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How about that weekend? High 60’s both days? Come on! Hope you got outside.

We did and got some garden prep in. In particular, we prepped the tomato bed. See, normally, we get bushels of tomatoes, more than we can eat, so many we leave them in a bowl out round front of the house, we beg neighbors to take them. But last year: bupkis. A barely enough for a sandwich.

Clearly, last summer was an oddity in many ways, but still, we thought we’d take no chances, so we built ourselves a cloche, a strategy that served us well in the past. A cloche, if you’re curious (and you’ve read this far, so I’m assuming you are), is something like a mini-greenhouse you build over your garden bed. In our case, we made it using PVC pipe stuck into pieces of rebar, with plastic sheeting pulled over the top and held in place with clips:

If you’re considering following suit, we’d advise doing it somewhat in advance of actually planting your garden. Having the soil under the cloche for a week or two prior warms the soil, so that it’s ready for your seeds or starts. For warmer-weather plants like tomatoes, go ahead and leave it on through late-May and into June.

We’re no expert gardeners, but, like we said, we’ve had success with tomatoes in good years. So much so, in fact we had to buy special, industrial strength, Texas-sized tomato cages from http://www.tomatocage.com/.

For actual expert gardeners, of course, go to Seattle Tilth at the Good Sheperd Center. We’ll remind you before their big Edible Plant Sale on May 2nd, but if you want to start your planning now, you might want to invest in their Maritime Northwest Garden Guide. Carl Elliott and Rob Peterson do a great job of laying out the considerations for a Wallingford garden, month-by-month.