You know how I dislike that green bucktoothed smily thing, but I guess at this moment in time I can tolerate him.

Good minds think alike Sharon

I'm happy that this is bringing new people in, but I'm disappointed in the calendar results for my area. First, it gave me info for Westfield, NY, a nearby town that is on the lake plain and in a completely different zone than we are up here on the hill. It would have me planting at times when frost is yet a real danger. I tried using a different zip code and it still gave chancy advice. I have offered a new last frost date, which is considered 90% accurate on this site: http://www.climate-charts.com/...

I, as you may remember, have some argument with the USDA zone charts. Yes, things are changing and it is disturbing, but we are still very much zone 5a and the last frost in in June.

The app is based on the data supplied by the National Climatic Data Center and I'm using the 50% chance numbers (meaning that there is still a 50% chance of a frost after the dates given). This is why the app gives you a disclaimer to keep an eye on your forecast when planning your transplants.

Having said that, I am considering moving all the dates forward to the 80% mark to make things a little safer for the newbies who don't have your knowledge and experience.

Thanks, Dave. I think the 80% or 90% dates would be much better for the beginner or even novice gardener. When you've been at it at least a decade (or 4), you learn the weather and its foibles and have a feel for when to plant. Before that, you haven't even reached an average.

I usually aim for the 90% date myself. I kill enough plants all by myself without Mother Nature doing it one year in five.

Since I always ask for more than is reasonable, how about an "Advanced Options" button that conceals a slider or radio button that lets us choose 50%, 80%, or 90%?

Than another slider that let's us choose 32 degrees, 28 or 36 (whatever the options are in the databases you mine).

And then (just to request platinum inlay on the silver lining on the egg in my beer), a way to check off just those veggies I'm must interested in ... and export a printable version, or XLS file, or full-motion-video and hi-fi stereo of an angelic chorus singing the dates in four-part harmony.

Or is that asking too much? (trying to look innocent)

Always a comedian, Rick, and a good one at that.

Your ideas are very, very good, though. I like them and I definitely have some serious "roll up my sleeves" work to do. The Garden Planting Calendar 2.0 will be much more powerful than the one currently out.

Yippee! Zippy-Doo!

Truly, I love what we have, and GPC 1.0 is very easy to use. But there's always some way the chrome could be polished a little differently, and that leads to the platinum overlay ...

RickCorey said:Yippee! Zippy-Doo!

Truly, I love what we have, and GPC 1.0 is very easy to use. But there's always some way the chrome could be polished a little differently, and that leads to the platinum overlay ...

Platinum? I was hoping for a mother-of-pearl inlay....

I can't wait to see the new version. I still have to pinch myself when I think of all you have given us already Dave.

I used to use this document for my freeze/frost dates:
http://extension.umass.edu/lan...

PLEASE NOTE: at the bottom states "...Station temperature readings are commonly made at a height of
approximately five feet, and actual ground temperatures can be up to 4° F to 8° F less. Thus, ground frost can
occur even when the measured temperature is 36° F...

Because of this I've been using the 36F/10% spring dates. Have I been too cautious?

That is as cautious as you can get, Evan. What I personally do is look at the 50% chance of 32 degree weather and from that point forward I look at the forecast. As soon as there is no cold temperatures in sight I plant.

Thanks Dave, I've been struggling with this. To think of all the daylight I've been wasting!

Mind you, I've lost a few tomatoes to a sudden and unexpected frost! So jumping the dates is not entirely without risk.

I keep a really close watch on both the NOAA and weather.com sites when I'm thinking about planting out. Neither is completely accurate for our area, but the average from both comes close! Ever since that year when I emptied out the GH and we got a freak hail storm........

I have put tomatoes out as early as April here in my area. But we had black plastic on the ground (warms the soil) and covered the plants at night. Worked great, earliest we every had tomatoes.