Not exactly spring here today! Was 9 last nite, and got ALL THE WAY up to 25 today--even with the sun out! But it sure was spring on Thursday when I took these pics! I have the first few yellow Crocus chrysanthus blooming in three different spots in my yard. These are C. chrysanthus 'Goldilocks', and they were planted in January 2013, so this is the first year I'm getting to see them bloom for real! There's a ring of Crocus planted around the little Dianthus in the middle, and besides the gold there's C. biflorus 'Purity', a white, and C. tommasinianus 'Ruby Giant', a dark red. I'm hopin' the other colors will start to bloom before the gold ones are done! My hybrid Crocus, the larger flowered ones, have been growing all winter again. The first year I noticed them coming up in November I freaked out, but now I'm used to it and I know they'll wait till "the right time" to bloom! They're always later than the species Crocus, often starting around when the first ones are just about done. Many, many of my perennials are starting to show signs of life too, and I sure hope they don't get too rambunctious! Sounds like we'll be getting a full week of warm weather coming up starting tomorrow (near 70 on Thursday???), and last year when everything woke up too early I had a lot of stuff clobbered when we got that sudden HARD freeze. Some things, lilies and other stuff, that were way too big, way too early, never did recover last summer and now I'm waiting to see if they made it at all and if they'll come up this year! Have my fingers crossed! The few tulips I have that I got from TreeBarb at a swap even froze! Tulips don't freeze! They're starting to come up again, so I know they survived, but I think I'll need to wait a while longer to see if they have enough energy to bloom this year! I have dafs a few inches high in a couple places, hyacinths 2-3" high, and other bulbs putting in their appearance too. Whoa, little guys, whoa! Keep your heads tucked in a little bit longer! I'd rather see you later than to not get to see you at all! But this is definitely the time of year when things start to get exciting! Things are getting greener, the days are getting longer, and daylight saving time in just a week! It'll be light out till 7:00! Love it! I don't want 'em to bloom too soon---but I can't wait to see them either! Skybird

Thanks everyone for your comments. Your opinions and thoughts mean the world to me. It's been a great adventure so far. The boxes took a long weekend to build. The most time consuming was moving so much dirt around from corner to corner.The Outhouse was my bait to get my hubby motivated. It was his idea and I said he could do it AFTER he helped with the boxes and dirt. He couldn't wait to get started on his own pet project. The outhouse took about 2 weekends to complete. The inside walls still aren't finished but that can wait. we'll be installing peg board to hang all my garden tools. (Another incentive for my hubby...get all my $%$#@ out of his garage!)And yes...there really is a toilet seat in there. The base that it sits on has two doors for a cupboard. Or, I can just lift the lid and reach in from the top! My hubby is NUtS. Right now the two center boxes are set and filled and I've double mowed the leaves from my yard and given each box a nice cozy blanket. I do have garlic planted in about 6 squares already too. I am thinking about winter sowing. Never done that before. I wasn't sure what sort of vegies I could do. I was hoping that winter sowing would help me with my inability to start transplants. I don't have indoor growing lights and dont really have the space or desire. I tried starting brocc this summer for my fall garden but they got all leggy. I have a screened in porch that I thought would do fine. Worked well with my cabbages... just picked my very first one and had for dinner yesterday. Yeah. Ill be sure to check out the winter sowing site. Thanks again for the encouragement.

Sure iceflowers count, since the questions was " Is it spring yet?" I guess the answer is no, in your case. But I bet there are some goodies under all that snow and ice.

Here just outside DC (heat sink), my JM Red Dragon Laceleaf has just nubbs of soon-to-erupt leaves. It weathered winter ok: I would plant it more protected if doing again. Mike, I'm going to snip another surface root I noted yesterday that also is circling the trunk. It's tight, so must go. Will add mulch. Tree seems healthy. Will post a pic when leaves are out.