AS I NOTED TWO WEEKS AGO in this post I am often a lazy gardener or maybe I’m forward thinking. The bed above was planted last fall with immature shallots and purple potatoes, lettuce starts, of which two are volunteers, the red oakleaf and radicchio. This means I will have heads of lettuce to harvest while I wait for my new starts to reach transplanting size and the potatoes and shallots are months ahead of the normal spring planting schedule and growing well. The air and soil temperatures have been so cool well into April that I have not had the enthusiasm to get the beds tilled and sown. Lettuces and members of the brassica family are sprouting in the coldframe and cukes and squash are starting in the house under lights, along with tomatoes, peppers and eggplants. I haven’t been a complete lazy bones!

Today we are off the see the tulip fields in the Skagit Valley around Mt. Vernon.