Bah phooey on this spring

We've had a rotten spring in the Pacific Northwest!  It's been, on average, 5-10 degrees colder than normal.  Today the forecasted high was a full 11 degrees below normal.  I've planted several things over and over in the hopes that the soil temp will rise enough to get the seeds to germinate.  So far I've been pretty unsuccessful out back. 

More proof of the craptacular spring:

• I'm wearing sweats and a bulky wool sweater as I type this.  In the middle of June.  BAH.
• We turned off the heat in May... then turned it back on.
• The storm windows are still on the house, a full month late.
• Last weekend's temps above 70 were the first in 9 months.  Nine months, people!

Would you believe that I've planted carrots twice already and this is all that's come up?  I also planted parsnips and got nothing.  Notice the big empty area at the bottom right.  I pruned the apple tree after taking this pic.

This photo was taken in June.

And this one was taken in March.  Arg!

We've gotten some lettuce but that's about it from the back yard.  The front is faring far better and I'll show pics of that later this week.

Keep this up and there will be no green beans at our house unless I find a place for them out front.

In case you think that this patch looks suspiciously like weeds, you're right.  I recently saw "organic chickweed" at the farmers market for $2/bundle.  Are you KIDDING?!?  That stuff is a nuisance!  I grabbed a nibble and was shocked again.  It's delicious.  So, what the hell.  It's organic in my yard, too.  As I weeded last weekend I left a small patch behind the yellow squash.  By the time I get around to weeding that patch again, it'll be primed for a yummy salad of some kind.

The sunlight in our backyard is, shall I say, "filtered".  OK, it's very shady, as evidenced by the roaring health of the hostas.  G-man and I are talking about moving the veggie garden entirely to the front yard for 2011 and letting this area revert to grass.  Our back yard is small, and made smaller by my affection for large plants, so having some grass and not worrying about chickens eating our veggies would be nice.

Speaking of the girls, I've been blocking off the area between our house & our neighbors' home and letting the girls eat, scratch, dustbathe, and dig to their hearts' content as long as we're home to keep an eye on them.  In just a couple of hours they can completely cover this walkway with dirt they've excavated from the bed on the left.  The "damage" here was done in less than 30 seconds.