Gardening in the cold

The date is June 7 and I am wearing my winter coat.  Alright I asked for this.  I moved here because of the fresh air and the landscape, the quiet and the beautiful everchanging sky.  It is also cold a lot, and windy.  So I am building my character.  Last week I almost quit and gave the gardens to the weeds.   All week I was interrupted and emergencies jumped in, like the flat tire on the tractor and I didnt have a wrench to take it off. I was  changing my work goals again and again. We had frost two nights and I am  still holding the tomatoes and transplants in the greenhouse.  I broke the big job into little jobs and tried to do a little. So Friday I did the carrots. I love carrots.  Saturday early I put in the squash, pumpkins and cukes.  It only took a couple of hours--big seeds.  And now I will hold. Late this week I will plant the next series of peas, beans, lettuce, etc.  Then I will have a succeeding harvest.  Cold or not the tomatoes and herbs will go out too. As an experiment I will keep some samples in the greenhouse to see how they do there. So the garden is officially planted, even though unofficially there are a lot of empty spots and full seed packages.  I am fencing the garden before the rabbits have too much lettuce and I am making a row of cold frame boxes that I can plant in all summer/fall.  I guess I am ok now.  With the cold it is raining. It rained yesterday and will again tonight.  No dust now and that feels good.

Some of the funny stuff is working out so well.    After winter feeding my big bag of sunflower seeds got wet and I just broadcast them along the fence line.  Well, thousands of little sunflower seeds are starting out and really growing.  They are almost too thick, I'll move some with the shovel. Next winter the birds can get their own sunflower seeds.