The Winter Garden

Y'all, I'm getting excited for spring!  Three weeks ago I gave birth to our third child, a 10 pound 10 ounce healthy boy (details here).  I feel a million times better than I have in nine months!

Yesterday I went to the garden for the first time in months.  Oh boy - it looks different from this fall.

First of all, the garden fairies built a compost bin.  It looks great!  Who wants to take credit for it?  All we need now is more compost.  :)

Looks like Clay Paul sowed some winter wheat as soil-enriching ground cover.  And, it looks like his mint survived the cold snap.

The main reason I went to the garden was to dump our ash bucket on my plot.  My parents scatter their fireplaces ashes on their garden so I thought I'd follow suit.  You can read more about using ashes to amend the soil here.  Our next bucket will be scattered in our yard.  We've loved burning a fire this winter!

 I suppose technically I should have had a soil sample taken first.  I'll put that on my "to do" list.

 I'm getting excited for spring!  The daffodils are poking up their sleepy heads in my flower beds.