OK, back to work. Since it's nearly apple-blossom time AND a nice day, we got busy and seeded up the "Pot-O-Carrots" for the season. It's a large planter, about 19 inches in diameter and 15 inches deep, holding about 12 gallons (43 liters) of potting mix. We use pelleted seed and plant in concentric circles with about ½ inch spacing. Pictures are an attempt to show what we do and what the scale is.
#BeetBear
#Gardening
#Allotment
#NewEngland
#Zone6b
#carrots
#Spring

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood! Won't you be my neighbor? It's 75F / 24C degrees this morning with a clear, blue sky. BeetBear is luxuriating on the "lawn" with our friends, the dandelions and violets. Also to be seen are the peonies and lillies. Back to work later, but for now... BLISS!
#BeetBear
#Gardening
#Allotment
#NewEngland
#Zone6b
#BloomScrolling
#Spring

Hurray! The mailman just delivered our onion plants (Ailsa Craig) so BeetBear and I got busy & planted them out. I didn't buy any extras this year due to costs, but we still managed 140 plants in the ground with about 18 spares in pots in the greenhouse. Picture shows how a board is used to mark the plant spacing. Board is 4 in. (10cm) wide and the black lines are 6 in. (15cm). Now if it will just stay warm & rain a little bit.
#Gardening
#Allotment
#NewEngland
#BeetBear
#Zone6b
#Onions

@Broadfork put me on to this a while back and it got my attention. The idea is to provide "Hoverfly Lagoons" to help support those Hoverfly species that have aquatic larvae. I did a little checking and one of our most common species HERE, the Common Drone Fly (Eristalis tenax) DOES have aquatic larvae so I followed this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFprOsoHowE&t=72s
and made a couple to try. Will be watching for mosquitoes too. We'll see...
#Gardening
#Allotment
#NewEngland
#Zone6b
#Pollinators

This week, I caught young, fresh bear corn starting to come up through the leaf litter! Bear corn/American Cancer-root/Conopholis americana isn't a fungus..it's a non-photosythesizing parasitic plant, similar to the more well-known ghost pipes(Monotropa uniflora.) They grow off of the roots of oak and beech trees, staying mostly invisible underground, but pop up to flower and set seed. I had seen the dried-up brown cone remnants in this area previously, so I knew to be on the lookout! Will probably try to photograph them again once they have opened up to full size. #nature #zone6b #zone7a #bloomscrolling

A couple of warmish days and bright sun have warmed things up considerably. Soil temp is good, 10-day forecast looks "acceptable" and I have been notified that my onion plants have shipped. BeetBear and I prepped a small section of the garden today and got the lettuce (3 types), beets (Boro), and cabbage (2 types of mini pointed) set out. We have officially started gardening! Now if it wasn't always so damned windy...
#BeetBear
#Gardening
#Allotment
#NewEngland
#Zone6b