The smell of fresh cut grass and the sound of birds in flight!

Spring is here! The grass is turning green our trees are budding. Our garden has signs of garlic, asparagus, raspberries, and strawberries waking from their long winter slumber. It is going to be our second full summer in our home and I am so excited to have a big garden that I can tend to and grow our food in our backyard!

Our Garlic was planted in October and is showing signs that it is thriving!

Our Strawberries have spread over the winter! 

This year I decided to start my veggies from seed, instead of buying transplants from a local store. I searched high and low for the best place to obtain organic seeds that would thrive in our zone 4's short growing season; after a lot of research I decided on Seed Savers Exchange, Seeds of Change, and Sow True Seed. Once our seeds arrived I turned our basement guest room into a greenhouse that allows my plants to have a comfortable growing area away from little fingers and a nosy 4 legged beast.

The boys had fun helping transplant our pre-germinated seeds into soil.

Our pre-germinated Parade Cucumber seeds ready to transplant.

Our Guatemalan Blue Banana Squash seeds ready to transplant. 

Last week I got to transplant our peas (snap and snow) into our garden, they are cold weather crop and can be moved outside in the middle of April. I also planted our lettuce, spinach, carrots (2 varieties, little fingers and tendersweet), and potatoes( 3 varieties) in our containers on our deck. This week I will be transplanting my broccoli, kale and my onions outside as well. I found out this year that kale is a perennial in zone 4, so I get to plant it once and year after year it will come up along with all  my other perennial produce... HOW AWESOME IS THAT?!?!??! Yup I did a little happy dance ;)

Our Pea transplants moved to their permanent home!

Our three varieties of potatoes ready to go into some dirt! 

I am so excited to garden again this year! The kids are really excited to garden again as well! I love that it teaches them how to take responsibility and help out as a member of the family but also how rewarding it is for them to see that they put the seeds in the paper towels, then in the dirt inside, to move them to the dirt outside and lastly to get to pick fresh fruit and vegetables from it! 

Do you garden? If so what is your favorite thing to grow? If you don't, what are you waiting for? It is seriously the best thing ever!!!! Have a great day :)