I have a massive case of Spring Fever!!!

.....and the only medication is planting some seeds!!!  I started a tray of 23 different varieties of peppers on 2/3/2013.  Not every variety has germinated, but I have a good amount of baby pepper plants!  Its so much fun to go down to the basement daily and check to see what has changed.  I have set up my time lapse camera which is taking a photo once a day, so I'll create a video from that in a month or so.  Here is some photos of the peppers as they are today (2/12/13).

About 75% of these are hot peppers.  =)  My gardening friends on Your Garden Show didn't
nickname me "Pepper Queen" for nothing last year...  have to work hard to keep my title!!

These are bell peppers - King of the North (green ones on right) and Black Hungarian (darker one on left)
King of the North is supposed to be a great heirloom for us Northern pepper growers.

Love this macro lens photo of the Lemon Drop hot pepper.

My seed purchases this year came from 2 sources:  the D. Landreth Seed company which is THE oldest seed company in the US (1794!) and almost went out of business so was doing my part to help keep a part of American Gardening history alive (www.landrethseeds.com).

Landreth seed order

My biggest seed order was my fav Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Co.  (www.rareseeds.com), their annual seed catalog is gardeners heaven... and a great coffee table book with all the great photography of rare varieties in it. 

Baker Creek seed order

  

Today was a nice sunny day with high temp of about 40, so walked around outside trying to find signs of Spring - which is 35 days away!

Tulips

Columbine starting to show new growth!

Lilacs budding out.

Forsythia buds

Narcissus/Daffodil  and Glory-of-the-Snow in the back

Weeping Pussy Willow has catkins already

 

Chives coming back by the back door

Sedum starting to pop their heads out.

The next project I will have on my hands is to add wooden sides to the rest of my garden beds.   I will be removing more wood panels from the red barn to use, hopefully that will give me enough so I don't have to buy more boards.   Its still really wet right now, so will have to put down lots of newspaper in the paths if I try to start digging the sides.  I need to thrown on some cover crop seeds (oats & field peas) for the beds that will have the later planted crops like peppers and tomatoes.  

2 beds have the sides, 7 more beds to go...

The celery made it thru this winter with flying colors in the cold frame!!  I had chopped it all down to the ground so it actually grew quick a bit in there!

I was super happy that I had no issues with the winds taking off
the tops of the cold frame, surprised actually!

Found one of last years oregano plants made it thru the winter without any protection!

Wish I could say that the rest of the winter would be nice and sunny with temps in the 40's like today, but I know better.... in fact I wouldn't be surprised if we still get more snow (grh).  But seeing the changes in things outside make me know Spring is indeed near, and I can't wait to be busy working in my yard till its dark out with lots of dirt under my nails!  Its the time of year I look forward to the most!  The rebirth of things that once looked dead, and even more so, the rebirth of my soul.