Springs are fairly cold and wet here. Not cold like ‘North Dakota’ cold, more like ‘close that fridge door’ cold. When people not from this area think about all the rain they often have visions of torrential downpours, like we used to get in the Midwest US. I did. I heard ‘it rains alot in the PNW’ and the picture I had involved lots of ‘gully washers’ like we used to get in Kentucky. The reality, at least in the past year, has been more of a soft, gentle, ongoing, misty kind of rain. There have been a couple of downpours but those seem to be the exception rather than the rule. Often times I think people don’t really notice the rain here. When the rain starts, hoods go up and people keep doing what they were doing. I don’t own an umbrella. There has only been a couple of times I wished I had one.
Rock Farm is…well…rocky. As such the beds are all raised. In the Spring Anita sent out an email asking if anyone wanted to go in on a load of compost. I opted in and within a few weeks was toting wheel barrow full loads of black goodness over to my plots.
The few weeks time between the time I found out I had a garden spot and planting I did a bit of research. I wanted to go with what I would probably have the most luck with. I talked with fellow gardeners, visited websites, read a book or two on PNW gardening and decided on what we grew as Spring/Fall crops in KY and a couple of Summer crops. In addition to the kale, broccoli, Swiss chard, spinach, lettuce, peas, beets and radishes I would plant carrots, herbs (basil, dill and parsley), bush beans, and tomatoes.
The Spring was a little wetter than normal according to the locals. As such, planting was delayed a bit. After the initial planting, it was almost May before I was able to get much of anything else in the ground.
