As I was taking out the compost pail this afternoon, I couldn’t resist stopping to snap a few photos. The whisper of spring is in the air, and with the temperature hovering just below zero, our front step is warm enough to melt the snowy drifts around its edges. There isn’t even a cloud in the sky to dampen the sun’s joyful rays.

Even with the days getting longer, the last few weeks have truly felt like the depths of winter—earlier this week, the local school buses didn’t run because of -40+ windchills. While many other gardeners on social media are already showing off seedlings, we have a couple feet of snow between us and the soil. Safe planting out dates and the last day of frost are still several months away.

And so it feels particularly apt to publish the first post for this new project on a day like today. A day when you begin to believe that maybe spring really is just around the corner. A day when new beginnings are in the air.

I can’t wait to share more of my gardening journey with you over the coming months and hopefully build a space to learn with other prairie gardeners along the way.

Has spring arrived where you are, or are you still hunkered down for winter?