Thinking of Spring...

Well it is definitely feeling more like Spring lately around here as the birds are singing, the snow is melting, and the daytime temps are reaching into the 50s F!

Here is a few bird pictures taken at our bird feeder.

Cardinal and Tufted Titmouse

Male Cardinal

Not much new has been happening with the garden, but last weekend we started some seeds.  We are still using the trusty Android program Timothy made to keep us on schedule with when things need to be done.  If you haven't heard about our Garden Time program you can get it here.  We did a "Season Reset" from last year which reset all the dates for this year, then reviewed all the crops in the list, adding new items for this year.  We have 159 items in our list.  This does include several sets of multiple varieties of the same crop we are planting. For example, we have 12 varieties of tomatoes we are trying this year.  We also have multiple entries for the same crop used in staggered plantings such as lettuce, beets and radishes.  Included in the mix are herbs, and flowers so it all adds up.

Here Shannon started 16 different kinds of seeds in her seed starting tray. Timothy found the seed packet in the box and updated Garden Time with the tag number on each Popsicle stick to keep track of what is started where.  Some of the things early on our list to start were cabbage (2 varieties), onions (4 varieties), parsley (4 varieties) and a cactus mix just for fun.

Newly filled seed starting tray with number designations

Watering the starts with a spray bottle.

Lots of newly sprouted seeds.

Here is a picture of our raised beds #11 and #12 from last week.  You can see how the sun has been causing the beds to heat up and the snow to melt faster on the southern side.  Currently there is still lots of snow on the ground but these tall beds are snow free.