Where do you live? I'm in zone 2 SK and with the weather expected over the next few days, I think carrots would be fine but lettuce should wait until the next weekend. But your weather may be different. If there's nothing less than -5 C expected, seed the lettuce now.

You can easily find the average planting dates for your specific location for any crop online. Right now would be a good time to use one of the interactive online tools to learn those dates for future reference.

Also keep in mind that planting dates for containers will differ from those planted in-ground since containers are subject to bigger temperature fluctuations. And that planting seeds (carrots) wouldn't be the same as planting transplants as many do with lettuce.

For example Zone 3 ranges from the Atlantic to the Pacific and exactly where you are located makes a BIG difference. So including your location gets you better info.

in many parts of zone 3 lettuce seed could have been planted back in mid-March. But that may not be true for your part of zone 3. That's why the schedules that let you plant by zip code, of specific location in zone 3 are more accurate.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: Univ. Vermont - Zone 3 planting schedule

I live in edmonton and we currently just got rid of our snow. Weather varies so we cold have another dump or it could get real,y warm. Not sure what to do.

Google pulls up several planting guides and calendars for Edmonton including a good one from Edmonton Gardens - a great liocal resource for you.

According to it carrots get direct seeded Apr. 19th and lettuce get direct seeded anytime from April 10 on. Of course any dates given are always "weather permitting".

Edmonton is zone 3b to 4a and most of it is 4a. If you go to the link below you can zoom in right to you neighborhood on the map and see which one you are.

These are only 2 examples of the many good guides available on the web.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: Edmonton, AB

Edmonton, eh? You can seed the lettuce now. It's much colder out east in SK and MB. So far, March and April have been about 5 degrees C below normal. I haven't been able to plant anything outdoors apart from my high tunnels. Two years ago, I had already planted stuff an entire month earlier in the year.

This post was edited by Slimy_Okra on Mon, Apr 21, 14 at 18:34

Thanks for the tips! Weather looks like it wont be too bad so I may begin this week!