The plants are laid out in stupid, boring rows. I doubt I'll ever do that again.

The rows are protected by big pebbles, to keep the squirrels from digging there. Over top of the pebbles are twigs and vines from last year's beans and dill, to keep the cats from walking on the seedlings. The plants are growing up through the twigs, which we'll probably let compost right where they are.

The clay pot is planted with thyme.

These carrots are guarded by last's summer's dill. This is good only if you don't mind some volunteer dill plants.

And speaking of volunteer dill plants, here's one now. Besides serving as a cooking herb, dill attracts beneficial insects.

Growing next to this beet is another volunteer, a bok choi. We let one of last fall's bok choi go to seed, and this January, we found we had a dozen little plants.

A California poppy is trying to grow between them. Those things get huge! This one isn't long for this world.

The light frosts we had in January may have been too much for these stunted beet and lettuce plants. After 6 weeks, these pups should be much leafier by now.