Transition Time - Spring to Summer in the Garden

Lacinato kale, and every other green thing, goes crazy in the cold frame during April, but by mid-May, it's starting to go to seed and the time has time has arrived to make way for summer crops. The cold frame keeps us in lettuce, spinach, kale, and chard from late January. Soon we'll move the cold frame out and plant this sunny spot with some heat lovers currently incubating in our solarium/greenhouse. Last summer it was peppers Maybe basil this year.

Spring is tricky here in Southern Oregon. Sometimes we think it's arrived in February as temps rise and and shorts are busted out of storage. But then it gets bitter and gloomy and wet again until the next untrustworthy reprieve in March. In April, bluster lingers, but longer days and warmer temps bring out the buds. By May, all heaven breaks loose. The birds, the perfumes of young grasses and blooms, the kisses of warm breezes, the shocking and stunning wildflowers, the trees heavy with color and fragrance—make it really hard and stupid to be in a foul mood. If you can be depressed on a sunny May day, you must be in a dark room without windows. Go outside!

Romaine lettuce and spinach co-mingle as they reach maturity.

Can there be a downside to have all those fresh greens growing on
the sunny south side of our house?

Yes, there is a downside. Most of the greens, especially the spinach,
must be washed and put thru the salad spinner. It is way easier to run to the grocery
 and buy the washed organic greens in the big plastic boxes. Not quite as tasty, of course,
and also not as "substantial." Homegrown greens have more heft, thicker leaves.
I used to blanch and freeze excess greens. Now I use them in smoothies.
I learned just this week that kale can be frozen without blanching! Big news.
We'll have some in the freezer when the strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and
blackberries start spilling off the vines and bushes as early as next month.

The garden is bare, except for some broccoli (not in the photo),
and the just-planted onion starts. The tablet holds our garden
plans. We keep track every year so we don't make the mistake
of planting onions where they were last year, or winter squash
where the hideous squash bugs  created an insect horror show in 2012.

Speaking of onions, we buy them as tiny starts
from a Texas outfit. We ate the last of our keeper onions
in March! Many were softball-sized.

In the meantime, heat-loving plants such as tomatoes, peppers.

eggplants, and basil are practically jumping out of their pots

in the solarium. Even though it's May, we are still likely to

have a hard frost, so we must be patient. And hope we don't get

an infestation of white flies or aphids or some other horrid pest that

loves nothing more than destroying tender young plants. Of course

putting them outside exposes them to the ravages of finches.

It's always something.  The best thing, though, is that it is most definitely spring.

Condolences to my Minnesota sister and friends who saw another five inches of  SNOW

just a few days ago.  May your spinach survive and your kalepush through the drifts.