Well, it hasn't stopped raining here in the PNW and we haven't seen 70 degrees since November, but under my cloche the plants don't know the difference.
I have been harvesting radishes for a few weeks now and this past weekend my mom helped me get mountains of spinach and Red Russian kale into the house. Last week I had my first all-garden salad and it was a revelation! I plucked some of the larger lettuce leaves and mixed in some very small kale, bok-choy, beet and chard leaves as well as a few Italian parsley leaves and some thinly sliced French breakfast radishes. A light dijon vinaigrette and a sprinkle of blue cheese really took it to the next level. Yum...
SLUG UPDATE:
I ended up addressing the slug problem 2 ways:
1. Slug pellets. They really are the easiest, most maintenance-free way of dealing with slugs in a large area. It was the best option for the lettuces and other densely-planted areas.
2. Copper. I bought a spool of copper pipe-hanging strap stuff for about $4 and fashioned little collars for the affected plants (kale, chard, broccoli).
SEED STARTING:
I started planting in the second raised a few weeks ago. It is partly covered in plastic and is now home to lettuces, fennel, beans, corn and some brussels sprouts that overwintered. I am trying to be mindful of succession planting so that I don't end up with the same kind of glut of those things as I did with the spinach, so I am planting one row at a time and leaving space to fill in with more of the same in about 10 days.
I discovered several volunteer (sprouts from the fruits that fell to the ground last year) tomatoes growing in the cloched bed and I decided it might be a good idea to foster them, so I picked the hardiest ones, dug them up, planted them in small pots and put them inside of a plastic tote (aka portable greenhouse), which I put in the sunniest window in the house. Within 2 weeks they had grown tremendously and I ended up moving them back to the coldframe so that I could start some cucumbers, basil and other warm-weather plants in the tote.
I started squash and corn in the cold frame a couple of weeks ago and they now all have decent-sized second leaves, so this weekend I transplanted them to bigger pots. It is still not quite warm enough for them to be out but I didn't want to stunt their growth by keeping them in tiny pots, so they will continue to live in the cold-frame for a few more weeks and hopefully they will be very strong by the time I get them into the ground.
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