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I am so wanting to plant things in zone 5b where temps. Premature plantation anyone?

Have ranged from 80 to 32 this past week.

so I need some experienced gardeners to weigh in and tell me what I can still plant (in containers) from seed and what I need to buy as plants

And the biggest question (besides the fact that I need a fenced garden area to be able to enjoy the first tomato much less any melons) is whether or not the old "don’t you dare plant before Easter" is still the "rule".

It might be a little late this year, but look into winter sowing in containers. Basically, cut an old milk jug or similar around the middle and leave a hinge, fill with soil, plant seeds, and leave it out without a top on it. Plants know when to sprout, and the jug provides a little greenhouse effect to protect them. I don't have any advice on buying plants, I start everything from seed. For your melons you can get a 16' cattle panel and bend it over to make a trellis, most pests aren't into melons until they are ripe. Deer might eat the flowers. Most important date isn't "Easter" or "Mother's Day" - it's your last frost date. Just search for last frost date in your zip code and there will be plenty of information.

Happy Growing!

Thanks tred

The last frost almost seems like a floating holiday here. It’s projected to go into the lower 20’s here this week. I had one very brave daffodil for Easter (no chance of cut flowers we would usually have on the table). Iris are up but think I will need to figure out how to cover them.

But you have given me some good ideas!

With temps going from 80 to below zero it’s seeming to be that we will have to have a greenhouse or row covers.

I wonder if other people are struggling with this sort of thing. We used canvas tarp for overnight on about 150 feet of various iris to try to prevent leaf damage.

We would like to do vegetables but don’t remember it being this hard to grow food when we were growing up. It seemed like the weather was more stable.

FWIW, I've planted Peas and Lettuce last weekend. We're at the bottom of 5 top of 4 though.

FWIW, I'm in Zone 7. Our rule of thumb is anything not frost tolerant shouldn't go in the ground before Mother's Day (another floating target). I use that as a guide to start looking at 10 day out overnight temps and it seems to be pretty safe. What I do in the meantime is plant cold weather crops; right now I have broccoli, cabbage, garlic, onions, radish, and various cold hardy pollinator attractors in the garden beds. Most of the spring and summer crops are ready to go in the ground when the night time temps stop dropping below 40 degrees. And I'm looking forward to it as the greenhouse is busting with seedlings that are ready to go!

One thing I do (YMMV) is in February start seeds indoors under grow lights. I have a little area in the basement I dedicate to doing this. Especially anything that has a long germination time - gives them time to get true leaves before transitioning to the greenhouse. Then I just cascade growing things keeping in mind the last frost date but not counting on that to get them in the ground. I believe the definition of last frost date is 50% chance of frost, so you still need to be cognizant of the forecast and not get planting happy the first 80 degree day. Here in VA we are getting close to planting season, and all the plants I've been nurturing for the past few months are looking forward to it!

Things like lettuce I grow year round. They do fine under grow lights indoors in the winter. I just succession plant every 4 to 6 weeks and do cut and come again harvesting on them. Herbs are another year round grow. Having the luxury of a small greenhouse helps, but anyone can get creative with the space they have. My main garden is only 50' x 25', but with raised beds and trellising and using square foot gardening methods you can grow tons of stuff. Looking forward to another season of harvest!

I planted snow peas and snap peas about 3-4 weeks ago, and they're about 3" high now. I also planted some lettuce about a week ago and it has not sprouted. My concern is not necessarily the weather, but we're leaving town later this week and will be gone 2+ weeks, so I don't know what's going to happen to it all while I'm gone 🤣. We're trying to get our irrigation system turned on before we leave so I won't have to have anyone water. In the meantime, I don't feel confident putting anything else in the ground before we leave in case we have a hard frost or freeze. We are in Zone 6b.

As soon as we get back, I plan on going to the nursery to get my plants.