Forecast: Cold, Wet Spring with a few Gorgeous Weekends

My new raised beds are finally done. The drip system is up and running. All is ready for planting – except the weather. I could look on the bright side and welcome the life giving rain. It's the under- 50 degree weather that bothers me. How are cucumber seeds supposed to sprout when the soil is so cold? I have all these beautiful seeds ready to be planted – seedlings ready to be transplanted and I wonder if they'll be able to grow let alone thrive.

Ah, gardening in the Northwest. My yard is awash in every vivid shade of green. Rhododendrons are blooming and the tree peonies are thinking about it. The spirea shrubs are vivid yellow and orange with new growth while the Japanese maples bring deep and shockingly bright shades of copper and magenta alive. The palate of new growth is beautiful and I have to admit that my gardens have matured quite well. All those plant choice decisions nine years ago have pretty much held up under the scrutiny of growth and proper placement.

And yet it is the vegetable garden that calls to me. I'm thinking about row covers and mulch. Cold frames and greenhouse lights. I'm weighing the costs of being able to gently speed production against the chance to simply allow nature to guide my hand. Surrender to the cold weather and delay my plantings or fight to have cucumbers a few days earlier. I've just reminded myself about the experiment I ran last year – I grew cuke and pumpkin seedlings under a borrowed greenhouse light. I diligently watered and tended those delicate little seedlings until mid May. I transplanted them into the garden and dropped some of the exact same seeds into waiting mounds of soil nearby. Within a month all of the plants were indistinguishable.

Cold frames and row covers offer up the same thing – they allow me to extend my chance to play in the dirt and tend green things but honestly, that's about it. In the grand scheme of harvesting – it matters not. If I was surviving off of these crops it might be different – and I'm not. The farmer's markets opened last weekend. So these cold and wet days are hardly anything new it is simply my desire to be outside in balmy sunny weather. Living in California for twenty five years has created an inviolate longing for sun in April and May. My impatience is bred into my very bones so that this cycle of cool, cloudy spring weather never feels right.

Letting go once again means that I get to find the joy in the mystery of not knowing exactly what will pop up and thrive this summer. And when the sun is shining – I'll be outside enjoying it.