winter spring in the bioshelter

This time of year is the start of what I call winter/spring in the bioshelter. Crops that have been slowly growing all winter are beginning to grow faster. Mache begins to bolt up, but still tastes great. Mizuna, tat soi, kales, many types of lettuce, beets, chard, fennel, and other salad greens respond to longer days. Cutting Celery, collards, and many herbs put on new growth. Rosemary blooms, fig buds swell, sungold tomatoes send out new branches and flowers. The chickens' egg production has increased. We are making cuttings of many herbs, and ordering seeds for sthe year ahead.
Aphids are beginning to get wings and reproduce. The population of aphid predator wasps also increases. Naturally occuring beauvaria fungus helps keep aphids in check. Nasturtiums continued to flower all winter, but now grow faster and make more flowers.

Our bioshelter manager has been clearing our less productive plants, and replanting letuces and other salad crops. We will soon start early crops of brassicas, and solenacea.
There is much more going on in the bioshelter of course. in 24 years it has developed into a complex system. Borage, snap dragons, calendula, roses and geraniums are all blooming. Soon the resident toads will begin to trill. My grandchildren play hide and seek and laugh among the planters and growing beds.

What wonderful images you paint and sooo enticing for folks in snowbound Quebec! I am definitely going to have to create some type of bioshelter/greenhouse/chicken coop soon to get just a hint of all that freshness in February!