Gardening in March in years to come?

Where our veggie garden is right now, it doesn't get direct sun during the heart of the winter. This means that come this time of the year, when other locals are starting to work in their gardens, I am left staring at a pile of slowly diminishing snow...

this was monday afternoon - sunday all of this was still snow covered

However, if I had raised beds near the orchard, house, & chicken coop, I could be gardening right now!

this area has been snow-free for days and days!

When we first started working on the garden, the old renters hadn't yet moved out, and our purchase of the property wasn't yet final. We picked a spot in what we now call the middle field, where a garden had once existed (based on the bare ground at the spot).

summer of 2009, pulling weeds where our garden is now

This spot is a fair ways from the house though, and its lower elevation and closer situation to the hills that block the winter sun make it less ideal than we would have chosen not that we had that much of a choice at the time.

summer of 2010, looking at the house from the garden

Now that we have put so much work the last 2 years into getting the garden going, I am reluctant to give up on the spot, but I am definitely thinking hard about adding raised bed near the chicken coop! Especially since we plan to build a playstructure for Little M near there, so I could garden while she played...