A day for gardening- after what seems like weeks of cold and rainy weather, we have again been blessed with sunshine.  It turns out that this has been a strange, but, I'm sorry to report, typical Oregon spring.  We started out with several weeks of unseasonably warm weather, which got everyone out tilling the soil, then our usual cool, wet days returned. Cool, wet, stormy days and nights.  Soggy, wind blown, dreary days.  Not the kind that inspire weeding and planting, or encourage little plants to thrive.  But, today it was nice.  Nice enough for a tour of the garden and a day of digging around in the dirt.

If you remember, Reyn got an early start on planting seeds for salad greens.  He always starts his seeds in pots, then transplants them into the garden while they are quite small.  This year he planted what seemed like a zillion little lettuce, spinach, and chard plants.  Some in the garden and some in the cold-frame.  Most of the starts have survived the weather, and seem to be taking hold, while a few have been munched on by our resident snails.  Some of the greens were transplanted directly into the soil within the cold-frame.  They have done extremely well, better than those exposed to the elements, in fact we have begun to harvest them for salads.  The lingering question is could/should we have delayed the initial seed planting until the weather stabilized?  It seems to have taken quite a while for the transplanted seedlings to show much growth, however, they are now taking off.   I'm now wondering if we had a mild winter, might we be able to maintain a lettuce crop simply by growing it under the cold-frame. I'm having visions of cold-frames covering our garden.  Hmmmm. . . . .

We now have spinach, several kinds of lettuce, swiss chard, potatoes, and peas doing quite well.  We have have begun to harvest the lettuce, spinach, and some of our rhubarb.  We have chosen to let our asparagus patch go unpicked until next spring.  The spears have grown quite tall, about 3 feet, and are beginning to take on their feathery foliage.  It adds a sculptural effect to the garden. Tiny salad greens are growing in decorative rows between the larger plants, with the hope that the greens will be harvested before the potatoes, garlic, or whatever, needs the space.  As they get larger, they will form a lovely border around the garden beds.

In addition the the vegetables, I have started three trays of zinnia seeds.  I planted them in my little pots made from rolled newspaper so they will be easier to transplant.  I kept them inside the house until they germinated and gained some leaves, then moved them out into the light.  Colder temperatures are predicted for tonight, so the I've moved the flowers into the cold-frame for protection.  I;m hoping that it doesn't  get too cold.  We always have warmer nights when it's cloudy and wet, but I'll take a clear sky any day.

A day of discovery -  What a glorious Oregon Spring day we've had today - although it's still way too early to really be Spring.  You can't tell that by looking.  All of the early flowering trees are in bloom, the blue herons have taken to their nests, and the ducks and geese along the river seem awfully busy.  I'm amazed at how quickly things have come into bloom this year.  Seems like we were in full-on Winter mode just two weeks ago.

Today's mild weather was perfect for working outdoors.  I started off with the goal of pulling weeds and cleaning out some of our beds.  It turned out to be a total pleasure.  Of course, at this stage the weeds are pretty small, and the soil is still soft, which makes the weed extracting  much easier.  Give me pint-sized weeds any day.  I also enjoy working at the leisurely pace these early season jobs allow. 

I started with the aspargus bed. After cleaning off the leaves we had left on the bed last Fall and pulling the weeds I happily discovered several spears of asparagus poking their noses through the soil.   The asparagus was planted just last summer, so it will be fun to see what comes up.

Next I moved on to the strawberry bed.  These plants went in last Spring and produced quite well all summer. We grow the variety Tri-star which is everbearing and produces delicious berries until well into October.  Reyn pulls the plants and puts in new ones every three years.  We're looking forward this year to a healthy crop - but usually not until June.  I was completely surprised today to find what looks like tiny baby strawberries on many of the plants.  Surely they won't really become berries, but I can hope.

This has really seemed like a day that is out of sinc with the calendar.  While working on the raspberry beds I came across an entire colony, if I may call it that, of Ladybugs.  I don't know much about their life cycle, where they spend the winter, or even when they usually appear, but I am always happy to see them in the garden.  This turned out to be a completely enjoyable day in the garden.  It's good to have a few like this interspersed with our usual rain.

Other Garden Notes:

Our little plum tree is blooming

Reyn planted peas today

Outside temerature 60 degrees - cold frame temp. 74.

The babies are thriving.