It’s not really spring yet, but for a few hours last night and this morning, it almost feels like it, we had rain last night, not freezing rain but light gentle spring rain,  it hitting on the metal roof was a sound that pushed into my sleep and woke just enough to go.. spring rain.. guess the weather man was right this time and then I drifted back off.

Woke up this morning to ugly site that is just right, let me tell you after a winter of hauling/spreading straw those rains were showing lines of trails, showing muck in the outside bird pens, showing muck under the rabbit hutches etc.. While not pretty in any way its a sure sign of spring on the farm.. they say that we will get to the plus’s for a few hours today before going down into the minus again.

As I was out doing chores, today seemed like a good day to open up our cold hoop house for a quick peek, I wanted to see what the cold house was in temp, and what the temp was under the second floating rows of cover, and was pleased, very pleased indeed.. Much warmer inside then outside by a good ten degree’s, and already my dormant greens are showing signs that soon they will stretch their roots and start growing, and I am really looking forward to it as they will be part of my fresh greens for my March Challange

I also took a look at my cold frames to see how they had done this winter, one will need some work, the others look good from what I can see.. I have a couple moveable cold frames that can go where I need them and I stomped my way though three feet of shushy, heavy wet snow to the spot I needed, and just looked at it.. one of my stinging nettle patches.. Start to shovel and my side and back said NO, guess that it will DH that gets that job right soon.

First we will shovel the snow off the area, building a bank up on all four sides with the snow till we hit the ground, then I will lay heavy black colored Steel sheets down over the space and up and over the sides of the snow hills and let the sun do its job, I will take any snow or rain off the plastic, the snow melting under the banks will keep the area under the steel watered After I can lift the metal and push down into the earth by half an inch, it will all be lifted off and moved to a different area of the garden to start the process again, and over that spot will move one of my cold frames to force the plants in the ground up much much earlier then they would normally come.

I will start working to force one of my rubarb plants to come out early, please remember to change which plant you do this to yearly and that once you get your first pushed crop to let the plant regain its strength for the rest of the season. Last fall, I dug out an split a rubarb plant,  put half the plant into a big five gallon bucket and put the bucket into the cold hoop house, it should come early but only time will tell me how early..

So do you force plants in the spring? if so, what are plants do you do this with? Do you have anything you do that is clever and you are willing to share?