Spring may be less than a week old, but it is decidedly arrived here in the Louisville area.  Although we are still expecting a number of frosts, and lots of cold nights yet, the weather is gradually breaking, and it’s almost time to direct sow hardier things, like Lettuce.

I plan on getting the lettuce in the garden boxes by the end of the week, but we’ll see how that goes.  The tomatoes and the peppers are growing inside, but they’re the only things that made it out of the seed box.  I’m starting to doubt the viability of the seeds I purchased a few years ago.  I’m not nearly out of seeds, but the plants just don’t grow vigorously.  I wasn’t thinking a thing about heirloom or organic varieties at that point, so I purchased whatever mass-market Burpee and Monsanto seeds were being offered at the time.  Next year, I plan on purchasing all-heirloom varieties, hopefully mostly from Baker Creek Seeds (http://rareseeds.com/).  Their catalog is by and far the most colorful one I received this year, and it is marked up on almost every page with some variety or another that I’d like to raise.

Today, I tilled up the garden boxes (an easy task with a hand trowel) and moistened soil which has remained dry and frozed for many months.  I also prepared a few 3 gallon containers that I picked up on craiglist for dirt cheap ($0.50 each!) for some flowers that hopefully won’t die.

Next week, I plan on swinging by Brightside Louisville at some point and picking up some compost.  The city of Louisville composts all the yard waste collected around the city each year, and sells it for a very reasonable price.

We’ll see how things go this year.  Here’s how things look outside.  I’ll update later with the way things are looking inside.