Spring, finally!

Finally, spring has arrived here in Zone 5! We are having temperatures in the mid-60s F this week. We've gotten 4 garden beds planted with peas, lettuce, spinach, chard, beans, and onions. Several tomato plants were also set in the greenhouse.

The soil is beautifully crumbly and moist from the layer of leaves we put on last fall. We've not needed to till--dh is using a pitchfork to loosen the soil and break up the clods of dirt. In the process, he has dug up 4 hibernating toads, much to the children's excitement. This has made us rather more reluctant to till since we rather like having toads in the garden and don't relish the idea of chopping them to pieces.
The salad mix that we built a straw bale cold frame around last fall has taken off and is providing us with fresh greens daily. The greens are amazingly tender and mild; I had thought that after overwintering they might be kind of tough. Here you can see the cold frame with one of the old windows we lay across it. It's very low-tech but it works!

And here is one of our salads. The white things on top are sprouted mung beans, from a sprouter we purchased from Johnny's. It was a good investment, particularly for the winter months when we crave anything fresh, green and crunchy!

I love spring!!!