Yup, that’s my fingernails too. Don’t you just love getting your hands into the dirt?
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I just cut my fingernails really short 
This is the herb garden a few weeks ago, just after planting some new ones. Left to right:
Parsley
Oregano
Tarragon (a real surviver that comes back year after year)
Fancy basil with red leaves (front)
Chives (back)
The chives also grow back after the winter. I’ve started to find new tufts of chives in that planter. It’s just so nice to get something fresh and green in early spring. Later in the season the bumblebees enjoy the flowers.
This was early spring when it first started growing:
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Hilled up the potatoes and added straw. I also weeded the new asparagus and strawberry bed and mulched with straw.
We have been having salads and tonight will saute up some garlic scapes. I love it when the garden starts feeding us.
Unfortunately the rabbits or ground hog decimated the peas.
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Vegtrugs are actually doing better than I expected. Planted late with seedling leftovers from the very last minute 99 cent sale of the season!
Self-seeded amaranth is already monsterous in the dirt hole that used to be a garage. I’ll shake these seeds all over the neighbourhood this autumn so they go wild everywhere. They are spectacular.
Some dirtbag neighbour has been driving their car down our section of alleyway & completely trampling the raspberry cane, hostas, & lilies. Go around! We are in the very middle of the lane with no parking nearby & there’s an entrance on either end so this is some sort of sh!tty maliciousness, ugh.
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Some people just hate plants and think they’re actually doing the world a favour by destroying them.
I hardly ever see anyone using the alleyway here but the times I’ve tried to grow anything there, they were still destroyed. We’ve had some change in neighbours so I might try again next year.
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The garden have started delivering!
Fresh cucumber for dinner.
Tiny carrots. I’m harvesting those that grow too close to other carrots. I could have thinned them out earlier, but it feels like win-win when I can eat the small carrots instead of throwing away tiny ones.
The snow peas are coming along nicely. It’s an old swedish heritage variety.
The flower cress is nice too, but I planted it by mistake. Dropped a seed when potting the rest of them probably. The purposely planted ones have much smaller leaves, but I guess they got worse soil.
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Battling ground hogs, squirrels, and rabbits this year. The ground hogs are the worst. They have decimated the peas and half the green beans, ruined tomatoes at the brink of ripeness, eaten all the kale, chewed the tops off of kohlrabis and carrots. We now have 2 foot chicken wire fences around the most vunerable plants. The beans are now thriving, the peas replanted, and most things are recovering. Gardening is always an adventure.
But we’ve been eating very well this summer. No one but us humans like the summer squash!
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I’m feeding the hungry, hungry caterpillars. 
they’ve completely decimated the flower cress, but it was pretty for a good while so it’s ok.
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Anyone else start their seeds? Do you follow “guidelines” for planting schedule? I started things much earlier than directions… My seedlings never seem very robust when it’s time to plant them out, and I’ve put them in larger size containers instead of seed cells/plugs so I’m not really concerned about them being root bound.
Only problem is my small house is getting overwhelmed! And I still have another batch of actual veggies to start. (A lot of what I started are medicinal herbs to plant in my front yard to try to get rid of grass lawn - flowers and decorative plants are a no-go because the townie deer mow them down and utterly destroy them. I on a whim planted sage out front and it’s done well.)
I’m hoping it warms up soon so I can put some out in the shed (big south facing windows but it’s not insulated). Unfortunately it’s going to be -10F again tomorrow after being 40F yesterday so I’m guessing March will be unpredictable/random temps.
Has anyone had luck with seed warmer mats?
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Have you seen the seed snail method? It is so cool!
We’re going to buy small plants again this year to transplant to vegtrug planters, that’s almost more than we have time for 
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Just looked it up! That’s so cool! I wonder how it works out? My concern would still be root-bound seeds if started too early? Or looks like they could also overcrowd each other? Now I’m curious!
It is time consuming. And last year I definitely was tied to the garden during the spring/summer. Then realized I’ve done the same but even earlier… like I can’t go visit friends for a long weekend, etc. because who will turn the grow lights on and off and water the seedlings? (I purposefully don’t have pets, but the result is sort of the same lol)
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I want to get the raised bed ready this year. I’ve been without a veg garden for six years. My last house had a garden, this one just has a flowered retaining wall. It’s very pretty, but not the same as going out and picking a little snack.
Do y’all have any tips for getting a raised bed ready? Right now it just has a chopped up conifer in it that had died a couple years ago. My husband has thrown it into the bed. I do have a large tumbling compost bin that will be mostly emptied into it. I’ve seen people start with cardboard then some sticks then straw and others say just to throw in a bunch of potting soil and your compost. 
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I previously had raised beds and used weed barrier fabric + good quality soil mixed with compost on top of that.
@graverobbergirl if you are willing / able to invest a bit in technology, you could be tied to the garden a little less. We have an automatic watering system by Gardena, it’s a very common gardening brand here, but it’s German, other brands might be available there. You attach the programmable computer part to the tap (which cost €60-ish) set the program, and then it waters automatically. We don’t have that part but you can even attach a sensor so it only waters when necessary. Ours was attached to a micro drip system, basically a hose that has little holes in them that you lay out through the garden. Grow lights can be programmed too. I grew up on a smallholding and my father was strongly against automating anything, or even making things easier for us, so I know all about that feeling of being tied to something.
Our garden is still a mess after renovation, I worked on it a bit last year, removed the weeds and covered the soil, and that has mostly worked. I think this year might be the year I fix it up. The builders left some big holes and moved soil around so it’s hard work fixing that, adding soil and making the yard sort-of even.
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My DW has started some seedings. It is quite early and we’ve been having cold snowy weather.
We have deer and groundhog issues. Our tempory and wonky fencing is just not cutting it. I am trying to find someone to install t-posts and pull fencing to enclose the garden, but everyone wants to put in chainlink or fancier fencing for $$.
We’ve installed fencing and I just can’t do anymore.