LOL- like I said, sounds just like my area. Now I must go look mine up.
I know someone who had a whole side of his garage covered with chayote plants. This was in the East Bay. They ate a lot of it and canned it, too.
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Good for you!
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DH’s latest strawberry project.
We typically grow a lot of strawberries - both in raised beds and in the ground. He’s now trying some in small portable troughs, which he’s moved out to one of our sunnier spots. The lusher plants you see spent the last few months in a cold frame; the others have been roughing it outdoors. His idea is to tuck all the troughs away in cold-frames this fall for wintering over.
These are first year plants, so I don’t know how much they’ll produce this year. The idea is to thin any berries hard this year, and hopefully get fewer, bigger berries. The micromanaging will give him something to futz over - win, win!
ETA: The variety is “Rainier”. A local PNW favorite.
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Oh wow! I think I’m going to let the raspberries take over the strawberry bed this year. We have ‘strawberry weevils’ that end up living in the house and are very annoying (especially when they drop into tha cat’s water from above, overnight), but I never saw any in the strawb bed. The sneaky ground squirrels would get the strawberries by burrowing under the beds and somehow getting around the netting I had put up. SO FRUSTRATING! I don’t like store bought strawberries, knowing what I would see at the farms on the CA coast.
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We’re thinking we’ll have to position some flash strips over these to keep the birds off - wish us luck! 
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I use old CDs on fishing line.
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Pea-envy!
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Not sure which vegetable yet- I decided to dig up the garden after I had planted a few things on a warm day a couple weeks ago.
Kale that survived the winter
Gooseberry and a strawberry
Unseasonably warm temperatures in southwestern Ontario
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If you line the saw horses/plants into one strip, a length of Avigard bird netting could help if some support is added to keep the net away from the fruit. That’s what I do for blueberries. Otherwise, the birds would take them all.
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That top seedling sure looks like a radish, or other brassica.
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Lucky you! Johnny’s Seeds finally released the reselected Sugar Snaps, which took years to clean up from off types. I planted some two years ago and they all were true to type. Ten years ago, flat snow peas showed up and other genetic contaminants. That made saving seed less attractive, as the issue tended to get worse.
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My kale survived the winter, but I wanted to use the pot for something else, so I cut the tops off and put them in water so they wouldn’t wilt. And they grew roots! So I guess I’ll replant them.
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I’ve planted a ton of different brassica /mustard/ Radish family vegetables including radishes, kale, Choi sum, and mixed greens, arugula on warm days.
I will recognize most of them once they are a little bigger! Dropping from 26 ° C (79 ° F) today to - 1°C (30°F) on Tue night, so we will see what survives the cold spells. I live in a region that can have a killing frost until June 1, so anything I plant in March, April or May is a gamble that I’m used to! I get more serious about labeling and rows in June! Some other things that I’ve planted.
The plant in the tomato cage is a Saskatoon berry bush that I planted last year.
The oregano is a perennial from last year.
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That’s a complex topic! There are more soil recipes and types than there are recipes for tacos! What then happens over time depends on a myriad of factors, including:
Does the soil dry out? Yes = it tends to decompose organics slower; microbes don’t like drying out.
Are organic fertilizers containing medium to high amounts of nitrogen used? Yes= microbes can use that nitrogen to more quickly decompose cellulose-based components, bark, peat, compost, etc. No=Many inorganic fertilizers impede microbial growth, at least for a while.
What are the temperature ranges the soil reaches? Warmer=faster decay of organics.
What’s the pH? More acidic = slower decay. A more neutral pH, which plants usually prefer, favors decomposition.
Was there any sign of (pathogenic) disease in any of the plants growing in that soil? Yes= Don’t reuse it!
And the list goes on…
If the structural properties and lack of muck formation seem ok and there’s good aeration, with no history of pathogenic disease, it’s entirely possible to reuse soil if it gets replenished with some compost and especially nutrients often lacking in conventional fertilizers, specifically Calcium, Magnesium, and Iron.
Roots enter the picture, too. If one crop, say a legume, finishes its life cycle and you just cut the tops away, the roots have added organics and nitrogen to the media/soil. Even non-legumes can add useful organic materials, as long as the plants die from causes other than pathogens. Since the tomato family, Solanaceae is famous for issues with pathogens, it’s probably wiser to pull those out, just in case.
I have a Thai Makrut Lime that has been in the same pot and soil for over 15 years and is doing fine. Whatever organics decomposed doesn’t seem to matter. There must be roots growing and decomposing in there. I just keep fertilizing it with a mix of fertilizers.
So many variables!
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