Frost Free vegetables

I am writing this at 2:00 am this morning. I was a little concerned that it might hit the freezing point over night.

You know you live in Minnesota when you have 30's the first of June.

I put a calibrated freezer thermometer out on the picnic table and the temps were at 36 degrees and dropping.

So what to do...


I haven't planted anything in the field yet so I took 20 blankets and covered the thousands of frost sensitive transplants out on the driveway.

What plants need to be "frost free".

 - Tomatoes Plants
 - Pepper Plants
 - Cucumbers
 - Squash and Pumpkin
 - Basil
 - Okra
 - Tomatillos

I have learned the hard way that planting in the field before the end of May or early June is high risk of frost damage.

The plants will grow just fine in pots for another week or two, where I can go out at 2:00 and cover them (or if I was smarter I'd cover them before I went to bed).

We get such a high level of radiant cooling in the country that we can be 8-10 degrees less than the temp in town. Something to think about.