So Hard Not to Plant Yet!

We have beautiful Spring weather – the mornings are in the 50's and the afternoons reach the 70's, and it's so hard to resist that temptation to plant! I thought, well, maybe I can plant the earliest cool weather crops – lettuce, radishes, broccoli, brussels sprouts, carrots (those are the CWC I'm interested in trying this year) but then I discovered this nifty site which tells you the measured soil temperatures from various areas across the state:

http://wdl.agron.ksu.edu/

And the station in Rossville (the nearest to us) certainly made me pause:

The minimum soil temperature over the last 5 days averages 42.44 degrees F, and the maximum 70.14 degrees F. The forecast is a little bleak with a storm on the horizon:

I probably could get away with it if I have some sort of cover for that garden bed, but I'm not sure how the plexiglass works. I guess you just literally place it on top of the bed and put some heavy rocks on top, to keep it from blowing off in the storm?

Hmmm... I'm starting to convince myself that it may not be such a bad idea to plant after all! It's two weeks till the frost date (April 21) in Kansas but looking at the forecast I think it's unlikely that we'll have another. The soil is a tad on the cool side, but lettuce can germinate even in 40 degree dirt so I may give it a go!