BeetBear spent the day enjoying the warm sunshine and he went to inspect his second favorite crop, our blueberries. He pronounced them to be excellent, with the promise of many pies in July. Peace, everyone! #BeetBear #gardening #allotment #NewEngland #zone6b #spring @gardening
The gardener casts a long shadow upon his garden plot! I was out preparing the section of the garden where the Cucurbits will be going and I could not resist taking this whimsical self portrait!😀 #gardening #allotment #zone6b #NewEngland @gardening
#Boston - Weekend events thread: Memorial Day 2024 Edition. There's a ton going on around town, but what's on your radar, #NewEngland?
Friday's going to be hot again in the mid 80s, but Saturday and Sunday should be cooler/cloudier in the mid-upper 70s. Memorial Day Monday might have rainy afternoon cookouts, in the upper 60s.
(Promote this weekend's events with #BostonWeekend to play along 1/?)
Gives you some indication of the general direction of Massachusetts settlement: 15 Massachusetts towns are directional additions to other MA towns (eg Adams; North Adams). 7 are WEST, 5 are NORTH, 3 are EAST (and 2 of these, E. Bridgewater and E. brookfield also have a west and/or north counterpart), and 0 are SOUTH #boston#massachusetts#maps#newengland#usa
The eggplant has now joined the peppers out in the garden row. In the greenhouse, the cukes, zukes, and squash have started to show. Next to them, the first planting of sweetcorn has now shown vigorous sprouting. Won't be long now! 😀 #gardening #allotment #zone6b #NewEngland @gardening
Here's the next trial to find out what's defoliating the V. bonariensis plants in just this one spot of the bed. I put down the largest rhubarb leaf I could find in the spot in question and set a cell-pack of 4 plants on top of it. I figure that if it's slugs, the rhubarb leaf would at least show trails. There might also be a chance that whatever it is might find shelter under the leaf and be found in the morning. I'll also check tonight before I retire. #gardening #NewEngland @gardening
Ok, here's an update on the Verbena bonariensis situation from my post yesterday. Less than 12 hours later and the two plants have been almost totally skeletonized by something I cannot see. There is a healthy Verbena less than 6 inches to the left of the picture that is totally untouched. Any thoughts? #gardening #allotment #zone6b #NewEngland #insects #entomology @gardening
I have planted about 24 Verbena bonariensis plants in this flower bed & there are numerous self-seeded ones too. In just this one spot at the corner of the bed I have had to replace these two plants 3X. Each time, the plants were reduced to a few shriveled leaf stalks in about 2 days. Everything else is untouched & doing fine. This time I'm trying a defense of diatomaceous earth since I am assuming slug damage. I'll update results. 😀 #gardening #allotment #zone6b #NewEngland @gardening
A neighbor very kindly offered me the contents of his compost pile which I gladly accepted and used to finish off mulching around the tomato plants. I gave him a head of lettuce in return for two carts of compost. What a deal! 😀 #gardening #allotment #zone6b #NewEngland @gardening #compost
Well, as I said a few days ago, as an experiment I stopped cutting off the flower stalks of the very mature rhubarb I have and this is the result. It's teeming with hover flies and other small flying insects that I could not identify. #BloomScrolling of a sort! #gardening #allotment #zone6b #NewEngland @gardening