N&C Midwest March 2015

Herblover
Like you, my boxes and my yard are finally clear of snow!  If the soil is workable it'll be nice to plant lettuce and time it with the rain that's predicted later on. 
I'm heading out to see if I can possibly poke around into last Autumn's compost heaps a bit. Picked up soybean meal yesterday to see if I can make a successful Berkeley Heap in cool temperatures.  Tomorrow I'll be up in your neck of the woods for a bluebird seminar at the Stratford Nature Preserve. I'm so ready for Spring activities ! 
 

This is always a strange thread to follow, geographically, because so many of you are north of us. We haven't had snow on the ground for weeks, and the ground has been mostly thawed for a week. Gets me confused sometimes. LOL. Hope ya'll thaw out quickly...I know we're all itching to get dirty.

You're right Slimbolen99. 
Our region covers parts or whole of about 13 states and a portion of Canada.  My location is just about straight and east of you.  But with 4 states between us there sure can be a huge difference in growing conditions. It's helpful to compare notes with local SFG members or be in contact with your local Extension Ofc. for help too. 

slimbolen99 wrote:This is always a strange thread to follow, geographically, because so many of you are north of us. We haven't had snow on the ground for weeks, and the ground has been mostly thawed for a week. Gets me confused sometimes. LOL. Hope ya'll thaw out quickly...I know we're all itching to get dirty.

So true! I got dirty today for the first time. Snow is finally gone and I got to clean up some of the scruff from the fall clean-up that wasn't. Several areas that had deep leaf cover are still frozen but at least I made a start!

Today I continued to take advantage of our 74F weather.  This week we have been consistently 20-30 degrees ABOVE average temps.  We should be bracing for the last few blizzards of the season, but instead I got 6 of my 7 boxes cleaned out, one box set up as the new compost box - complete with the plastic chicken 'wire' enclosing it, and cleaned out the spiral herb bed.  I tried to move the volunteer hollyhocks that are invading the driveway but only the first 2 inches of ground are actually thawed, so I could not get the shovel in far enough to get out that tap root!  

In the coming week we are supposed to be back down in the 40's for highs, but even that is better than 4 feet of snow and -15.

PS - just found out that it actually hit 76F, a new record high, old high was 64F set in 2003. Average date to hit that high temp is 4-20, so we are over a month early for these temps.

Well, I am glad I took advantage of the great spring temps when they were here, as we are now under another blanket of white.  Supposed to be up to 1 inch today with another 1/2 inch tonight.  We already have 4 inches on the ground.......