We had just a slight dusting of snow on the ground this morning, and then on and off mixed rain and snow all day -- this was a pretty flimsy showing for the "traditional" St. Patrick's Day snowstorm here! (however, I am not complaining )

Noticed today that my bleeding hearts (Dicentra) are starting to poke up out of the ground

A dusting here too, but we need the moisture-it is very dry here too.

My Allium giganteum and daffodils are beginning to pop up. We had another light dusting of snow overnight, but the sun was out and the temp went up to 40F today, and that new stuff plus more of the old snow has gone away. And we're pumping out the crawl space... another sign of spring!

My winter sowing sprouted last week Tuesday. Hostas are poking up as well as life showing on the irises.

Te ground is thawed about 8" down. I have plastic on my raised beds warming the soil. Will be planting spinach as arugula soon.

crocus are blooming and I saw the buds on the elderberry's stretching today. Bluebirds are hanging around, robins and redwinged blackbirds? ( I am sure I heard one today) are around, too.

I get really depressed when the UP and Minnesota are way warmer than I am. Things sprouting?? Not a chance. Ground still like concrete. I finally tore all the old poly off the boards that go on each side of my raised beds. So picture a 1x2x8' with poly secured to hit by lathe, then a good 8' across another 1x2x8' and also secured. I put the pvc over the top of the beds by placing each end in drilled holes on each side then pitch one board over the top which carries the poly with it. Secure the boards to the sides of the raised beds with C-clamps. I need to build new poly covers. Guess that means cleaning up the garage a bit more to make room to do that. Too cold and yukky outside.

Stuff (vegies and flower seedlings) doing well in the garage greenhouse (lighted rolling racks). I need to start more seeds soon. That would give me a six week lead to being able to at least move them to the raised beds in pots, if not actually planted.

LOL, Mary -- if it's any consolation, things are happening really early here this year... the past two years we were still buried in snow at this time.

Yesterday we got a huge 6-8" dump of very heavy snow. It is quickly melting off where it hasn't been beaten down to ice. Well, everywhere but my back yard garden that is nice plumped up and will remain so for at least a week or more.

Mary, that wasn't very nice to get stuck with that much snow on the ground on the 1st day of spring, I hope it melts quickly.

I was happy to see today that the robins are back, and the ice has gone out on the Ford River (not a big river, just near where I live...)

My dependable Shooting Stars are growing. They never fail me. Also columbine are greening up. Have to start updating my database for dates of growth. One tiny peony pip showing also. And my one big koi has come out of the caves of hibernation from the winter. Soooo glad he has survived. I am sure the chickweed is sure to follow. Tons of it laying on the ground from last year still green. I guess the preen won't help me with them but I will preen anyway and keep pulling and digging it to at least keep my garden from being over run.

We got up to abut 4 inches of snow this morning, still lightly snowing but it is warming up and already starting to melt, 34 degrees.

Oh yuk Margaret. I can take the slow warming but snow this time of year is always such a downer. I know it will melt quickly but still. I still have ice all around the yard with a few clumps of snow where it was shoveled from one place to another. But stuff is greening. 'Slowly, ever slowly' as the aluminum foil stitcher said. lol. Anyone remember her. She was the one in the tower that was sowing 'x's' onto Kaiser aluminum foil, oh about 50 years ago on tv.

It didn't warm up at all yesterday, it was windy with blowing snow or rain for most of the day, thankfully nothing stuck. Today is mostly sunny 32F, but with the sun it should warm up some.

Mary, I do not recall the foil thing, maybe it was just an America thing, pretty funny.

It snowed about 6 inches last night but the temperature is up to 38F (3.3C) so it's melting pretty fast. However there's another 6 inches forecast for tonight and tomorrow night. The temperature, during the day, is above freezing though so it not to bad. I started my tomato seeds and some flower seeds. The only reason I planted the flower seeds so early was they were slow germinator's, up to 21 days. Most of them are already sprouting! We start heating the greenhouse the first of May so they can go there until it's warm enough outside to plant them.
It seems like winter just doesn't want to end this year. We generally get a few nice days in between but not so far. I want to go outside and play in the dirt!

My garlic is sprouting (a new development since the snow from the last storm has pretty much melted), and I saw a couple of red-wing blackbirds today!

Looks like a few colder days with rain/snow showers are coming up, though

I noticed today that some of the daylilies close to the house are starting to show new growth.

Supposed to be nice for the next few days, hoping to get the crabapple trees pruned.

We are holding above 35 during the day but really breezy and wet. But stuff is growing. Peony pips, columbine, azaleas, hosta, sedge, iris... all depending on where they are located in the garden. I think the delphiniums in front of the house close to the foundation are sending up shoots also. Every day there will be more.

One of my favorite signs of spring today... the weather has finally turned nice again so I was outside doing some cleanup in the garden and a ruffed grouse (aka partridge) was "drumming" somewhere nearby in the woods

At last! Two days ago the temp was 13F in the morning but today it got in the 70's. I got to work outside for awhile but I'm still nervous about the weather as there is a chance for snow again Monday. We were warm for a couple weeks in March so lost all the snow cover early and got the crocus and Helleborus going. Then got very cold which damaged the blooms on the Helleborus and the crocus wouldn't even open. But the crocus were cheerful today!