Perspective on dates

I have been going through my past entries here and there throughout the day and i want to summarize my actual planting dates.
Last year we had very warm weather. We were snowless at this time last year.
I had begun wintersowing by March 9th- tomatoes, broccoli, cauliflower.
The next day i had sown cucumbers, squash, more tomatoes, watermelon, eggplant and peppers (the eggplant and peppers were not helped by being wintersown- a good point to remember).

March 12, i had drawn the outline of the garden with marking tape.
My crocus were starting to bloom on the 17th.
We were having temps in the 60's and my broccoli seeds were sprouting outside in their peat pellets.
On the 24th we got down to 9 degrees at night.
March 25, daffodils were blooming, lilac leaf buds were swelling and rhubarb was beginning to poke through the soil.
By the beginning of April, the wintersown tomatoes had sprouted- which is a good indicator that it is not too late to start tomatoes indoors or out by even as late as April.  Most garden guides tell me i should have started them a week ago.
April 15, the Jerusalem artichokes had emerged, rhubarb was really coming along.
April 17, snow happened.  No real harm done.
It was 65 degrees out on April  22

May 18th, i had the hoops up and row cover on.
I began to plant cold weather crops...the lilacs were in full bloom and beginning to go by.

May 21, i had gotten the tomatoes planted and under the covers.  The next day the summer squash were planted out.

May 23, the beets, rutabagas and bush beans were direct sown.

The weather through the 24th was in the 80's and watering was needed.
 May 25 was 98 degrees for the high.
By the 27th the seed tape carrots were sprouting.

I planted out the ZsaZsa peppers by May 31st. The first seeds i planted had refused to sprout so i had to try a second time. It was so late to get going that my plants only ended up with one fruit that never ripened.

I'll spare the details of last June 'till when they become important to remember, but i'm finding this blog to be very useful right now in helping me see how different this year will likely be.  This is more like i can remember it is.  Often we have snow on the ground until Easter.  I got an early start last year, and it probably could have been even earlier. It looks like our last frost was that night my seedlings got nipped in the mini greenhouse  on May 11th.

Always, i have been taught that planting happens Memorial Day weekend- or the last full moon of May- they are usually within a few days of each other.   Last year i planted a bit earlier than that. This year the full moon is on the 17th. he last full moon in May 2010 was on the 27th.

That's the next reason i blog.  The hyperanalitical part of me really gets into this. I hope to be recording these things for a number of years to see if it is either changeable or dependable. I want to eventually get a good feel for exactly how far i can push the season. 

Depending on how things look later on, i may use that last full moon as my starting date,  i can always delay if things look bad.   Since i hope to buy a few extra degrees upward of soil temps with the row cover and hopefully cheat any late frost the same way- i might learn to push the date even earlier.  I just have to go through the cycle for a few years and record it.  So as long as i don't get bored with blogging, i won't feel silly about the number of seemingly inane details i record almost daily from February to November. :o)