Following Skippy's Lead

Early this morning I shoveled a path to the hoophouse.  As expected, the door only narrowly opened.  I tried to chip away ice at the base of the door and, unfortunately, made a small cut in the plastic sheeting that will need patching this spring.  With the temperature rising above freezing most of this week, I will practice patience and wait a few days to begin organizing the hoophouse.

Kathy at Skippy's Vegetable Garden is running a little experiment.  She shoveled off snow from one of her raised beds to see if its soil becomes "workable" sooner than an unshoveled bed.  I'm curious, too, and decided to join her!

Now which outdoor raised bed to dig out?? The ones surrounding the hoophouse are definitely out of the question, having at least three feet of drifted snow above them.  The raised bed closest to the shed is a better choice.  As you can see, I will still have my work cut out for me!

The BEFORE

Too much shoveling last month left me with a tender back.  Not wanting to further delay its healing, I only did half of the "big dig" this morning. I will finish the job tomorrow.

Half-way done!

I'd like to start planting "greens" in this outdoor bed as well as in the hoophouse in early April.  If that's the case, I had better to start sowing arugula, lettuce, kale and spinach seeds indoors this week to have transplants ready on time.

UPDATE: I finally finished shoveling off the raised bed on Thursday, March 12th:

The AFTER

The Alliums Get a Haircut

The onion, leek and shallot seedlings had "haircuts" today.  I snipped off the top two inches or so.  While I was working on those containers, I decided to thin out the seedlings as well.  I must remember to sow allium seeds more sparsely next year.  They always have better germination than expected.  Yes, thinning onions in containers is tedious, but it is far less painful than thinning carrots or beets in the garden.

Postscript #1 - There were signs of germination from Wave Petunias (sowed March 2, 7 days), Petunia Mixed Colors (sowed March 2, 7 days), Tetra Ruffled Snapdragons (sowed February 28, 9 days), echinacaea (sowed February 28, 9 days), and coleus (sowed March 4, 5 days).