Finally Time to Start Working Outside

I've been busy finding supplies for the many garden projects I want to do. I'm very good at shopping and finding materials, but I need to get better at the follow through. This year I feel motivated for a few reasons. I need to get more exercise, I need to eat better quality and organic food. We had a brutal winter. At first, we had almost no snow on the ground at all until late January, then it snowed like we lived in Buffalo NY for over six weeks straight. Boston broke the all time record at over 108". We had close to that as well. Here it was three weeks into it on February 22nd:

The green outlines are where our gardens are in spring. As you can see, we do not have a lack of white. It snowed again throughout the next week after then after a few above freezing days, it started melting.
I have big plans and we need warm ground to plant anything. Lettuce has t have soil temperatures above 50 to germinate while most mid season crops such as peppers and tomatoes prefer 70 degrees or higher.

Now you can see the garden fence so the snow is receding quickly. As of the first of April, all that was left was the larger piles that don't get much sun.

Now that  we're almost halfway through April, I'm ready to plant some cold crops. I have two storm windows warming soil and killing weeds if it gets hot enough. Here is what one looked like when I placed it March 27th:

I placed a thermometer under the glass on one and stuck a larger one in the ground a few inches to see when the soil about three inches deep was over 50 degrees. 

Meanwhile, I've had my seeds starting since the third week of March. Here is what those looked like as of  the fifth of April, about two and a half weeks after sewing.

and April 10, only five days later.

These are different types of tomatoes, peppers and some broccoli. They are getting thirsty and soon will get some weak liquid nutrients in their water. What a difference a few days makes. I'll be transplanting the largest ones into larger pots soon. The lettuce is stubborn as I'm not getting the sprouts I expect. Maybe the soil is too damp? I'll figure it out eventually.