Gardening Update

I've been itching to get into my garden these past weeks. But it's been either too cold (and rainy and yucky) to go out or I've been so busy that I haven't been able to take advantage of those nice days. I finally got my chance today (still windy and cold with a little hail, but doable). Here is my spinach that I planted back in March. Even though it was planted early and we have had a mild spring, it's still only got a few leaves. After spending the morning learning about COLD FRAMES at Jeanne's, I have been envisioning cold frames over my boxes, allowing me to produce full grown spinach by April, ready-to-pick lettuce by May and starts ready to transplant by end of May. But gardening has taken a backseat to life and my spinach struggles in the cold. Maybe I'll get those cold frames made by fall and have lettuce until December. I'm dreaming... Today I planted more lettuce, spinach and radish. I also got my peas in the ground. I'm trying something new this year. I usually plant along the long length of my boxes (running East/West). But after some advice from long time gardeners, I oriented them North/South this time. We'll see how they do. My onions arrived in the mail from http://www.dixondalefarms.com/ . They have been sitting in their box for a few weeks. Today they were cheering as I finally got them into the ground. I only pulled back enough plastic for planting the onions. I left the other part of the raised bed covered so that it can get nice and warm for tomatoes - which I will plant in a few weeks. I planted Walla Walla Sweet for eating all summer. I also planted Copra which my Sister-in-law can store for a year. I'm just hoping for more than a few months since I don't have a basement or other cool place to store them in. One final note... all of those metal contraptions laying across my garden boxes and the plastic coverings are to keep the cats from digging and leaving me presents. Previously, I could blame it on the neighbor cats and contemplate the merits of a BB gun. However, now that we have Max and Sophie the blame can't go too far beyond our own house. The problem still remains. Anyone have a good solution to keep cats out of the garden? My raised beds seem to be the favorite litter box in the neighborhood.