Waiting out the weather.  I can't believe it's been a week since my last post.  I'm blaming it on the weather.  I've been immobilized by the rain . . .  and the cold . . .  and the hail . . . and the wind.  Day after day, with no end in sight.  Can this really be spring?  What happened to all those nice warm days?  Oh, yeah, it is Oregon.  I've got to pull myself out of this slump - tomorrow I must get out the cookbooks and plan a shopping trip.

This has really been one heck of a week for weather, we even had a couple of near freezing nights - just after Reyn moved many of his little starts of lettuce, spinach, chard, and onions from the cold-frame to the garden.  We knew he was taking a chance, it's always hard to watch those little babies succomb to the elements.  The surprising thing is that most of the transplants survived even the hail and are holding their own.

I took a quick tour of the garden today.  The peas are now about 2" tall and doing well even after being stirred up by the squirrels, who always insist on investigating a newly turned patch of ground.  The garlic seems to be growing at warp speed with the plants looking fuller each day, and I'll soon be able to pull a few stalks of rhubarb.  We have a couple of spinach plants and a few arugula plants that overwintered and are just about ready to go into a salad.  I'll be so glad when I no longer need to purchase salad greens.

Our little cold-frame has been great.  We have lots of onion, lettuce, leeks, chives, cilantro, and tomatoes coming along nicely under it's protection. The seedlings in the little newspaper pots I made are doing well with the newspaper holding up to the constant watering.  I'm anxious to try some zinnias in the newspaper pots, which should make them easier to transplant into my flower beds.

The  cold-frame is quite large. Today Reyn transplanted  lettuce starts directly in the ground under the cover of the plastic.  They are nestled in a lovely bed of garden compost and pine needles.  The warmth and protection from the rain, along with our rich fish fertilizer should get them off to a good start. As the weather gets warmer we'll exchange the plastic cover on the cold-frame for a porous row cover that won't heat up so much when the sun comes out. 

Although it has been hard to get me out to the garden this week, Reyn has found time between the storms to continue nursing his little plants and preparing the open garden beds.  It may be cold and wet today, but I know the sun is coming.