Decision time coming soon.
We're leaving for a week-long family vacation on Saturday, April 20th. My wife and kids will be out of town the entire weekend of April 12-14. Average last frost date here is 4/15. If this forecast holds, I'm going to strongly consider putting all my summer seedlings in the ground during that 4/14 weekend. I know that tomatoes and green peppers aren't ideal under 55 degrees at night, but having to rely on someone else to water the peat pots (and move them inside and outside daily) seems like a worse proposition. The greenhouse most definitely gets too hot during the day to leave them in there unattended.
The other option is crossing my fingers that after 4/19 the lows are a bit higher, and waiting until then. I'm actually off work on that day (thought we were leaving then since the kids are out of school, but the house my wife rented for the week is Saturday-Saturday,) so theoretically I could do it then. Though the thought that I could get it all done easily while everyone's away and not have to deal with the daily inside/outside issues after that is certainly appealing.
I guess my ideal situation is that in the next week the post-4/12 forecast warms up a little, and we end up with more 75-55 than 70-50 kinda days, in which case I'd do it without hesitation. I do have folks I could rely on to cover stuff up for me if a fluke frost shows up while we're gone; I'd just prefer not to have to ask someone to bring the plants in and out every single day, and would also prefer not to leave them inside.
Anyway, current long-term forecast:
Day Description High / Low Precip Wind Humidity
Today
APR 5 Showers
57°52°
80%
E 8 mph 91%
Sat
APR 6
Mostly Cloudy
74°56°
10%
NNE 5 mph 68%
Sun
APR 7
Mostly Cloudy
74°62°
20%
S 8 mph 69%
Mon
APR 8 Thunderstorms
74°62°
90%
SW 12 mph 75%
Tue
APR 9 Thunderstorms
74°55°
80%
WSW 11 mph 67%
Wed
APR 10 Sunny
75°54°
10%
NW 9 mph 50%
Thu
APR 11 Cloudy
79°58°
10%
SSW 15 mph 52%
Fri
APR 12
Partly Cloudy
71°48°
10%
WSW 15 mph 53%
Sat
APR 13
Partly Cloudy
68°48°
10%
WNW 8 mph 43%
Sun
APR 14 Showers
63°52°
50%
ESE 9 mph 50%
Mon
APR 15 AM Showers
69°47°
50%
W 11 mph 56%
Tue
APR 16
Partly Cloudy
66°46°
10%
NW 10 mph 46%
Wed
APR 17 Showers
64°50°
40%
WNW 8 mph 50%
Thu
APR 18
Scattered Thunderstorms
69°52°
50%
SW 10 mph 57%
Fri
APR 19
Scattered Thunderstorms
71°52°
50%
WSW 11 mph 56%