It's Winter again.  Looks like our sput of nice weather is over for a while.  Before our return to reality, we were both refreshed by two lovely days of working in the garden. We cleaned up the blueberries, strawberries, garlic (shown here) and, one of our perennial beds. Reyn also thinned his baby seedlings and began work on a cold frame. 

Yesterday was cold, and it rained the entire day.  On top of that, our heat pump stopped working and we were left without heat overnight and all day.  Fortunately, it was an easy fix once the repairman could get here.  All in all,  it was a rude awakening from our dreamy Spring interlude.

The cold frame came together today.  Using salvaged lumber, Reyn constructed a 3' x 8' frame of 2' x 6' boards that will simply sit on the ground in the garden.  1/2" diameter pvc pipe  will form the curved ribs supporting a protective row cover.  Inside of the wooden frame metal brackets were used to mount 6" lengths of 1" diameter pvc on either side of the frame. These pieces serve as secure sleeves into which the ends of the longer pvc pipe slip. At this stage Reyn is covering the frame with clear plastic sheeting.  At a later date he'll replace that with a porous row cover. Although the plants are not yet ready to spend the night outside, even under cover, they will stay comfortably warm during the day.

Now to begin thinking about our next big challenge -- how to effectively keep the deer out of our garden this year.  Stay tuned.