Gardening in the snow

Allright, there is not any snow involved when we're planting. But the late frosts are a risk. This year we lost all our apples to late frosts. The latest frost date in our part of the world is May 21st -and we nearly matched that this year. Having a late frost date did mean that we were still looking for sprouts when Shana was showing off her beautiful bountiful harvest.
The only things we'd gotten at that point from our garden were purslane (which we don't plant and is really a weed) and rabbits. Lots of rabbits.
Purslane is actually worthwhile. It literally grows like a weed. We've had to protect the lettuce and spinach from it so that they're not overrun. And the tomatoes. We've had it in salads and cooked it like spinach. We've pulled more than we've eaten. Lots more. But it is good. And I have confirmed in the field that uprooted purslane can continue to live for weeks and produce seeds.
Rabbits were at first a nuisance. They ate all our pea plants last year. They may have remained just a nuisance but last winter before the snow came I cut down a diseased crabapple tree and didn't get it cleaned up until spring. In the spring we found rabbit droppings everywhere around the tree, and the bark had been chewed off on many of the branches. By providing a good winter food source I inflated the problem this summer.
When they ate the broccoli plants a friend gave us we sighed and planted extra asparagus there. When the spinach didn't come up and we thought it was because the rabbits were aggressively consuming the sprouts (which were hidden among the purslane) we just shook our heads and talked about traps. When they nibbled the young corn. I casually asked around about borrowing a trap and asked the kids if they'd eat rabbit stew. When the rabbits started clipping my asparagus plants (those not planted in the bed formerly known for broccoli) I went and spent some of my own money to get a trap.
We've caught and disposed of five at this point. We haven't eaten any. It isn't worth the hassle to butcher them one at a time. Cottontails are small creatures, averaging only 1-2 pounds of meat when full grown - and some I've caught have not been full grown. (Domesticated rabbits bred for meat can weigh 15 pounds.)
Though the visible night-time population of our yard has dropped, there are at least two more I'm after. They've been eating Snoozer's beet greens. And they're still clipping the tips of my asparagus. Anybody have a beagle they can loan me for a few weeks?