Onions, Spring

This is the long bed that was covered in snow last week (looking from south to north this time, in case you're getting a bit bored of the same view). The over-wintered garlic is closest to the camera, still under its mulch of hay, followed by the Egyptian walking onions and then about ten rows of the onions I sowed indoors in January. These were transplanted on Sunday. I think there are about 100 of them - Early Yellow Globe and Sweet Utah (a Spanish onion).

In the distance you can see some slightly wobbly pea supports and two white stripes which are the strips of horticultural fleece I've put down to protect the carrot seeds. It has taken me until this year to realise that these strips are the 'floating row covers' I've seen mentioned on North American blogs. I don't know why, but somehow I imagined that those were something rather more sophisticated, like a cloche, perhaps. There are parsnip seeds immediately behind the onions, meaning that there is now only a small gap in this bed without seeds or transplants in it (an area of about 16 square feet). I'll be filling that with the peas from the greenhouse and successional sowings of carrot and beetroot seeds.

I didn't have this bed last April and was getting very frustrated at being unable to sow any seeds in the much damper, colder, lower vegetable garden (which is only a few feet away from this bed). It's amazing the difference a gentle slope makes at this time of year.

And in the border close to the front of the house the miniature daffodils have finally opened up:
I couldn't resist stopping to take this picture of a young calf and its mother on my way to Deseronto today. It really feels like Spring now.