It's hiding. I just looked and the spring countdown clock says there are 24 days, 12 hours and 39 seconds til it arrives. Spring is hidden under more than 30cm of snow.

I thought it may have nudged Mother Nature in the right direction this past week but the forecast for this weekend leads me to believe this isn't the case.

The overnight low is supposed to plummet to -31C again and the daytime highs are still in the minus mid-teens. I had to create my own spring.

There were a couple days where the sun came out and I managed to get some snowshoeing in. What a treat! Bluebird sky and warm sun rays. It was beautiful.
Back home where the garden beds are under more than a foot of snow and the shrub branches are bare, I decided to create some spring inside.

I dug out my little indoor greenhouse and brought it upstairs. The seeds for the garden got ordered and the seeds left over from last year got planted into their little pots.
 
Gladiolus bulbs from last spring got planted and they have sprouted their new growth. Tulip bulbs that I was forcing have bloomed and are showing off their spring colors. 

I found some information on square foot gardening and I am going to change my way of growing garden vegetables. This method makes so much sense in every way if raised garden beds are used. 

Why do you need to plant in rows? You don't. Space is not required to walk or to cultivate the garden so why waste the precious space. Square foot gardening is planting using the seed spacing; not the row spacing in garden beds. One can double or even triple food production by following this method.

I created the garden beds on an excel spreadsheet and divided up each 4 foot bed into 16 squares. Each square gets planted with vegies according to their seed spacing. When I began plotting out my squares as to what will be planted where, I was left with many blank squares because my method of planting is changing. I can see how production can be increased. This will be a fun experiment.

If you have raised garden beds, search out square foot gardening and read up on it while the snow still blankets the beds. Let me know if you agree with the concept or if you are already square foot gardening.

The garden beds are wearing snow blankets.

I created some spring by forcing tulip bulbs inside.

So much wasted space in the garden beds.  Square foot gardening will change that this year.

Using a trellis will create more growing space as it takes crops in a vertical direction.

My square foot garden plan for the upcoming season.  The spaces not filled in will be used for succession planting and for trying new crops.