The ground in many areas here has thawed completely! I was able to dig this yesterday. It's not a grave! It's for my coldframe. I built it in the winter, just before I built the bat house. I have an old patio door to use as a lid. This will give you some idea of the size.
It is facing south and a little east, perfect!
The top will go on the coldframe as soon as I get the hinges for it. That's the coldframe in the ground. The boulders are not part of the coldframe. They were all pulled out of the ground when the hole was dug.
I was able to dig here in front of the house and put in some shrubs. One is a lilac, one is a bridal vail spirea. I don't know the name of the other two. They have scented white flowers through the spring and are covered with little red berries in the fall. The big one was quite difficult to dig up. It had been growing behind the chicken house.
I thought it was just too beautiful to grow back there and so I moved it to the new bed in the front of the house. You can see the girls out in the above picture, upper right, enjoying the sunshine. 
The vegetable gardens are not completely ready to plant yet. This is the south garden, still partially covered with snow and ice, as is the north garden in the picture below. It's a good time to get some other, less important, gardening done. 
I have a lot of landscaping to do here. I'm putting in a fieldstone path. It still has a long way to go. I can use those boulders, from the cold frame digging, in this path. I'll be working away at this for quite a few days. 
These are the bag of leaves I picked up last year and didn't get onto the garden before the surprise snow fell and stayed. It came so early last year! I'm going to use them for mulch over the cardboard between the veggie rows.
I have piles of cardboard for the garden. I collected all of this last year and dumped it here to put on the garden last fall. Then the snow came and stayed. The cardboard is still there. I can put it on now and cover it with the thawed leaves, but don't wish to walk in the wet garden until it dries out a bit more. Soon we will be out there, planting our vegetables! It's time to start some indoors for the coldframe.
This is our older, rejuvenated asparagus bed. I covered it with aged chicken manure last spring and fed it throughout the summer. Nope, nothing growing there yet. We wait eagerly every spring for our fresh asparagus. It's delicious!
I planted 50 tiny new ones from seed last year in the north vegetable garden. They were about 8" tall in the fall. I look for good things from those next year, which will be the beginning of their third summer.
A casualty of falling ice from the roof. I will repair him when I can get him out of there. Next year they will be put in a place of safety on the porch for the winter.
My winter sowing should be showing some signs of growth soon. There are some hardy perennials seeded in there that should be coming up.
Too early to uncover the red 'Blaze' rose bushes that grow in the little picket fence. They have to 
be taken down and covered up each fall or they won't bloom the following year. This climbing rose is just not quite hardy enough for our winters. Any part left above the snow line in the winter is killed with no blooms the following year since it only blooms on old wood, so I lay it on the ground and cover it with burlap in the late fall. I also pile leaves on top of the burlap for extra protection.
There is a white perennial sweet pea that climbs on the slanted covered wire. I have plans to put something on that big wooden light post, as well, just don't know what yet. This is my white flower bed, seen from the porch at night. The only thing in it that is not white are the bright red climbing roses on the fence. There are some beautiful Easter lilies in there from last year. They rebloomed after planting and were gorgeous! I'm plan to rescue a few more this year. They have an incredible scent! 
Another winter casualty! The base of this tree is over the fence in the Simcoe County Forest. Do I have the right to clear it from my fence? Hmmm, I think so. Someone will have to cut it down, nonetheless. Pine trees don't make great wood for burning. It's soft wood and there's a lot of pitch.
Now I have access to the hundreds of acorns on the ground from my three huge 
oak trees. I collected a basket full of these to put on grapevine wreaths last fall. I did not get the wreaths done and left the acorns on the porch in a basket and a squirrel ate them throughout the winter. I didn't mind, as I felt a little guilty taking them from the critters in the fall who need them for their winter feed.
This worked out better, however, since he didn't have access to the acorns on the ground in the winter but did have my stash to eat. I may do that next year - collect as many as I can and store them to feed the squirrels and chipmunks in the late winter, but not the field mice.
We have a bit of a problem with the mice in the wintertime. They have the nerve to come into my house! Maybe I'll surprise the mice next year with a cat...maybe not. Our old farm dog wouldn't put up with that. I'll have to stick with mouse traps for now. They seem to work well and only get the ones who come into the house. I have no desire to rid the property of little field mice, as long as they stay where they belong and don't eat the chickenfeed. They venture into the chicken house at their own peril. Those gals go after anything that moves and is small enough, but seem to be afraid of squirrels.
Spring really is here! Fresh vegetables are just around the corner!
