Hi lonmower, Congrats on your Fava bean. Glad to see you back and reporting on your fall cover crops. As you know, I have been of the opinion that as of MID OCTOBER, it was too late to start any cover crop from seeds.But I could be proven wrong. I mixed some fall leaves in my beds and covered them with plastic, to keep the rain our and hopefully to keep it warmer for the micro organisms to stay active. I won't remove the cover untilll April 014. Anyway, we have had one of the coldest Decembers on record around PNW. However, October and November were normal. Our weather is good for cold crop, BUT I think you have to start them early so they can get them established by early October. Otherwise they will just hang in there. I am looking forward for spring cool crop. And for that I have built a cold frame where I can germinate seeds early. This is going to be a new experiment for me here. It is quite a challenge to germinate seeds in cold soil. But once the cool crops germinate(indoor , cold frame ..), they will grow in cool spring weather.

Michel, I have been thinking about getting a greenhouse from BC Greenhouses too, but first I do think their prices are very high and I can't even imaging the shipping costs. Plus, I am not very handy at building structures, so I am worried about being able to properly put up the greenhouse once it does arrive...especially building a proper base for it. Ideally, I would want a concrete floor just because I like the fact that it's easy to clean and bugs can't get in. Bob, I have looked at some of HF stuff, but again I don't want a greenhouse that would require extras on my part cause I ain't handy! And that's the truth. I am still hoping someone in the Toronto area in Ontario would give me an idea of where I could get a really good greenhouse and have someone install it for me. That would be ideal for me. Thank you all for your responses. You have been very helpful. Dasheen

Jay, I always worry about that kind of weather-induced bolting and some years it is inevitable because onions are biennials. I am particularly worried about it this year, just because we've had such abnormally cool weather much of this winter. For anyone reading this who is new or fairly new to growing onions, the key is that onions which are less than the diameter of a No. 2 pencil (approx. 1/4") generally will not bolt even if exposed to temperatures below 45 degrees Fahrenheit for a prolonged period of time. Once the onions have reached 1/4" in diameter, prolonged or repeated exposure to temps below 45 degrees push them into dormancy, and they 'think' that dormancy signals the end of their first year of growing. Then, when they warm up and start growing again, it is the second year and they do what biennials do in their second year.....they send up a flower stalk to set seed. I don't know any way to prevent that sort of bolting because it is a natural process. The best chance of preventing it likely would be to grow them under a low tunnel and hope the low tunnel keeps them warm enough during cold spells that they aren't pushed into dormancy. It might work even better with a frost blanket added inside the low tunnel Eliot Coleman-style during colder spells. I guess you could keep the low tunnel warmer by painting milk jugs or 2-liter or 3-liter bottles black, filling them with water and using them as solar collectors. With low tunnels, I'd be worried about excess humidity on sunny humid days though. (sigh) Jeff, I think we only have two kinds of growing seasons here....those that are too wet and those that are too dry. I am not sure which is worse. As much as I hate drought, I almost think I'd rather have drought than a rainy year. At least in a rainy year, you can irrigate, at least for as long as you can afford the water bill and as long as you are not under mandatory water rationing. In a wet, year, though, we can't vacuum up the excess moisture out of the ground. I've had the idea in my head for months that this would be "the year of the bean" because my beans didn't produce well last year, and of course, it is always the year of the tomato at our house. However, I'm starting to fear it will be "the year of mud and floods". Dawn

Ooh I see. Thank you so much for your help! I planted garlic yesterday and I think that is all I will plant in the winter, edible wise haha; The cold and rain doesn't really motivate me to go outside as much as the summer weather does, to garden haha. I hear that that rain here washes away our soil, I don't know if that compacts it too. I have some native soil in the bottom of some of the beds, which maybe why it becomes hard during the winter. I do have one new raised bed though that is mostly full of veggie gardening soil from a local nursery and is very loose, so hopefully that will be easy to spade in the spring. I am still waiting for my cucumbers, beans, and peppers to die off then I can try putting cover crops in those beds because the nursery manager said that we can plant cover crops in our area until mid-November and that I should wait for my plants in the beds to die off first. I live across the river from Portland, in Vancouver. Although, I want to try bringing in at least one jalapeno pepper to prune and transplant in the spring. Do have experience or know how to do that successfully in our area? I have watched videos about it, but none of them were in the NW. Maybe the location doesn't matter though. I almost forgot to say that I bought some crimson clover and dutch white clover to try to cover crop with. The nursery said to watch for birds, so they don't eat the seeds because you don't cover them with dirt. If so, it's very little dirt he said. You learn something new every year while gardening! :-)