With the snow melting, Jess and I were back out in the yard last night, watering cans and trowels in hand. The lilac bush by the garage is just starting to bud out.

After adding some water to the cold frame, we noticed that the garlic has started to come up. We planted some here and some in a sunny bed about 12 feet away. It will be interesting to see how much of jump the stuff in the cold frame gets.

We also chatted about making slightly more sophisticated cold frames this coming autumn, to give us slightly more square footage and more accessible beds. That will mean moving some strawberries but they could likely stand a change of location anyhow.

The spinach Jess noticed Saturday has been joined by many more friends. It is exciting to see plants come to life. Hopefully the bunnies leave at least some of this for us--although the number I have seen around the neighborhood in the past two weeks is way down--perhaps they have dropped into the valley to mate.

We also found a few new onion shoots. This was a bulb we planted last autumn which is coming up through the leaf litter on the south side of the house.

Around back, we've put up some chicken wire for the beans to climb on. This is a very sunny spot in the morning. On the far right we've just stapled the wire to the fence. I'm keen to try pinot beans that we can dry and save.