In harmony with global warming, we pushed Spring vigorously. Vegetables in the ground in early April: kale, leeks, cauliflower, broccoli, lettuce, spinach, chard, Italian parsley and basil. Were we mad? Off our rockers? In some instances, probably yes. The first week of April was really too early to put the poor little kale plants out, and they certainly sulked, but are lively as all get out now. The cauliflower had eight plants in a 4-pack and didn't appreciate being disentangled, but is lovely today. Get over it or croak is my motto - tender sentiments, don't you think? The leeks certainly seemed happy from the start; maybe they cheered up the other guys.


The chard, broccoli and Italian parsley went into a raised bed, which was quite a bit warmer than the not-so-raised bed. They didn't seem to even notice being transplanted. And the rest of the veg are in really fine shape because we now have a glorious, big, marvelous, wonderful

custom made while I was safely out of town (and his hair). We're messing a with temperature-activated opener so it will vent when it gets too hot. So that's where the basil, lettuce and spinach are growing. Oh, and tarragon, which hasn't been doing particularly well in the ground, so it's getting a trial in the spa as well.


We also used the frame for growing on the tomatoes until it was settled enough to move them "outdoors". Then we loaded the frame up with peppers and Asian eggplant, to maybe get ripe ones before October for a change... In the ground, we have onions, potatoes, 6 kinds of squash and two of beans. The raised beds also got carrots, basil, cabbage and more lettuce. 


So, our gamble paid off - this time. We pushed the season, and have been eating lettuce and spinach for a month or more. But we aren't kidding ourselves that it couldn't have gone wrong in about 73 ways. And every bite of veg tastes better for it...