Just when you think that spring is here, another cold night.  It has been incredibly wet.  I have never seen so much rain.  Then when the sun finally shines, temps drop down to the low 30’s at night, and just into the high 40’s for the daytime high.  The garden has been tilled but its just too wet and cold to do much more.

Each winter, on average, your risk of frost is from November 18 through March 14.

Almost certainly, however, you will receive frost from December 12 through February 11.

You are almost guaranteed that you will not get frost from April 14 through October 27.

Your frost-free growing season is around 249 days.

So much for being past the last frost date.  It froze last night and everything was frosted white in the morning sunlight.  Just a reminder that it was the ‘average’ last frost date.  The ‘never happens after this date’ last frost date is still a ways away.

I started my garden last weekend.  The most important thing, got the sweetpea starts planted.  Then, after hearing about the crop failures in Calif, I went back to the Coop and purchased some lettuce starts and planted those also.  The lettuce isn’t looking too happy though.  Might be in part to the fact that Ell decided to ‘play’ with them.  I’ve fenced out the bunnies and the chickens but kitties are much harder to deter.

2 weekends ago, I started.

Flats planted and now under growing lights in the basement.  I thought at first it might be too cool downstairs, but things are sprouting so I guess we’re doing okay.  Planted 2 types of broccoli, lettuce, leeks, scarlet runner beans, …?  Will have to check my notes again. Also started some sugar snap peas & sweet peas in flats outdoors.  No growth on those yet.

Built a worm bin this last weekend.  Very easy to do.  Still needs a few holes poked into the bottom and also some kind of drip collection.  I thought maybe it would be good to put it on wheels that elevated it off the deck so I can slide collection trays underneath and also roll it around the deck when I need to.  A project for next weekend:)  I do need to finish it up quick though, because I have already started saving stuff to put into it!

We had the most extreme weather a week ago.  First was the snow, more than I can remember seeing here.  It came down fast and just kept on coming, over a foot.  Then while the snow was on the ground we had a 12degree low at night, following by an 18degree low.  Meanwhile daytime temps never got above freezing and all this occured after mild, spring like weather had encouraged bud growth.  It will be interesting to see what the ultimate result will be.

Its getting colder now, there was frost on the grass this morning, even though my thermometer, under the roof on the side of the house only registered 33 as the low.  I don’t see any damage yet so it may have been just a little above but its definitely time to cover the zucchini at night.

It has been a cool and very wet spring up till now.  Two weeks ago we finally had the first sunny, 70 degree day, and it was gorgeous, but then it went immediately back to the former.   Today looks like it will be gorgeous too.  I guess its about time as the first day of summer is only three days away.  The weather has been hard on the tomatoes and the strawberries haven’t had much of a chance to ripen, even though the plants look great and there are many green berries.  The weather has been fine for the leafy crops.  Last night we enjoyed our first kohlrabi, very sweet and tender.   My only regret so far is not having had the time to plant more seeds.  I still hope to remedy that but it is getting a bit late in the season, to be sure.

The fushia’s I overwintered from last year are just starting to bloom, and so are the sweat peas, even though the plants are still a bit small.

The soil has been fertilized and tilled and the fencing has gone up, let the planting begin.

Weather has been very iffy lately and its been difficult to find a window of dry weather for working the soil.  All necessary elements clicked this weekend and we were able to haul compost from the manure pile and spread it out over the greenhouse garden just in time to rottotill the whole thing.  The rabbit fencing has gone back up and its all ready for planting.  Now let’s hope the weather cooperates a little more.