you came to my garden, you would never know that I just finished planting.
Perhaps in this case, it really is better to be late.
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