Planting, Growing and Harvesting. A garden thread for all.

[Corsair]

Some serious storms look to have killed off Lady C's decorative flowers last night. I hope they revive as she has put a lot of work in on them.

[lowlylowlycook]

Bad news: saw a while butterfly in the kale patch.

 

Good news: Holly tree is flowering and bees have found it.  Not yet so many that the whole tree seems to hum.

[Glitterwolf]

I've planted herbs to attract bees and butterflies.

 

[TGP]

On 5/18/2021 at 11:47 PM, Corsair said:

Some serious storms look to have killed off Lady C's decorative flowers last night. I hope they revive as she has put a lot of work in on them.

The roots are probably OK. 
 

I had a Rosebush go nuts ^ with the ^ blooms 3-4 weeks ago. It looks sad now. It too was rained and stormed on. But it keeps coming back every spring. 

[Pegazus]

Had some emergency beekeeping yesterday. What was supposed to be a quick check on how the new hives are doing turned into an all afternoon affair.

 

Started out with the Layens hive. This is not the type you see out in fields. It’s horizontal, and supposed to be easier on the bees because it’s shaped more like a hollow log and that the tops of the frames cap everything. Pull out a frame and 90% of the hive doesn’t notice. But. To get them started, I put in three regular frames standing up with a brace plate and a cover adapter. Oh wow, did they go nuts! Honeycomb was everywhere, filling in spaces that  would go away when those regular frames get pulled. 
 

Stage 1: remove regular frames and extra comb. This killed several hundreds of baby bees. Wife was distraught and I did strap in as many free hanging combs to empty frames as we could. Saved maybe a hundred or so. 
 

Stage 2: Squish combs that were going the wrong direction back into positions that will be more beneficial to me. Minimal damage. 
 

Stage 4: Scrape comb off of brace, top, and end frame. Saved honey and shared with neighbors with chickens. Huh. I should give her the dead larva too. 
 

Stage 5: What to do with the regular frames removed from the Layens? I hadn’t anticipated being able to pull these so soon. Filled with eggs, honey, and pollen. So those three frames were put into a new regular hive box on a spare base. They either have the queen or will make a new one. Temporary cover put on top.

 

Stage 6: Build a new cover! I wasn’t planning to have a third hive. So emergency wood working commenced using leftover parts from the Layens hive. Successful, and bees now are safely housed.

 

Stage 7: Finally check the original regular hive. Red Alert! Had about eight or so empty queen cells, which usually means they are crowded. Plus, they started building into a gap that was there for the queen cage. Basically, two sets of comb on a single frame. Had to remove this second comb, again killing some baby bees, and shave off several frames of swollen honey so that the frames can be positioned properly.

 

Step 8: Since we seem to be in a nectar flow, regular hive got a second box purely for honey storage. That will be harvested next month and a new empty box added for them to build up winter numbers. 
 

Now, I can relax again for a week or so, then another check on progress. At some point, I need to start my actual garden. We are now just past the “last frost” point, so I won’t be too late. Hopefully!

[Inarah]

It's been crazy wet here with 9 days of rain. It's starting to look and feel like the northwest with high humidity and lush greenery. 

 

Unfortunately my bok choi and radishes went straight to seed this week.  I've been using spring onions and baby garlic (gone wild in my plot) and some of the herbs in cooking.  The garlic I planted during the winter is ~3ft tall, almost time to trim the flower heads before they develop. 

 

I got 4 nursery tomatoes in, they want sunshine.  I put in 3 peppers, the jalapenos looked pretty bad the other day, also need sun. 

 

Cucumber looks ok, but the yellow squash have mold already. Not sure they will survive, it's constantly been a problem plant for me here. 

 

Chard is doing well, picked a little last week, should get a good amount one night this week.  Beets are finally starting to come up.  Lettuce is trying, having a hard time with it this year. 

 

Got a bunch of russets coming up in the compost. LOL!  All the tomatoes and cucumbers I started from seed are up, as is the thai basil.  Did not expect they would all make it, that usually does not happen.  Now to find places for them in the garden. 

 

 

[lowlylowlycook]

Yeah, my garlic is looking huge above ground as well.  For whatever reason the hard neck varieties always look healthier in my garden but I always plant both hard and soft "just in case".

[Inarah]

For comparison, the concrete urn is 18" tall and the oregano (round yellowish clump in the center) is knee high.  The garlic I planted is behind that and starting to look like corn from a distance. 

 

 

You can see my "wild" garlic looking like grass everywhere. Also got strawberries running amuck this year. 

 

[Aerowiz130]

Just planted tomatoes, habanero peppers and eggplant:

 

 

Edited May 25, 2021 by Aerowiz130

[lowlylowlycook]

Here is a pic of my beets/okra experiment.  The okra is just popping out of the white rings that I made with the tops of yoghurt tubs.  I'm trying to use those to either mark out where things will be or already have been planted and also to hold back any mulch until seedlings get themselves situated a bit.

 

 

We'll see how it goes but I'm thinking I should have held off a bit with the beets so they didn't get such a head start on the okra.  In the foreground you can see the remains of the kale patch after varieties that were going to seed were pulled and in the back are some asian greens that are really growing quickly.

[lowlylowlycook]

Zucchini has started to grow.   The spinach I planted around them didn't really germinate well so there are only scattered plants.  The lettuce next to them did slightly better.

 

In the foreground are carrots and herbs including a large amount of oregano.  In the back of this bed (to the right of the pic) you can see my beans starting to climb.

 

To the back is a walking onion forest that I have to figure out, another zucchini plant with "mustard spinach" planted under it and a couple tomatoes including a pair of Anna Russian plants that are sharing a cage that are by far my quickest growing tomatoes.  I left two plants because normally they have "wispy" foliage and I figured the fruits could use more shade.

 

[lowlylowlycook]

Somehow forgot to post a pic of this little guy.  Sometimes we see lake turtles laying eggs but not too sure where the box turtles nest.

 

[lowlylowlycook]

Peppers in self watering containers in the foreground.  Cukes starting to grow behind garlic in the background.  Seemingly failed experiment to grow sprouting potatoes from the pantry under leaves barely visible to the left.

 

Picked some small pepper just to give these plants a chance to grow a bit.

 

Edited May 31, 2021 by lowlylowlycook

[Pegazus]

Last year I stopped my wife from organizing the wild flower garden. This year I have a nice crop of these small orange flowers. But I am especially proud of my dandelions! Waist tall and 2” puff balls!

 

That’s not in purple. I actually am proud of ‘em.

[lowlylowlycook]

Right on cue:

 

 

Peas growing behind a row of tomatoes.  Growth rate of the tomatoes seems quite variable this year.  Various greens in front.  They and the peas at least are enjoying the cool weather.