A month after planting seeds in my cold frame, the broccoli is big and vibrant.  Many of the seedlings are working on their third true leaves, which means they're ready to be transplanted into the main garden.  With rainy weather predicted for the afternoon and a general cool-down from our recent abnormal heat, Thursday seemed like the perfect day to set them out.

I was a bit leery of transplanting the broccoli, though, because the weather forecast says our temperature will drop to 34 Fahrenheit on Friday night.  I know that barely sounds chilly, but our lows are generally about 5 degrees beneath what the nearest weather station reports.  Would 29 F be too cold for our tender broccoli seedlings?

 A search of the internet suggests that broccoli won't get harmed unless the temperature drops to 25, but I still wasn't entirely confident.  Luckily, I always start too many broccoli seeds because I like having seedlings to give away.  So I set out the biggest broccoli plants and put the row cover fabric back on the cold frame to protect the seedlings left behind.  If my transplanted seedlings get nipped, I'll just re-transplant next week.  If they don't get nipped, I'll get an extra week of growth --- a conundrum has been transformed into a win-win situation.

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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.



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