WE’VE HAD some early warm days and I’m just itching to plant my spinach and peas and other early frost-hardy plants. I wish I were one of those old timers who could say with certainty, “Plant your peas when the oak leaves are the size of a mouse’s ear.” Or some such. I’ve heard lots of quaint sayings but don’t believe that any of them are as reliable as the calendar and a thermometer. And who knows how big a mouse’s ear is, anyway.

The wall-o-water I do know that if you plant any seeds before the soil hits 50 degrees that they won’t do much but sit there - and possibly rot. And warm weather plants like tomatoes, peppers and eggplants need soil temperatures of 60 degrees before being transplanted. A soil thermometer is a good thing to have. If you get one, know that it is only the tip of the thermometer that reads temperatures. If you want to know the temperature an inch down, just put it in an inch and hold in place a few moments.

The Cloche If your local garden center doesn’t have soil thermometers, many of the seed companies do, or you can get one from Gardeners Supply Company (www.gardeners. com or 1-888-833-1412). They sell a compost thermometer that serves well in soil, too.

Anything that holds in heat will work to raise soil temperatures. A single layer of clear plastic sheeting won’t protect tender seedlings from frost, but it will serve to warm the soil if stretched tight over soil with its edges sealed against cooling breezes. Black plastic heats the soil, too, but not as fast as clear plastic. The sun heats the black plastic, which absorbs and transmits the heat, but clear plastic allows the sun to directly warm the soil.

Creating raised beds also helps to warm soils in the spring. Mounding up soil even 4-6 inches will improve drainage and promote warming. I do that in my vegetable garden in the fall so that I don’t have to fuss with wet soil now. On the next sunny day I will rake off all the leaves I put over the soil last fall, putting them in the walkways for now. That will allow the soil to warm more quickly. Later I’ll use them to mulch around my plants – on top of 6 layers of newspapers.

There is a product called the “Wall-o-Water” that has been around for a long time, and I’ve used it for protecting and warming young tomato seedlings put out in mid-May. It’s an 18 inch tube made of plastic baffles that hold water. The pockets of water heat up during the day, and serve as a radiator at night. Sold locally, or from Burpee Seeds, the maker claims they protect tomatoes down to 16 degrees if the top of the opening is gathered together to form a teepee. You could put some out early, and start a few lettuce seeds in them for an early salad. They last for a few years.

My grandfather, John Lenat, was a serious gardener. He built wooden cold frames that he topped with old storm windows to get an early start each spring. His cold frames were just the size of 2 storm windows. The sides were about 16 inches tall in the back and 12 inches tall in front making a slanted “roof” out of the storm windows. Such cold frames heat up nicely, but on clear warm days they can get too hot for plants. Grampy would just prop up the storm windows a couple of inches, allowing them to vent. Then each night he would put the window down - and even place an old blanket over them if the temperatures were to get real cold. Mostly he used them for early lettuces and spinach – probably starting about now.

Starting back in the early 1800’s, I think, the French used

cloches’ or large glass bells to put over plants to warm the soil and protect against cold nights.

found some modern plastic cloches that are 13 inches wide and 10 inches tall – and have a vent on top that will keep the temperature from getting too hot. They are available from Gardener’s Supply – not cheap at $10 each, but they should last for years. I have tried gallon milk jugs with the bottoms cut out, too.

I still rely on my calendar for choosing planting dates. Tomatoes I start indoors in early April and don’t put them in the garden until June 10 – no matter what.. Peppers I started March 7 this year and will put them out with the tomatoes. Lettuces I started indoors on March 21 and will plant outside in mid- to late-April, planting seeds outdoors at the same time. Then once a month or every 3 weeks I’ll re-plant lettuces all summer to keep a good supply coming.

Many people believe that the phase of the moon affects when the last frost of winter will be. Not me. My neighbor Sally Wellborn of Cornish kept records of the frosts for 30 years, and her son, Gwyn Gallagher, correlated that data with the phases of the moon when he was at UNH. He found no connection.

Spring will tease us a bit before it’s really gardening time. For now, I’m content to grow seedlings indoors.

Henry Homeyer is a gardening teacher and consultant. Reach him at henry.homeyer@comcast. net or P.O. Box 364, Cornish Flat, NH 03746. His Web site is www.Gardening-Guy.com