Night time temp around 33F, can I still plant something?

[hililyhilo]

I live in Northern California and we've been experiencing record high temps during the day of high 60s/low 70s. However, the night temps get down to around 33 at the lowest. I have a small garden bed and am tempted to plant lettuce (but I'm open to anything else recommended). Is 33 too low for planting?

Thanks!

 

[Ridgerunner]

This would be a good topic for the sister site, run by the same great people that bring you bring you this forum. It’s a smaller site with just a few members compared to BYC, but we are pretty friendly and welcoming. It’s kind of slow over there right now so we are partly just having fun with each other, but there are some really good gardeners over there. Marshall or Mary might even be in your area.

http://www.theeasygarden.com/

There are some things you can start when the temperatures are really cold but above freezing. Some of them can stand a little frost, but a hard freeze could be really risky. I got a bunch of sheets at a thrift shop for very little money and cover them when a freeze is forecast. I just put rocks on the corners to hold them down. It usually works out but of course, sometimes I have failures.

I’m in a different climate and area than you, but the things I start early are green peas, carrots, beets, chard, kale, and onion sets. I also start lettuce, mesclun, and spinach but you have to be a bit more careful covering these from frost. You can try garlic but it’s better to start it in the fall. I’m sure I’m forgetting some things, but maybe that will get you started.

If you contact your county extension agent, you can probably get a calendar that shows when you can start certain things. You may be able to get that online but you can always look in the phone book under county government and chat with them.

 

[hililyhilo]

Thank you for the thorough information! I've just asked my husband to cover the garden bed for the night so I hope that works! I ended up planting lettuce and kale today so we'll see how they grow.

I didn't know about the easy garden so I'll check that out. Thanks again!