If your like us the desire to get at planting bulbs and Spring veggies fever gets going on any sunny day in March.  If you live in Metro St Louis or St Charles counties, hold on until Late April to start setting out plants.

On average your risk of frost is from October 24th through April 10th.  Following your weather local charts its a guarantee that you will receive frost from November 1st through March 29th.

Frost date is the average date of last light freeze in spring or the first light freeze in fall.

29 deg. to 32 deg or under will kill tender plants unless you are using a low tunnel.

25 deg. to 28 deg. is very hard and will kill most plants.

24 deg. or colder wipes out your garden.

Unless this agency is cut you can find more weather information at the National Centers for Environmental Information website www.ncei.noaa.gov

You can follow us on Facebook at Tony’s Family Farms Tony Tomato for our actual farming progress in real time.

Otherwise, start planting from April 27th.  To keep me from throwing away a lot of money on plants that get frozen I try to be on vacation April 22nd my birthday until May 1st.  Getting out of town is that last chance to clear your head, and get into the best physical shape to grind out another season of farming.

You betcha around May 2nd I’ll plant thousands of tomatoes vines and other wonderful produce for our chefs and homeowners during that week.

In our St Louis metro region we have 188 days of frost free growing.

After planting several varieties of beefsteak tomatoes we count down the 125 days until harvest.

While you are plotting a perfect time to start planting your garden please make sure you are adding Flowers to your garden as a form of insect and pest protection.

We love to grow tomatoes at the Defiance Ridge farm, however you wont have to look hard to find, basil, sage, marigolds, onions and others to keep the bad bugs away thriving between our plants.

Here’s a suggestion of other flowers you should consider adding:

Zinnias

Super easy to grow and wonderful cut flowers.

Drought tolerant

controls tomato hornworms by attracting braconid wasps

Nectar source for pollinators

Dill Plants and other Umbels

Controls cucumber beetles by attracting braconid wasps

Controls man different pests by attracting lacewings

Controls many different pests by attracting tachnid flies

Sweet Alyssum

Controls aphids by attracting ladybugs, thrips and aphids by attracting hoverflies

This plant can handle heat and lack of water.