Sufficient for Our Need

Charlie

2011-11-28T07:54:00.002-05:00

Heidi, our golden retriever, died a month or so ago. I finally decided I needed a new walking pet. So we got Charlie on Saturday.

Reduced Hives

2011-11-27T19:47:00.000-05:00

I took the top super off of Doug's three hives and set them about 30 yards away. There was some wax that needed to be cleaned near them, so, if there was any honey in the supers, I'm sure the bees will take it away. In the photo, the left most hive had the guard bees that were most protective of my entering. When we moved the hives to my yard, the right most hive seemed to be the meanest one. They were rather gentle this time.

I also took the top two supers off of my hives in Clarence's yard and set them about 15 yards away. When I checked yesterday after church, they were being cleaned as well, although I doubt the top supers from each hive actually had anything in them. My bees are most gentle. I don't think I had a guard bee come after me at all.

Still Alive

2011-11-24T15:02:00.005-05:00

Admittedly, not much happens in the garden or with bees on Thanksgiving. However, I have a small report to make.

Last week, I moved cold frame hoops from one of the beds that will be dormant over the winter to the bed where the cauliflower are planted. I rained during the interim, so I wasn't worried about freezing temperatures. Yesterday was windy and felt cold, but the low was predicted to only get down to 39F so I didn't cover the plants in any of the garden boxes. I woke up this morning to learn that the low was at that time 34F and had been down as low as 30F in the yard. I think it will get cold again this evening. So this afternoon, I went out and put on the covers on the three raised beds. Fortunately, nothing had succumbed. The broccoli heads are getting big. We don't need them for our Thanksgiving meal, but I will need to harvest some of them soon, as there are four of them that are rather large.

While I was covering the last bed, I saw a bee exploring. So, I went to look at Doug's hives. All three of them had bees coming and going. I took a photo. They were orienting when I first looked at them, but not when I grabbed the camera. But you can see 4 or 5 in flight if you look closely. The look like little brown dots.

Cold Frames

2011-11-10T22:44:00.004-05:00

I'm trying it again. I've covered two of the cold frame hoops with plastic. The beds have broccoli that is just on its way to growing. I am hoping that this year, unlike last year, the cold frames will be able to keep things alive. I've covered them for the past week. I took the covers off today to allow the rain to soak as much as it could, although the rain was rather light. It's already 34 and Kathy and I just went out to put the covers on. There was already frost on the twin sheet that I have over the cauliflower. (I had to use a sheet because where I planted them I didn't have hoops installed.) It's frozen several nights and things have survived so far. I hope we weren't too late this evening.

Of course, I don't need cold frames over the onions or garlic. Last year, I had four covers. One of them had water in it when it was stored and when I tried to unfold it, it just broke apart. I have one left that I haven't tested. I may try putting that over one of the onion beds to see if it helps things along when it gets a bit colder.

Green Beans

2011-10-29T15:58:00.003-04:00

It is starting to turn colder. I think it will freeze in the next few days. With that in mind, I decided it was time to pick all the green beans that had grown in the one bed that I planted back in August. In the two and one half months since then, I really haven't given them any mind. Last week we picked a few for meals, so I knew there would be some to harvest. Jenna and I picked about a bushel and a half today.

We pulled out the Seal-a-Meal. It would be nice if we didn't have to par boil and do other things to process the green beans, but that isn't in the cards today. We will dehydrate some too (because Kathy wants to try that).

I spent some time before that continuing to weed the onion and garlic beds. Pesky little weeds just keep coming back. These are winter weeds and won't be deterred by the cold, so it will continue to be a task in the weeks to come. At least I got is so that the onions and garlic are not surrounded to the point where they will get choked off.

Tobacco Bee Sting Remedy

2011-10-24T21:14:00.013-04:00

I mentioned in an earlier post that my tobacco salve worked well as a bee sting remedy. It brought down the swelling quickly. The only problem was that is was sort of crude.

I let the three leaves I gathered off the side of the road after the tobacco harvest "cure" in my garage. Basically, I hung them up and forgot about them until the other day. I wanted them to be brown and stiff.

Here is the process I have followed so far. I took two of the leaves and crumpled them up and put them in a mortar. Using the pestle, I crunched the leaves to get them as fine as possible. It took a while, perhaps five or six minutes per leaf.

Then I strained the result through a sieve. I took the part that didn't strain and worked on it some more with the mortar and pestle. I got most of the leaf that way. The last little parts that didn't seem to want to get any smaller, I just threw away.

Tobacco, it turns out, can be made to be quite small. I suppose they used to call this snuff.

In the end, I had a little less than a quarter cup of tobacco powder. I've stored it in a medicine bottle. My plan is to take some lotion and mix it in until it gets to a consistency that I like. I'm not sure if I should do this now or wait until I need it. I can imagine (but don't actually know) that there might be benefits to each.

Weeding

2011-10-22T17:58:00.005-04:00

There is a variety of weed that just proliferates in my garden during the winter. It starts as a small little thing and then just takes over. It has been too cold lately to get out in the morning or evening after I have come home from work. But today was a beautiful Saturday and so I made it my mission to get at least some of the weeding done.

My first task was to select a tool. I tried weeding the other day entirely by hand and didn't get too far. I need something that will go between the onions and garlic that are planted 4" apart. I've asked my creative with metal daughter-in-law, Leora, to see if she can make me something. But I realized I had tools at home that I should at least attempt to use. Kitchen forks are tools. I selected three from the arsenal to try things out with. The small fork was from our camping gear. I think it was an odd fork that we never threw away. The middle fork came from an old army mess kit. I really like it for peeling potatoes. I cook potatoes in the microwave for a couple of minutes and then use the tines to rip off the potato skin. It works really well for that purpose. The big fork is a serving fork.

As I tried each fork, it became obvious quickly that the serving fork was best suited to the job. The garlic and long red Florence onions were planted last and had the fewest weeds. I was able to clean up the soil and get weeds disturbed in those areas quickly. The yellow of Parma had been planted much longer. It took a lot of time to clean out that bed and I only got half way through it today. The photos below are before and after shots.

3 Persimmons

2011-10-22T10:37:00.005-04:00

Last year I harvested one persimmon. This year I have three. I picked one and ate it already. I think I will pick the other two today. Very tasty. It might be possible to have too many persimmons, I think. Eventually, if the harvest gets a bit bigger, I think I will be able to handle it. If it gets bigger than a dozen or two, I will have to think about how to store or process persimmons. So, three for this year is a good number.

Of course, this reminds me of my favorite Japanese tongue twister.

隣の客はよく柿食う客だ。
Tonari no kyaku wa yoku kaki kuu kyaku da.
The visitor next to me eats a lot of persimmons.

More on Garlic

2011-10-16T18:04:00.003-04:00

During the week while I was away, we evidently got a fair amount of rain. Good for the garden and the seeds. Of the 48 garlic cloves I planted, 44 are now up and starting to grow. I think Kathy's response has been, "Just what we need! More garlic!"

Garlic Sprouts

2011-10-09T14:59:00.002-04:00

I planted 48 garlic cloves and took a look yesterday to see how they were doing. I counted 24 sprouts. So half of them have sprouted. As I recall from last year, it seemed to take a lot longer for the cloves I got from seed savers to sprout than it did this year. I noticed that seed savers did not offer my variety, Chet's red, this year. I may plant some more when I get back from my trip so I can share the cloves with Seed Savers and others.

I still have a number of bulbs in the cold room at the office. i should think of a way to process them. I'm going to have to look to see what the options are.

Feeding Doug's Bees

2011-10-08T19:27:00.002-04:00

Doug left me with four and a half gallons of honey to feed his bees. I surely wasn't going to do it the first week they were here. They had been nasty animals when we were getting them moved. Then there were storms, busy Saturdays, and other excuses. But, I knew the plan was to feed the bees so that they would be ready for winter and winter was not yet. It has been getting a bit chillier lately, however, and so it was time Saturday to feed them.

My first task was to take off the covers and just inspect. Two of the three hives looked as if they had capped honey in the top supers. The photo below is from the nastiest of his hives. It came with two supers and it looks as if there is honey all the way up. The middle hive was the weakest coming in and looked to be the weakest still. The first hive was in between.

After pulling the tops and taking a look, I put an empty super on each with a top feeder following on top of that. I poured honey into each from the gallon containers Doug had left me. The weak hives got about two gallons each and the healthy hive got about one. We still have a bunch of yellow jackets and other invaders around, so I took the practically empty containers into the house and drained them off into my own stocks. It didn't amount to much, but thanks Doug for the small donation.

So now each of the hives has an extra super and a supply of honey to store. I won't be able to check back on the progress of the bees at storing the honey for over a week because I am traveling. My guess is that they will store it very quickly and that by the time I get home, there will be nothing left in the top feeders.

Just as a side note, Doug's bees are still pretty defensive. I was buzzed by all three hives as soon as they were opened. However, they left it at that and when I had walked away 20 feet, they didn't follow. I like bees to be a little protective. I think it makes them healthier. Just looking at the entrance during the day, they are still actively foraging.

Onion Sprouts

2011-10-02T20:01:00.004-04:00

Not much has been happening in the garden. The majority of the broccoli and cauliflower I planted died. I did plant seeds of the same that have started coming up. So I have 5 broccoli plants and 3 cauliflower plants from the nursery and about the same coming up from seeds. A bit of a failure. Tim suggested I planted too close to the fertilizer. I will try to remember that next year.

It will be interesting to see how harvests of broccoli and cauliflower and lima and green beans turn out. It is getting cold. The low this morning was 41F. It's forecast to be in the 40s all week.

On Saturday, I planted 48 garlic cloves. Because only about a third of the onions sprouted from my earlier planting (none of the purple of Parma made it), I also replanted more yellow of Parma seeds in the open spots. There are a lot of weeds sprouting. I will need to get them out, but I would like to give the onion seeds a chance to get established a bit first.

Broccoli Cauliflower

2011-09-10T20:28:00.003-04:00

(br>It turned out to be a busy Saturday. After planting onion seeds, I went to Webster Brothers in Walkertown. It's the one place that I can guarantee finding cauliflower to plant. I haven't mastered the art of growing broccoli or cauliflower from seed. Maybe I will try it next spring.

On the way there, my son Jason asked me to help him install a ceiling light and fan. That took the bulk of the afternoon. The fixture was actually rescued from Jenna's room when I installed a new light there and Jason's baby room had a ceiling outlet for a light and fan, but nothing installed. It made for an interesting afternoon because, despite our thinking it through, we didn't understand until faced with the facts that there are two sizes of pipes that can be used to hang such fixtures from the ceiling. We learned this because we purchased the wrong one and had to go shopping again to find the right one. Then, we learned about how easy it is to trip a multibreaker and how challenging it is to reset one. But the fan and light were ultimately installed and worked.

It was evening before I got to plant the broccoli and cauliflower. I used my McDonald's straw trick to guard against cutworms. I installed the straws in the house before putting them in the beds. I put the plants in the beds with the poor soil. Things grew there; it just doesn't seem like the soil has much to it. I fertilized heavily and added a scoop of soil from one of the better beds right at the spot where the plants were placed. I think I will need to water regularly until the plants are established.

Garden Friends and Onions

2011-09-10T09:53:00.003-04:00

My activity this past week has involved getting the garden ready for fall planting and planting some onion seeds. I had Sam and Taylor come over and finish cleaning out the beds. It was well worth the cost for their three hours of work.

I planted some onion seeds. This year, I am planting 4 to a square foot. That will give them a little more room. I also planted in a bed that is easier to water. I want to give them a little more water next spring than the yellow of Parma got last year. Hopefully, it will keep them from going to bloom prematurely. I planted 48 seeds from a purplish yellow of Parma onion that I had saved. It will be interesting to see if they turn out to be purplish, too. Then I planted seeds in 136 spots for true yellow of Parma. I had plenty of seeds left over from last year, so I used those rather than the seeds I had gathered from this year. I double planted so that there were at least two seeds in every hole. A couple of years ago, I didn't plant deeply enough and the seeds either didn't sprout or died shortly after. This year, the holes were maybe a half an inch deep, but not fully filled in when I was done. I hope they sprout and that they weren't planted too deep.

The rest of this entry is just pictures of garden friends that I've seen around.

Tobacco

2011-08-24T20:05:00.008-04:00

The best thing about being stung is that I get to try to figure out new ways to deal with it. I don't have a pulmonary reaction; no anaphylaxis. I do seem to swell up at the site some however. the site turns red and is a bit hot to the touch. But, there really isn't any pain, at least there hasn't been any yet.

I got two stings on my neck. I haven't quite figured out how the bees got inside the veil, but I now understand the phrase, "a bee in your bonnet." The top photo is of the sting on the back of my neck. It has swollen to the size of a very small egg (in diameter at least).

The second photo is the sting on the front of my neck. It is about the same, but the red has gone down my chest some. It is the one I can actually see, so I understand it best.

The one on my ankle (the third photo) didn't really do much at all. In part, I think the sock kept the bee from burrowing the stinger in as deep.

The bigger question, is of course, how to treat these stings. Eventually, beekeepers build up an immunity to the toxins. Or perhaps they just develop a biochemistry that isn't as reactive, which is technically not the same. It occurred to me, at Eric's suggestion, that I ought to take some tobacco and use it as a salve. I'm trying to use it with judgment and skill, which is hard since I don't really have much background.

The good part is that we live in a tobacco neighborhood. There are 3 tobacco fields near the house. I've noticed in years past that leaves often fall off the trucks and can be found laying on the side of the road. So, on my way home from work today, I kept my eyes open as I drove by all three fields. Only one of them had some leaves laying to the side. The big harvest hasn't happened yet. I talked Jenna into jumping out of the car to rescue some for me.

I've never figured out exactly how to use tobacco. This is its only proper use, but my ability to use it properly is not yet developed. In the past, I've tried just laying the leaf on the affected area. That hasn't worked too well. Today, I thought I would take the brown part of the leaves that had already become crispy, chop them up and mix them with lotion that we have kept from hotel visits.

It's not awfully attractive, but it is staying on my neck. I think next time, I will try to totally pulverize it. If I had a mortar and pestle, that would do the trick. Then mix it with lotion so that it is smoother.

The final issue is how to judge whether or not it has had any effect. Since I'm not in pain, that can't be the measure. Size is hard to judge. Maybe I will rely on Kathy's judgment.

Doug's Angry Bees

2011-08-23T21:16:00.005-04:00

My buddy Doug is moving to Memphis. FedEx closed his position in Greensboro and so the move to Memphis is the result. He was originally going to try to take his bees with him, but there were too many things happening. So I told him I would take them. He came over and made a spot in my natural area. It's where I'm going to move one of my hives from Clarence's when it's time, so this is a good preparation for it. Doug will take them to his new place in February when they are pretty much dormant.

He brought them over this evening. One or more of his hives were not pleased to be moved. Doug had been stung at his house before arriving here, so he was a magnate for his angry bees. He must have had 20-25 stings by the time he was done. They transferred their anger to me as well. I got stung twice on my neck and once on my ankle. They followed us all the way from the natural area into the garage.

I am now lathered with and ingested of benedryl. Once the stingers came out, the pain has subsided, but the stings feel hot. Alas, no anaphylaxis. I hope they settle down a bit. Fortunately, being in the natural area keeps them away from a lot of stuff.

It's amazing what we will do for those we love! Doug does love his bees!

Water Flow

2011-08-20T20:06:00.005-04:00

I had Jenna help me with a little test today. The question was, "How much water flows through the hose when different numbers of barrels are engaged?" I took a quart canning jar out and, when I started filling the jar, Jenna started the stop watch on her cell phone. She timed until the jar was full. Here are the results.

Hoses Opened	1	2	4	8
Seconds to Fill a Quart Jar	17	14	14	14
Gallons per Minute out the Hose	0.88	1.07	1.07	1.07
Gallons per Minute per Barrel	0.88	0.54	0.27	0.13

It is clear that the second input adds a bit to the overall flow of the hose, about 20%. However, above the second hose, there is no benefit to flow into the garden. Having 4 or 8 barrels feeding the water did not yield an increase. At the same time, adding more barrels did decrease the per barrel flow to the Y connector.

My conclusion is that I will get the best results from using two barrels at a time, perhaps for multiple rounds or at least until they have been significantly depleted. Then switching to different barrels on a subsequent round. After a round is completed, I plan to open all the lines so that the emptied barrels can refill, further helping keep the hoses clean of junk.

Looking at the barrels, I saw that my water from the air conditioner had turned yellow. I disconnected it. Something must be growing in that hose as well. Probably due to the fact that it has to travel uphill a bit to get to the point where it is disgorged into the master barrel.

Honey Pests

2011-08-20T08:30:00.002-04:00

It's yellow jackets. They are the pests.

I set the equipment and supers after extracting honey out into the yard. Bees immediately found the stuff and began cleaning it off. But I guess I left it too long, or maybe this is a normal part of the process, but I got hordes of yellow jackets, too. After the bees had long gone, the yellow jackets hung around.

I finally went out in the yard with my bee suit on to carry some of the equipment away. The yellow jackets followed and seemed to find me more interesting than the equipment. So I stood there for 30 minutes, waiting for them to get on my arm or belly where I could kill them. I probably got a couple of dozen. It didn't put a dent in their colony. It just felt good.

Now that the equipment is gone and the wax more or less cleaned up, I see just a few. It will help next year if I have a hive in my own yard again. Then I can put the supers back on the hives. I will remember (I hope) to move everything further away from the house.

Beans and Water

2011-08-17T19:10:00.003-04:00

The middle of August is not usually the time to start planting. Most people are probably slowing down and just putting their garden to rest. I decided to keep things going. This is especially true because I hired to young men from church to help clean things up and (eventually) process the new horse manure I got.

I had them clean out one of the beds in which I had raised onions and garlic. It had gone to weed mostly. They brought in 8 loads of manure using the small barrow. It filled the bed to the brim. All that was left of me was to use the garden fork to turn it, fertilize, plant and water. (More about water in a moment.) I planted blue lake beans, 4 per square foot yesterday morning.

I had actually found enough ambition prior to their help to clean out the other onion bed by myself and plant Lima beans. The Limas have now sprouted. About 90% came up. Of these, I lost another 2-3% to animals taking off the first leaves. They seem to be growing well. I planted Limas at this time another year and had a fine harvest. Since I will probably be eating them by myself, there will surely be enough. I have more seed, but don't feel the need to fill out the bed.

Now about the water. When i was watering the blue lake bean bed, I sensed that, once again, I was not getting the water pressure I expected. I've had this happen before and found that it was the nozzle I was using that seemed to be the problem. I took off the nozzle and got a little better result, but it made me curious about whether or not there was something else going on.

I went to the place where the hoses all meet. In the past, I found a bit of blockage where the hoses meet the Y connector. I disconnected the hose that ran from the connector to the garden so I could see what was coming out and systematically eliminated all hoses but one and opened up that one's line and let the water run. When I did this, the water that came out of each was initially pretty dark with junk. Probably some sort of algae.

Here's what I think. The junk doesn't wash away because the water pressure is too stable and the flow is too slow when I turn on the hose. After all, there are 8 barrels feeding the one hose and the size of the connectors and size of the nozzle reduce what can go through the system at any given moment. So, algae start to grow in the hoses. The water pressure is probably even lessened a bit because there is junk growing in the hoses.

When this will become a potential real problem will be when (if ever) I finally get a slow drip system installed in the garden. Then the water will flow evenly, but slowly and junk will grow.

In the short run, one solution might be to cut off all but one or two barrels and just take water from those barrels. The water would flow faster through those hoses when they were in use. And, when the entire system was opened back up, the pressure of the backwash as the barrels filled back up again may help further clean out the hoses. Overall pressure during the partial shut down might be a little less, but I can live with that. I may only need to do this periodically as preventive maintenance. The other solution is to pour chlorine bleach into the system to kill the algae. Not a good idea. If the water in the hoses is as stagnant as I think the chlorine might not get where it was needed and there are doubtless environmental impacts I would rather not have.

3 gallons

2011-08-14T17:40:00.003-04:00

I pulled two supers last Saturday, one from each of my hives. I left them in the Volvo wagon, partly because there they wouldn't attract other bees who would start robbing honey and partly because I was lazy or busy (I can't remember). I had intended to spin them out last Saturday, but Doug hadn't finished spinning his own out and, toward the end, he started getting stung quite a bit because he couldn't keep the bees out of his garage. We knew it was time to quit. I picked up the extractor on Monday, but didn't get to any spinning. By Wednesday, Red came by to mow the lawn and noticed that something was leaking in the back of the Volvo. So, I clearly left the hives there too long.

I pulled the supers into the garage and made sure I kept the doors closed. I put tin foil under the supers to gather any honey that leaked out (and there was a bunch leaking). Thursday I had a church meeting that went until late. I think I got home at 11:15. So, my major work started on Friday morning, when I spun out the frames.

I ended up with three gallons of honey out of a small and medium super. The small super actually provided more because there were no brood frames. I should have check frames before I pulled the super. Actually, I did check on the top super, but the comb had not been capped, so I went one below and didn't check on that one. Next year, if I can remember, I need to check all the supers I pull, frame by frame to see if there is any brood. i should pull those that have any brood and put them together into one super.

I gave three quarts to Clarence, my arrangement with him is to give him a quarter of the hone for keeping the hives on his land. I've bottled the rest and let the bees and yellow jackets clean off everything that is left on the surfaces of whatever I used to extract. This year's honey is quite a bit darker than my previous batch. I'm not sure why. It tastes just as good.

Tomatoes in the Pantry

2011-08-13T09:05:00.005-04:00

For us, tomato season is over. The leaves have all gone small, then spotted, then brown. There is no more (or at least very little) fruit that has not turned orange or red and been harvested. And, I think I can say it without offense, Kathy and I are tired of canning tomatoes.

I took stock of what we have in the pantry. There are 34 quarts, some of it in pint jars, of canned tomatoes. We have 4 quarts of chili sauce, a quart of spaghetti sauce, 3 quarts of tomato sauce, a quart of tomato paste, and a couple of quarts of tomato juice. It hasn't been a bad year.

I have also saved seeds. I used a fermentation method I found on the web. I saved, Hungarian Heart from the one plant that survived early planting. I also saved Italian Heirloom, John Baer, and Rutgers. The Rutgers didn't grow well, even though I planted pretty hardy looking plants from the Farmer's Market. I hope I don't have wilt in the bed they were planted in. Next year, I will have to plant them in a different place. I think that for canning, Rutgers and Italian Heirloom have been the best. If the John Baer would just get a bit bigger, they would be very nice because they have small stems and easy to remove skin.

manure and compost

2011-08-04T21:37:00.003-04:00

I pulled the onions that had gone to seed in one of my beds. The replacement crop is going to be Lima beans. I noticed that the soil level had dropped about 3" from where it was originally. Some of it is just because it has become compacted a bit. But I can't help but think some of it disappears into the plants that it supports.

I put what was left from one compost bin into the soil as I prepared it. Eight loads in the small cart, probably not filled all the way to the top. It raised the soil level back to where it had been a year or so again. Of course, mixing it helped a little to as it freed up the soil a bit.

Then, out of the blue, Jessica told Kathy that the farm where she manages horses had manure ready to pick up. I got a trailer full. It is pretty lumpy and dry. I really want to run it through the shredder/chipper and mix it with other things that have been thrown into the compost bin in the past six months. I expect it will take another six months to be ready. At least that's the way things have gone in the past. It sounds funny to say it, but I'm glad to have manure again.

Different Kind of Split

2011-08-01T19:10:00.003-04:00

It had been weeks since I went into the hive. Clarence needed to cut the grass in front and he had been stung a while back. I also had left an entrance reducer in on the swarm hive (No need to leave a colony vulnerable because the entrance is too big when they are weak.) But, the hive had grown strong and it was time to pull the entrance reducer out. I also wanted to see how crowded things had become. So I gave Clarence the spare veil and we went in.

The bees were indeed starting to show signs of being crowded. In both hives, the top set of frames were drawn and loaded with honey. I went back today and added extra boxes to each. None of the frames are drawn and I don't expect them to change much between now and when we harvest. But they have more room.

I noticed one thing that was very odd. The swarm hive had a lot of bees hanging around the back. At first, I was just totally confused, wondering if my smoking them had driven them back there. Then I realized that the brood box doesn't sit quite right on the bottom board. There is a small crack -- a different kind of split if you will -- that runs around the back corner. The photo below is actually of the right rear (facing from the front) corner of the hive. The crack is very slim, but it is enough to let them out and they seem to really like hanging out there. I'm not sure how this happened exactly, or how I will fix it, or if I will fix it. The hive seems happy otherwise.

Chili Sauce

2011-07-31T07:13:00.003-04:00

I harvested more tomatoes yesterday, a shopping bag of Italian Heirloom and one of John Baer. With the John Baer that were in the refrigerator from last week, we had about half a bushel. We now have a fair number of quarts of canned tomatoes. I thought it would be good to make something else. I remembered loving my mother's tomato chili sauce. Of course, it is always the case; the recipe you want from your mother went with her when she passed.

I found the following recipe on cooks.com.

1 peck tomatoes
9 green peppers
6 med. size onions
3 c. sugar
3/4 c. salt
1 doz. med. red peppers
1 qt. vinegar
3 tsp. cloves, ground
3 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. nutmeg
2 tsp. ginger

The half a bushel of tomatoes meant we had two pecks. Kathy wants one for straight tomato sauce. So I did the homemade chili sauce. I substituted 2 poblano peppers for the med. red peppers. Then cooked it for at least four hours. It yielded 10 pints.

If I were to do it again, i might cut the spices and vinegar a little. It is pretty strong stuff. And I don't think it is a full duplication of what my mother made, which was pretty mild by comparison. Still, a generally good use of extra tomatoes.

One last comment: This allowed us to compare the processing differences between the John Baer and Italian Heirloom varieties. The Italian Heirloom are much, much larger. But, they are also a bit more unwieldy. The skin of the John Baer just slips off when parboiled. The John Baer also have less pith in them, making it easier to keep most of the fruit when you take out the stem. They just don't grow as big. They also tend to bleach when they get too much sun.

Processing Tomatoes

2011-07-28T08:41:00.004-04:00

This is the time of the year when tomatoes get ripe. It's pretty obvious, but it always catches us a bit off guard. Because it's not just that they are ripe, it's that they must be processed while they are still in their prime or they are wasted.

Kathy went to Toronto last week in the midst of the period of first ripening. I grow the food, but I can't process it without her. Not that I couldn't, I just find myself adrift trying to manage it alone. It is a team task. Fortunately, before the fruit went bad, she returned and we got busy. This is actually the second batch we have processed. The first batch, which we did just before she left, we skinned and put into quart-sized tubs in the freezer. What is pictured below represents a little more than we did then. I also got some tomato juice out of the left over drippings. Pretty tasty stuff!

There are more to do. We had a bumper crop of Italian heirlooms, most of which probably weighed a pound each. You can get a lot done with fruit that size. The tomatoes pictured below are John Baer variety. I was afraid that nearly all would be lost to blossom rot, but somehow, the majority of fruit I have seen lately has been in pretty good shape. A few blemishes, but not the terrible signs of rot. There were a lot more fruit by numbers, but about half the total volume. I think we will process these into something different. I would love to duplicate my mother's chili sauce. There is no recipe so I need to search around for one. Hers was not spicy in the least, so I am trying to figure out what she had in it.

Blooming Onions

2011-07-23T22:32:00.008-04:00

It has been so hot, I have had low motivation to do anything in the garden. Of course, this time of year, you have to pick zucchini daily or they grow too big. I've given up on the yellow squash. I keep wondering why I planted it! Any, there are plenty of tomatoes coming ripe. The Italian Heirloom have done the best, with consistently large fruits of about a pound each. We put some in freezer containers this past week. I'm not sure of the texture or the taste of these yet. We have to try cooking with them first.

One task I have been avoiding has been cleaning out the raised beds that had onions. This morning I finally decided to work until it was too hot to continue and clean out the bed where the yellow of Parma had grown. I clipped off all the blooms. They filled two plastic grocery bags. I'm going to have more seeds than I know what to do with. I guess I will send the ones I don't need to Seed Saver's Exchange. Many of the blooms are not yet ready to release seeds, so I put the blooms aside. However, seeds were dropping from some of the blooms. I got about third of a cup of onion seeds, which I cleaned up a bit by sifting them through a colander.

I presumed originally that the bulbs on the onions that had gone to bloom would be useless, but, as I picked them out of the bed, I realized that the bulbs on many were still rather large. So, I decided to process some.

I extracted the stalk from which the bloom grew from the middle of each and, for some, I chopped the onion up, for others, I cut them in quarters. I got about six quarts to freeze. Putting my work in the freezer, I realized that we still had frozen onions from last year that we haven't used. So, I stopped with six quarts and decided it was too much work. I think I have the best there was to offer anyway; the ones I didn't process were rather small.

Good and Bad Tomatoes

2011-07-15T08:25:00.002-04:00

I picked my first tomato today. It was an Italian Heirloom. Large by any standard -- and there are more on the way.

On the other hand, as I suspected from my early examination and as predicted by the pH levels in the bed, I have nothing but blossom rot among the John Baer variety. Such a shame to lose a whole harvest of one variety.

Water Engineering

2011-07-02T13:56:00.002-04:00

It took more parts than I thought it would need to make the connector to shuffle water from the air conditioner drain to the water barrel. The pipe was 1/2", but it needed to expand to 3/4" to then connect to a threaded part that would hold the connector to hold the hose. Once it was assembled, I watched it to see if water would start dripping into the barrel. It didn't. I went under the house and found that, like the part on top that I had needed to fix, the bottom connector had been poorly assembled and was leaking inside the house. I fixed it. It only dribbles into the barrel, but I figure that is 6 to9 gallons a day.

Bumbling Beekeeper

2011-07-01T13:04:00.004-04:00

I executed the beekeeping plan, only to have a couple of things turn out differently than I had planned. First, there were three frames full of capped brood in the box that was supposed to be devoid of any brood. Second, most of the honey in that box was not capped and therefore not adequately cured.

We did extract honey from one of the brood frames, because the caps had ripped off and it was a mess, but we left the other two frames with brood alone. We extracted honey from the other frames, a little less than a gallon.

I put the box in the bottom position of the swarm hive and put the extracted honey on top of the hive inside a top feeder. It rained a bit in the evening, so I put the fume board on top of it, just slightly askew so the bees could enter and exit but so that it wouldn't get washed out. (I assumed the fumes had all disappeared by that time.) When I checked back, the honey was all gone, so I presume the bees from both hives robbed it and I will get it back if I end up harvesting this year.

I ended up needing two fewer boxes. The frames in the brood box I had placed on when the bees swarmed was not drawn even a little bit. There was a super that had new frames that were modestly drawn, but just barely. Both have come home with me.

Water Source

2011-06-27T07:27:00.003-04:00

North Carolina is in a technical drought again. However, I just checked with a statistical source and that doesn't seem to add up. However, it hasn't rained in several weeks (more than just a few showers that didn't actually accumulate anything).

We have a drain on the side of the house that takes the condensation away when the air conditioner is working. The water just drips, but I wondered the other day how much I could accumulate if I put a watering can underneath the drip. I think this is a 3 gallon can, but it may be smaller. I filled it up 3 times during the course of the day. So that is between 6 and 9 gallons, just from the air conditioner.

I am thinking of creating a small hose that will run from the spout to the water barrels. A little extra water for the garden is always welcome.

Garden Update

2011-06-26T19:33:00.005-04:00

This will just be an update on the progress of various plants in the garden. I am going to start with the cucumbers. Both varieties are growing. I picked a small parade cucumber the other day. I am growing them for pickling, but we used it in a salad. Mostly, we just have growth of the vines, but the vines are being trained nicely on the netting. Perhaps there may be a few too many plants (12 on each end of the raised bed) and that is keeping bees from pollinating them because the flowers are hiding under so many leaves. I hope not. I think they will thin out a bit as the vines grow taller.

There are now tomatoes. The photo below is a Hungarian Heart. True to its name, it is somewhat heart-shaped. I have the one large plant that was planted early and was hearty enough to have withstood the early cool weather. I have one medium plant that I grew indoors after the early plants died. And I have 6 plants in the bed that grew from seed. The seedlings are not very large yet, but are alive and growing. There is also one Rutgers in the bed.

The John Baer tomatoes are growing and starting to produce fruit. I noticed some evidence of early blossom rot on some of these, but others seem to be doing well. Of the three varieties, they are at this time the smallest in size.

The Italian Heirloom, despite my misgivings about the poor soil they were planted in, have grown very well. The fruits are generally a bit larger than the John Baer tomatoes and all the plants seem to be producing at about the same rate.

I am finally getting zucchini (pictured) and yellow squash (not pictured because it was out of focus when I got it into the computer and we ate it for dinner, so there is no second chance for a good photo). No bugs yet on these plants, although I know they are coming.

Goofy Bees

2011-06-25T19:05:00.003-04:00

It has been almost 4 weeks since the bees swarmed. That is enough time for the queen to have laid eggs and the brood to have hatched. It is also about a week and a half since I combined the hives. So, I needed to go in today to check on the status of things. Doug Shaw was in town and it was good to have a buddy with me.

The first hive, which is the split hive, was very full. There was honey and bees everywhere. All the supers were full, including the top box (white and on its side in the photo), which was the original brood box from the package hive. So, I added an empty super. The frames have new foundation in them so the bees will need to draw it. I think the bees in this hive are pretty ambitious. We'll see how they do.

The second hive, which is the swarm hive, was not so progressive. When I did the swarm capture, I put a brood box with new foundation in it. The bees had not drawn a single frame. There was also a brand new super. The bees had only drawn part of a couple of frames. The third box up must have started with some drawn comb, because that was where the queen was. It is a small super, so there isn't much room to lay eggs, but there was capped brood there.

I'm relieved that the queen is laying, but disturbed that there hasn't been any more progress at drawing comb or laying nectar up.

Here is my plan. On Monday, Doug and I are going to take the top box off of the split hive and extract honey from it. I will let bees clean off the left over honey so that the frames are clean. I guess I will just put the box outside the hives and let the bees go to town. I expect it won't take them long. Then, once it is pretty clean, I will put the box in the swarm hive. I have yet to figure out exactly where I will place it. My current thinking is to place the current brood box (the small super) at the bottom of the hive and put the brood box directly above it. I doubt the queen will want to move down, so offering her drawn comb to move up into sounds like the most reasonable alternative. I may also shift around some other boxes, but I'm not sure. There is a nearly empty box with just a little drawn comb that is now just above the brood super. If I take it away and there are eggs laid there, I wouldn't like that. So I may keep it in the hive but above the true brood box. I'm thinking.

Onion Harvest

2011-06-14T20:22:00.004-04:00

The onion harvest is beginning. Last year, I remember that I started too late and then, by leaving the onions out in the sun after they were picked, many of them went soft. I am starting earlier this year. So far, I haven't harvested many, maybe two dozen of the long red Florence. There are maybe a dozen left of that variety. They turned out to be a very nice size. There could be more of them, I suppose. But I am very happy with what I have. I'm not sure quite how to store them. I am thinking that some will need to be diced and frozen. I would like to keep some for fresh use.

I picked two dozen of the yellow of Parma. Even though there are fewer than I expected, they are all nicely sized. I may get a few more from the Parma bed. One question I have about the rest of the Parma is whether to save the seed or not. The seed all come from early bloomers. I doubt that it was genetics that caused the early bloom, I attribute it to environmental conditions. If it is genetics, I may be perpetuating a one-season variety. Of course, I don't know. Perhaps I will save seed and plant these seeds separate from the left over seed I have from this year and see if there is a difference. It may not be a strong test given that the seed will all be related anyway and one generation cannot possibly make that much difference in genetic variation.

Catching Up

2011-06-13T07:34:00.006-04:00

Come June, there are always a lot of things that start happening with the garden. I'm just going to race through some documentation so that I might be able to keep track of when I started things and how things are proceeding at this point in time.

Jason and I planted 24 cucumber plants from seedlings that I had sprouted indoors. Half (12) were Parade, which I believe are for pickling. The other half were Japanese Climbing cucumbers, which I believe will be for salads. Each of the 24 seem to have taken hold. I have one that is ready to climb the trellis I installed. I added a little fertilizer and compost. They seem to be doing well, but things are going slow.

The tomatoes are growing but I have yet to see any set fruit. The exception is the box where I planted Hungarian Hearts, followed by Rutgers. All but one of the Rutgers have died. I suspect I have what Clarence Brown refers to as tomato wilt. But, i planted more Hungarian Heart seeds and have at least half a dozen of those that have sprouted. Sort of a lame bed in many ways. I had such high hopes. Perhaps the seedling Hungarian Hearts will yet grow and produce.

The yellow squash (below) and zucchini are disappointing so far. But, I understand why. The beds they are planted in have very poor soil that is really just mulch. The only reason the Italkian Heirloom tomatoes are doing well (I am convinced) is because of the soil I added when I transplanted them. Nonetheless, they are now starting to grow. I added a little fertlizer to get them going a bit better. It's keeping them watered that is the real challenge. The mulch doesn't hold water well.

I planted three varieties of green bean Saturday and this morning in the same poor soil. I added as much compost as I could and then stole some soil from one of the older beds to try to boost water retention. I also fertilized heavily. I guess time will tell. I believe I will have to water morning and evening until they sprout. It's rained the past several days, which has helped. (The barrels are full again.)

My yellow of Parma onions have gone to bloom. They were so healthy early on. The ones that haven't bloomed have nice large bulbs. I'm at a loss to understand exactly why this happened. I have two ideas: water and spacing. I am hoping to eventually add a drip system and can plant next year's crop 4 per square foot instead of 9. The long red Florence have not suffered this fate.

Finally, I have some peppers that have sprouted and should be ready to plant soon. They are outside now.

Combined Hives

2011-06-09T15:49:00.003-04:00

The odd swarm from the first hive required that I combine what was left behind without a queen. I decided to split the hive boxes up. The two supers went to the hive in which I placed the swarm, which I have been calling the third hive. The brood box from the first hive, which is now just filling up with honey since there is no queen, no brood, and was the lowest box the bees could get to, was combined with the second hive. In the case of the second box, all the bees are at least first cousins and perhaps some are still sisters. The bees in the third hive were all sisters with the bees in the first hive. I did the usual, putting a piece of newspaper with slits cut in it between the existing hive bodies and the boxes that got placed on top. The only other adjustment needed was to remove the top feeder from the third hive.

Doug Shaw is out of town, so I pulled a couple of men from church. Randy Daniels actually put on a veil and gloves and kept the smoker going. Before it got handed to Randy, Parker Funk got the smoker good and lively for me. Ray Teague pitched in with a tool when I thought I had lost my hive tool, which I found on top of the hives when I actually got down to them.

So, technically, I guess I need to renumber hives. Maybe I will do that. Maybe I will just name them differently, east and west or split and swarm. I have to think about it.

I went by this morning to inspect. The split hive was very lively. I think brood had recently hatched and there were a lot of orienting flights. The swarm hive is a bit quiet. They haven't had time to produce young bees yet. They've only been in the hive 11-12 days and they started with no drawn comb.

Garlic Harvest

2011-06-06T22:33:00.006-04:00

I have thought for several weeks now that it must be getting close to the time to harvest the garlic. I read the instructions from Seed Saver Exchange about growing and harvesting garlic. The timing and symptoms were correct. So we harvested today after work. All 30 of the cloves planted produced nice bulbs. I had to dig down a ways to get to the bulbs. Kathy and Jenna cleaned them off with water. (Now that I re-read the instructions, it says to not do that. Too late.) We then carried them to a place where we could clean them a little more, pulling off the outer layer in most cases.

Overall, I think we got between 25 and 30 pounds of garlic. Most of the cloves are quite large. Some had started to separate from the bulb, suggesting that we harvested just in time. The bulbs were generally large. I put a measuring (1 cup) next to the bulbs to give something to compare in terms of size.

We braided the garlic into 5 braids, 6 bulbs to a strand. I've hung them in the garage, which I think is too hot. Kathy wouldn't allow the aromatic herbs to occupy the house. I cannot think of a different place to move them to, but I'm sure I have a day or two to figure that out. We have a cold room at the office where the computer equipment is housed. Unfortunately, the air conditioner is having problems, so that isn't an ideal solution just yet. I'm afraid I would odorize the entire office if I put it somewhere else there. I have to think. Re-reading the instructions, it doesn't say anything about heat, so maybe things will be OK. Once they are dried, the cold room may be a good place to store them. I plan on replanting next year. Kathy says we need to give a lot away.

Problems with Quick Swarms

2011-06-04T22:18:00.003-04:00

I went in to the hives today to see if they needed any additional supers. All the sugar water I had left for the newest hive (the one on the right) was gone and there were no dead bees sitting in the top feeder. None of the other hives needed any new supers.

The oldest hive (the one on the left) had not progressed at all in terms of the bees storing more honey. We left it as it was, but then I thought about it and came back later. It was my experience last year that a premature swarm can sometimes be just that; premature. Last year, when I had just installed a hive, within a week or two it swarmed. I gathered the swarm into a new hive. I turned out that the old hive had no queen. In the end, neither colony was strong enough to defend itself from wax moths. As I thought about this, I realized that I may have the same situation this time around as well. So, I went back into the hive a little later. I'm afraid I may have the same situation this year. I pulled out every frame from the brood box of the original hive and found no evidence of a queen laying eggs whatsoever. I saw no evidence of the bees making a new queen either. And, by the end of my observations, I found that I had a very angry hive; another sign that the hive is queenless.

I need to go back in and combine the three boxes with the other two active hives. I have evidence from the middle hive that there is a good queen because there were capped brood cells all over the place. I trust the other hive also has a queen because they clustered around her when I caught the swarm.

Quick Swarm

2011-05-29T20:51:00.006-04:00

After church today, I got a call from Clarence. One of his grand daughters, Catherine, was walking in his backyard and saw a swarm in his youngest apple tree. I thought I had taken care of the risk of a swarm when I split the hive and added a super. Evidently the bees didn't agree.

So I dropped everything and went to Clarence's. Fortunately, the swarm was located on several smaller branches of the tree, easily within reach. They were heavy enough to have bent the branches, so the swarm wasn't a small one. But then, I'm not that exerienced with swarms to know if they are all about the same size. Clarence took his loppers and cut the branches. He actually had to do it twice because there was a sizable swarm still left on a branch that wasn't cut the first time.

Before I left to go over to Charence's place, I had to rescue some hive parts. This is where I should have been a bit more diligent in taking care of things last year when the moths took out the hives in my yard. I was just upset and, assuming that I would not need them again, I left the base and brood box and telescoping cover in the yard. I had new foundation on frames that were in the garage. This is not the way to start a hive, but it was the best I could do on short notice. Fortunately, I had a small super that was drawn out so the bees will have a place to store honey when they start foraging. I plan on returning tomorrow and swapping out some brood frames from other hives to give the queen a place to start laying eggs (other than in the supers).

Of course, I'm not totally sure the queen was with the rest of the bees when I shook the branch into the hive, but I presume she was. They seemed content to have a hive to be in.

So, now I have three hives. I had already planned to go in tomorrow to check them out. I hear the nectar flow is very good. I hope I have enough supers to supply them. Doug has offered to help out.

The only other comment I want to make was that it must be very humid outside. I came back home totally drenched from the half hour of work.

Slow Tomato Progress

2011-05-20T16:59:00.008-04:00

Gardening is a always a philosophical endeavor. It is entirely practical, of course. But when you fail, like I seem to do often, it makes you stop and think. I'm not sure thinking does me any good, but I'm bound to do it anyway. I've taken stock of the state of my tomato plants. Here is my brief report and analysis.

I have one strong Hungarian Heart plant (shown on top) and smaller one planted last week (not shown). The strong one seems to be doing everything I would want a plant to do. i am hoping the smaller one will survive and starting growing new leaves soon. I've planted two seeds directly in the garden in hopes that something might happen. I understand what my problem has been. I planted the first batch too soon, probably the second batch, too. But I think there is another problem that I need to figure out how to address if I am going to start tomatoes from seed. I think the planting mix I used is very low on nutrients. There was just too much yellow instead of green from the moment the plants got true leaves.

My pride aside, I want tomatoes. So, for the other 12 spots in that raised bed, I went to the Farmer's Market and bought some Rutgers, which I planted yesterday evening. They plants (second photo) also have a little yellow in the lower leaves, but they are hardy otherwise and will surely grow.

I assume the nursery planted the seeds at the same time as the rest of their crop, so I have benefitted a bit by waiting. I think they will do just fine. I was tempted to ask how they do it, but I doubted I would get an answer that would really do me any good. There is something technical I need to learn. More than anything, I think I need to find out what the missing ingredient is and learn where to buy it.

The John Baer tomatoes (third photo) are all alive and are about the same size as the Rutgers. They are a little spindley still, but are green and seem to be growing. I added some 10-10-10 to boost growth a bit. I'm not sure what else to do other than wait. At least there are 16 plants that are alive and growing. New leaves have come out on all but a few of these plants.

This time of the year is a little frustrating for those who want quick results. Tomatoes need to establish themselves and the roots need to grow before the tops are going to take off. I remember feeling this way last year and then, all of a sudden, things take off and the tomato plants seemed to grow too fast. I understand that fast stem growth does not equate with productivity. Except for the Rutgers, these are all untried varieties for me.

The Italian Heirloom are doing well in terms of color. They were smaller in the jiffy pots when they sprouted and they are still a bit smaller. But I think they like the place where they reside. I gave them a little extra 10-10-10 yesterday, too.

So, instead of 48 plants, I currently have 46 with the potential for 2 more if seeds sprout and grow.

Tomato Cage Solution

2011-05-14T10:05:00.006-04:00

There may be no real solution to trellising tomato plants. I know Mel Bartholomew advocates a trellis structured by weaving netting over conduit frames. I've tried that in the past and for other plants, like cucumber vines, I like it.

Last year I just used wire cages and when a big wind came and the vines were heavy, they all fell over and couldn't be righted. I am trying a different solution this year. I already have conduit hoops over the three raised beds where tomatoes are growing. My idea this year is to anchor the wire cages onto the conduit hoops.

I used cable ties (cheap, strong, and easy to use) to tie each cage to the conduit hoop it was closest to. I made sure a vertical member of the cage was adjacent to the hoop so I could catch it in the tie. I also adjusted the height of each cage so that one of the wire hoops in the cage was also in the cable tie.

As an added measure, I put cable ties around the top wire hoop of the cage where they touched.

I gave it a quick shake test with my hand to see how sturdy this system felt. I suppose there are things that can still go wrong. A strong wind in the right direction can still move the cages by sliding them along the conduit. The ties may break. Who knows? I think it will be better than last year. Time will tell. However, given that the conduit was already in place and the cages were in hand, it seems the logical thing to do.

Strawberries

2011-05-13T13:57:00.004-04:00

The boxes in which I planted strawberries last spring were full of weeds this year. I didn't expect the strawberry plants to actually survive. So, I was surprised when we started cleaning out the weeds to find a relatively productive crop at hand. If there is any value to the weeds, I think they kept the strawberries hidden from the birds. The crop is still coming in, but so far has been more bountiful than I expected.

The Split

2011-05-11T18:45:00.000-04:00

I went back in the hive with Doug and decided it needed to be split. The challenge I didn't anticipate was how quickly the bees would multiply and how quickly they would store honey. When the hive become too crowded, they did what bees have always done; they decided it was time to swarm. There were a number of queen swarm cells, one of which was already capped.

Doug provided the extra brood box and I used a super that I had left at Clarence's place last year to make the split. (Fortunately, the foundations were still in pretty good shape, but not yet drawn out.) We swapped out 4 frames from the super, all but one with swarm cells on the bottom edge. We also took three frames from the brood box, two of which were loaded with capped brood cells and one of which was loaded with honey. The original hive was still loaded with honey and lots of bees, so I brought another super over a little later and put it on top.

The new hive does not appear very busy yet. There are fewer bees and I think most of them must be nurse bees and not foragers. They will have new bees and a new queen soon, and they have enough honey and pollen to survive until then.

After working on my bees, I went with Doug to inspect his hives. All was well until I took off my gloves at the end as I was walking away from his hives. I guess there was a bee on a glove that didn't appreciate my presence. I don't mind a sting every now and then. I just wish I would have taken off my wedding ring as soon as I had been stung.

Very Healthy Hive

2011-05-08T18:08:00.005-04:00

It was past due for me to check out the hive that I requeened. Jeff and I went in to look. The super was totally full of honey. They had capped a fair amount. Getting it off took some effort it was so full. And this is only May and I thought that the new queen would barely have laid any eggs. All the frames in the super were full and there were plenty of bees. This photo was from the edge frame and it was already full of honey.

Indeed, when I took off the super, they were already creating swarm cells, the hive was so crowded. So, in the end, losing the Georgia queen wasn't a bad thing at all.

I added a super I happened to have. It has no drawn frames, but if the bees have been as successful as they have been so far, I have few worries.

pH and Tomatoes

2011-05-07T22:51:00.006-04:00

Today was the day to plant the John Baer and the Italian Heirloom tomatoes. The weather has become warmer and the lows are predicted to be above 50F for the next several days -- perhaps from now on. I have two beds that I have decided to use, one for each variety. I spent the day preparing the beds; turning the soil, adding lime and ferlizer and planting.

The bed that the John Baer tomatoes are in is a bed that has older (relatively) soil. It is the soil I got about 4 years ago from Oak Ridge Schrubbery and has become quite nice in that time. It is like having pristine dirt. The only challenge I found this morning was that the soil had a very acidic pH. (The needle pointing left on my meter is towards acid.) I probably added 10-15 pounds of lime pellets to it to try to bring it around before I planted. I used the same spacing as I used with the Hungarian Hearts that I planted earlier.

The Italian Heirloom bed is the new soil I got from Oak Ridge Schrubbery last year. Nothing has been grown in it yet. I don't know if I really trust it. In another bed, I had planted some spinach, but it came up very spotty. I planted rhubarb in the third bed with this soil and so far haven't seen a thing. Interestingly, the pH in this bed was about perfect. I still added some lime, but not as much.

When I planted in the John Baer bed, I took out some of the soil and kept it aside and then, when I planted in the Italian Heirloom bed, I mixed 4-5 handfuls of the soil from that bed with 4-5 handfuls of the soil I had saved from the other bed. The problem as I see it is that the soil in the new beds is really just rough compost. I see toadstools and other fungi in those beds. Give it a couple of years and it may get to be soil, but for now it is not what I really want. I asked the woman who sold it to me if there was actually any dirt in it. She lied when she said yes.

I put my drinking straw collars around each plant. Some of the plants were still very small. Some were very spindly. I expect to have to monitor and water them frequently until they get established. The Hungarian Heart that survived seems to be doing well now and looks like it has taken root and is growing. So a couple of week of decent weather and regular water and I hope each of these will do well, too.

Clogged Connector

2011-05-04T21:38:00.003-04:00

In between periods of rain, which have gratefully been pretty regular this year, I have started watering the one surviving Hungarian Heart tomato as well as the onions and garlic. The water barrels sat all winter. I watched the hoses that feed into my connector system to make sure they didn't rupture. I guess my primary indicator would have been if all the water disappeared out of the barrels, then I would have looked at each to see where the water was coming from. But that didn't happen.

However, I did notice that there was something amiss because the lead barrel, the one that gathers the rain from the drain off the roof, had a higher water level than all the other barrels. Water in all the barrels levels because it normally flows freely between them. All the other barrels were level. There could only be one cause: there must be a clog somewhere between the lead barrel and the connectors.

To test, I turned the faucet off on the lead barrel and disconnected the hose there and turned the faucet on just enough to make sure water would come out. There was no problem there. I reconnected the hose and, keeping the faucet shut and shutting off the Y connector to shut off flow from the remaining barrels, I disconnected the hose from the Y connector. There was scum that had accumulated at the junction that was impeding the flow of water. I cleaned it out and opened everything up. There was gurgling that told me water was flowing again.

There was also some scum on the top of the water in that barrel. I don't necessarily think that the two are related, but you never know. I guess a little maintenance is necessary every now and then.

Seeds vs. Sets

2011-04-25T06:29:00.004-04:00

I planted onion seeds for two varieties last autumn -- long red Florence and yellow of Parma. Rather than scattering seeds, I used my spacing template to plant 9 per square foot because the year before I tried to plant them close and found that it was too difficult to replant them later in the spring as sets. The Florence didn't come up as well this year as the Parma did. I attribute this primarily to voles or some other pest in the box where the Florence were planted.

But the bigger immediate question is how the seeds have fared so far when compared to sets. Because the Florence were spotty, I bought sets and planted them in the same raised bed. It allows me to make a direct comparison. The photo below compares the best Florence with 2 onions typical of those planted as sets. Not all the Florence are this big, but most are clearly larger than the onions planted from sets.

The Parma that were planted from seeds grew much more regularly and, overall, seem to be doing great. They are all tall and have developed nice thick stalks. It might be hard to make a direct comparison between the photos, but the Parma are uniformly as large as the Florence I captured above.

The conclusion is that I like seeds, at least so far. I have to figure out the pest problem and will move the bed where I plant next year if I can't kill the pests off.

Orchard Report

2011-04-23T20:32:00.006-04:00

I took a quick trip through the orchard to see how things were developing. I have two plum trees. I found fruit on one, the Methley, but not the other.

All three pear trees had fruit that was set.

I have six peach trees. Some of the fruit was set. This image was from the tree that was furthest along. Others had very small fruit, just starting to show. There were two trees on which I didn't see any fruit.

One of the peach trees had very weak leaf development and no fruit that I could see.

The apples all had fruit that had set. I will need to thin these out quite a bit. I have yet to get really good apples off any of the trees. One died last year.

Also, not pictured, both the apricots died, but the root sent up new wood. I kept one sapling alive on each tree and cut off the rest last year. I don't think I actually have an apricot tree anymore, just whatever the root stock sent up. If I knew about grafting and where I could get apricot branches, I will address this for both trees.

The persimmon is alive and growing leaves. It's an odd tree, but seems to be coming on strong this year. I'm hoping it will find a central branch to make the trunk. Right now, the strongest branch juts off to one side.

What I don't know how to do is treat the trees for the problems they will all face. It is not crucial that I learn immediately, but eventually I need to learn how to take care of the orchard.

Winter Weeds

2011-04-22T10:46:00.005-04:00

There are two kinds of weeds that seem to be very prolific in the garden starting in the fall and growing through the winter. They obviously drop seeds by the hundreds (because I don't get rid of them in time). There is a third and fourth type (not pictured) that I deal with as well, although the latter two don't grow quite as profusely. I ought to know the names of these, but I don't yet. (My purpose in blogging about them is not to complain about the weeds; they only grow because I let them. I need to learn a little so I can be better prepared.)

I've search images on google. The closest I came was for the plants with the purple tips. They may be purple dead nettles (Lamium purpureum).

I am still searching for the other plant in the picture.

New Hearts

2011-04-21T06:54:00.006-04:00

Given my poor judgment about transplanting the Hungarian Heart tomato seedlings, I thought I would try again. It would be a shame for me to lose out on learning about this new (to me) variety altogether. So I replanted. I ran out of the peat pots I used the first time. I bought new pots at Tractor supply. The new ones were a bit bigger than the ones I originally used, 3 inch Jiffy Pots that came 22 to a pack.

I planted 16 seeds. I put them in a bit deeper this time around because I noticed that especially for the Hungarian Hearts, the seed cover tended to stay on the first leaves. I figured thet planting deeper would allow the soil to help rip the seed cover off. All came up. Only 3 had seed covers still attached and they came off easily.

I've also tried something else with this batch. I purposely didn't fill the pots to the brim with planting mix when I started the seeds. As the seedlings grow, I will back fill the pots with soil until it reaches the top, allowing the seedlings to start establishing side roots earlier and giving the stalk a bit more support throughout the early phases. (I've noticed for instance that watering even at this stage knocks over some of the stems.) I've only just started this process. I packed a little planting mix around 5 of the plants this morning, adding only about 3/8 inch of soil to the pots.

Then I went out to the garden to clean out weeds and, to my surprise, I still had one Hungarian Heart alive in the bed. I am hoping this one will continue to do well. I will mark it as having hardy character and maybe take some seeds from it if it also does well as a producer.

Queen Cells

2011-04-14T21:31:00.011-04:00

Seven days ago I put two frames in the hive that originated from Doug Shaw's strongest hive. One was a super, one was a brood frame. I was pretty sure one of them had eggs or very young larvae. We went back in today, based on Rob Jacobs' advice to see if queen cells had been started. We found one on each frame.

The photos that follow are from the super frame. The queen cell is on the bottom of the frame, just like a swarm cell would be. I'm not sure exactly how the egg or larva got into that position, but the bees seem to like it there. There was one bee that seemed to be especially engaged with the cell. It took a little patience to wait until this nurse bee was through to get the shot of the open cell. This is good news!

The second frame, the brood frame also had a queen cell. This cell was more in the spot you would expect of an emergency or supersedure queen cell. I wasn't quite as impressed with nurse bees, but then caring for the queen cell may be sporadic or I may just have not seen it, I didn't want to be in the hive all that long.

The bees seemed very happy. There was plenty of pollen and honey. I am not feeding because they are close to a nectar and pollen source and there is no need for them to draw new comb.

I have two possible queen cells! May the best one win!

Dead Hearts

2011-04-13T21:40:00.001-04:00

I believe in reporting failure. The Hungarian Hearts I planted are dead. Clearly too soon. It didn't get down to freezing, but they clearly didn't like the 40s and 50s F.

I planted 16 new seeds. I probably have a month before things should really be planted. I may just plant them a little late.

Hungarian Hearts

2011-04-09T15:19:00.007-04:00

The Hungarian Hearts were the tomato variety that suvived poor water the best. The problem I have seen with them over the past several weeks is an increasing loss of vatality in the leaf color. They are turning quite yellow. In the past, I've found the best remedy is to just get them into the ground and let them grow under normal garden conditions. It is a bit early in the season; the official last frost date isn't for a week or so. I checked the weather channel and they projected no frost for the next 10 days. Besides, I have a cover that I can stick over the top if things look really bad.

I tagged the ones I thought were most ready to go in the ground and put my McDonalds' straws on them for cut worm collars.

The last several years, I have put 18 plants in a bed. This year I am putting 16 plants in a bed. For one thing, I have expanded to three beds dedicated to tomatoes this year, so I will have space for 48 tomato plants instead of 36. This way, I can also use the cold frame conduit to help support the cages and each bed has 5 tubes -- 1 at each end to support 2 plants each and 3 in the middle that will support 4 plants each.

I turned the cages upside down to get my spacing.

I expect rain this afternoon, so I didn't water. We had a good storm last night and the soil was really good and moist.

The one good thing about the spindly seedlings was that I could bury them pretty deep. I understand that the little hairs will turn into roots, so I hope that part works out. I did have an accident with one plant. It's leaves broke off before I could get it into the ground. But, I started with 24 plants and had an extra. (I plan to give all the rest away to friends.)

One thing I do want to comment on, just for the record, is that a whole lot of weeds had grown up in the bed over the winter. This is a problem with several of the beds. The onions have already been weeded. There are 3 beds that I need to get to.

The Bee Story

2011-04-07T20:31:00.003-04:00

There are no pictures with this.

I posted a request on the Guilford County Beekeepers Association forum, describing my problem with the dead queen. Here is the text and several follow-ups:

Me: I picked up my package from the club on Sunday and installed it. At the time of pick up and installation, the queen was alive. She never made it out of the cage. I now need a new queen. I've called around. Local suppliers won't have queens until about May 1. There is a California supplier who has a 2010 queen for $20 plus $25 or so for shipping. I'm hoping to avoid that.
My current thinking is to combine the new package with an existing hive and wait until a queen becomes available locally when I can split the hive again. Any opinions? Any other options?

Ski: An option would be to put a frame of brood with eggs in the package hive and let them raise their own queen. Drones are available now so 16 days plus from now should provide that many more mature drones. But I have not played around that much with packages.

Wally: I would go with the frame of eggs, but leave the bees on it. There will be a little fighting at first, but they will settle in shortly. The extra bees on the frame will give the package a boost.

Me: I went in with my buddy Doug and looked through three of his strongest hives for a frame with new eggs. All of his queens had chimneyed with brood in the brood boxes as well as in the supers. We found the queen and, avoiding the frame she was on, picked a brood frame and a medium with very young larva as well as some young ready to hatch.
I replaced a brood and medium super frame in the new hive. The packaged bees had drifted to port in both the brood box and the super, so I placed the new frames a little to starboard, hoping they would accomodate more easily. (I had some loose bees in the nuke box I carried the frames over with, so I just dumped them on top and wished them luck.)
So, now I wait. Any more advice?

Jacobs: You can give it about 4 full days and then look for queen cells. You should see them by then. If you have other bee hives around (and maybe even if you don't), you may want to use blue or green painters tape (the kind that you can pull off without leaving glue on the hive or pulling up paint) and put it on the front of the hive in wonky patterns. This may help the queen recognize and get back to the right hive when she orients and goes up for her mating flight. The link below is to Michael Bush's bee math. It will give you an excellent idea about what you should be seeing when.
http://www.bushfarms.com/beesmath.htm

So, that's where it stands.

A Dead Queen

2011-04-06T13:16:00.006-04:00

The queen was alive when she was installed. She never made it out of the cage. I think we need to reconsider the bottom loading-on-a-stick method.

There are no queens for sale locally. None will be available until about May. Doug and I will deal with this in one of two ways. We could combine this hive with one of his until a queen becomes available and we can split it out again. Or, an option posted by one of my fellow beekeepers is to take a frame of newly laid eggs and let the bees make their own queen. I like the last option best.

New Bee Package

2011-04-03T11:37:00.006-04:00

The new package of bees arrived today. I purchased it from the Guilford County Beekeepers Association. I think they got the packages from Georgia. I'm not thrilled about that. I have developed a belief in local bees. But, I decided to take what I could get.

I am putting the bees in Clarence's yard again. The one thing Doug Shaw suggested was inserting the queen cage into the hive in a different way that he had read about recently. We parepared the cage the same way you normally do by taking out the cork and poking a hole into the candy. What we did differently this time was to attach a bamboo shaft to the side of the cage. We wired it on. I guess a rubber band would have worked as well.

Then we put the cage at the bottom of the brood box. The idea will be that we won't have to open the hive by taking off the super to check the release of the queen and pull out the queen cage. We can just pull the bamboo stick out to do that.

The other thing we did was to reloacte the hive a bit. It used to be in the shade a bit more than I liked. So we moved it into the sun and angled it to the south east.

By the time we left, the bees had already oriented and were starting to go after Clarence's holly bushes that have just come into bloom. The good thing about this installation is that there was already pollen in the hive and all the frames were fully built out so no new wax need be created. They can just start storing nectar and making honey.

Aargh Update

2011-04-02T23:35:00.002-04:00

To be brief, after watering and waiting, all of the John Baer seedlings that were drooping have more or less recovered and are alive. I have given many of them shikabob skewers to rest against, but their leaves have all revived. All but 6 of the Italian Heirloom also revived. The 6 that didn't are probably done for and I will need to replant.

Aargh

2011-04-02T11:15:00.011-04:00

It always happens. You think you are doing your best and then you goof up. My tomatoes were coming along just fine. I thought that by turning on the fan, the stalks would thicken up a little. I went in on Wednesday and examined. Things were a little dry so I watered, giving about 2 quarts among the three planters. (I actually bought a 1/4" line so that I could syphon water from the pitcher and control its flow more easily. The syphon worked great. It just needed to work more.) The plants in the top photo are the Italian Heirloom.

But then I went in this morning and felt that sinking feeling in my chest. Two of the three plantings had gone totally dry and the tomatoes had started to (or completely in some cases) keeled over. The soil was totally dry. Of course, the fan is the culprit, but it is my lack of diligence that is the real problem. Seedlings cannot be ignored and I had ignored them. The plants in the center photo are the John Baer. They are the ones that have had the greatest problem in color -- the leaves have a yellowish tint.

Amazingly, the Hungarian Heart (in the bottom photo) seemed to do the best. The soil was just as dry but they had not wilted. I guess their point of catastrophe is a little different than the other varieties.

I immediately gave each bed water, about 2 quarts each. I turned off the fan. I will give them a while to see if some respond. I will replant where I see that a seedling has died. What else can I do at this point?

The ten days we were gone on vacation with the fan off, nothing bad happened. Just a few days with different conditions changed everything.

Wild Turkeys

2011-04-01T14:28:00.004-04:00

This really has nothing to do with having sufficient for our needs, but I thought I would document it anyway. Everyday, I drive down a country road on my way to work. I've periodically seen wild turkeys as well as buzzards near the road. It is pleasant to think that I live in a place where there is still ample wildlife. Of course, there are plenty of deer and raccoons and occasional foxes and coyotes as well. But the birds are the most interesting to me.

I have noticed that there is a rafter of turkeys that have stationed themselves in one field in particular in the mornings. I took the camera with me today just to get a photo. I have noticed in the past couple of glances that some of the turkeys have a whitish shade to them. I wonder if the wild and domestic have been intermingling. I like the fact that in this photo, the tom has his tail feathers spread. When I got there, they were already heading off to the left into the woods, where I take it they hang out during the day.

The irony of this is that there used to be a turkey shoot very close to this field. We used to pass men out with their rifles in the evenings raising funds for a local Civitan organization. They weren't shooting turkeys, just targets. I wonder if they knew how close they were. Perhaps the turkeys stayed away until the shooting range got taken down this last winter.

Rhubarb

2011-03-29T15:19:00.004-04:00

I ordered rhubarb from Holland Bulb Farms back in February. The package finally arrived yesterday. I knew it was going to freeze last night, so I didn't plant as soon as I could. Plus, I have come down with a decent cold that has wiped out my energy. Today was a very nice day with temperatures in the low 60s F. So, I opened the package up today and planted. Just planting these few made me so tired I took an hour nap.

I ordered 6 plants -- 2 sets of 3. Each had 4 roots in them, although one of the roots was very small and the other root was actually still somewhat attached (just by a thread) to another root. So I planted 8 roots. These roots are different from what I have seen in the past. The crown was less well defined. In one case at least I just made a best guess about which end should be up.

Rhubarb pies have been a family tradition as long as I can remember. My mother used to always have a rhubarb pie ready for me when I came home to visit. I request rhubarb pie for my birthday instead of cake. The rhubarb we had earlier died out a couple of years ago and we have been surviving on the stems I cut and froze but finally used the last of it on my last birthday. The new rhubarb won't be ready to harvest for a year, and then only sparingly. So I will have to supplement with rhubarb from the store. (I actually found some in a store last year.) But, it's good to know we are getting back in business.

Spindly Seedling Growth

2011-03-27T21:08:00.004-04:00

I've been away from the house on vacation for about 10 days. I watered the tomato seedlings well before I left and kept the grow light on. Upon my return, they had grown. But I think they are a little spindly.

I also have some yellowish leaves.

I think most of this will be taken care of when they are transplanted. I got some general advice from an online source. I may turn on the fan in the room where they are located. Other than that, I don't think I will worry.

Onion and Garlic Report

2011-03-12T14:09:00.006-05:00

I assessed the status of my garlic and onions. Despite my early attempt to keep them covered, i left them exposed most of the harsh winter in their beds. The garlic I bought from Seed Savers Exchange, Chet's Italian Red, did very well. The only weak garlic plants were the two I planted from garlic I found in the refrigerator.

The Long Red Florence onions did not do as well. I only had a few survive.

The Yellow of Parma onions on the other hand did really well and survived nicely. I don't think I lost any that had sprouted.

I decided to supplement the Long Red Florence bed with some new onions. A friend had encouraged me to plant onion seedlings that were supposed to be available at Webster Brothers. I drove there and only found sets. I wanted red onions if I could get them, but they only had white and yellow. So I got just shy of 100 sets and planted them this afternoon. I may have to make another trip, probably to Kernersville Seed and Feed to get some more because the ones I got were only about half what I needed. Feed and Seed usually has red onions, so that should work.

Tomato Sprouts

2011-03-09T18:55:00.008-05:00

The tomato seeds have been in the peat pots and under the lamp light for about 10 days now. The germination rate has been best for the Hungarian Heart seeds (91%). All but two have sprouted and they have grown cleanly, meaning the sprouts haven't had any obvious problems.

The Italian Heirlooms have done a bit less well. There are sprouts, to be sure, but the germination rate has been less (67%).

The germination rate for the John Baer seeds has been 80% so far, but some of these seedlings have the interesting problem of the primary leaves not being able to shed the seed casing. You can see what has happened a bit better in the photo on the right. Both have carried the casing with them. I figure it is just best to let the seedling work it out. My guess is that the John Baer seeds would benefit from being planted a bit deeper so that when the initial stem arches up, the casing remains trapped in the soil. Of course, the other difference, obvious to me, is that the soil they are in is a different type than the soil that the other two sets were planted in.

Chicken Manure

2011-03-05T14:13:00.007-05:00

My friend Doug works for Fed Ex. They are closing down the operation he works for in Greensboro and it looks like he is moving to Memphis. His chicken coop has also been recently liquidated by varmints of one kind or another. So, he offered me all the chicken manure we could scrape up from his coup. I got a load that filled my trailer.

There is a lot of straw in the mixture, but sufficient droppings to definitely make it worth getting. I've never had chicken manure before.

I brought it home and ran it through the chipper/shredder. It made big clouds of something as it processed through. I wore a mask to keep the stuff out of my lungs. The shredder pulverized the poop pellets and somewhat chopped up the straw. There were other things in the pile, so everything got pretty well mixed to boot.

I ended up with a bin of processed material. Because it was under Doug's coop and kept away from the rain, none of this has really had a chance to compost. I expect it to take six months or more.

The only other thing of note is that I noticed buds on the pears today. It has been a bit warm lately. Things will be blooming shortly. I wish I had bees in the yard, but I don't. I think I need to do a little pruning in the next week. The pears seem OK, it's trees that haven't shown any signs of buds that I need to get to.

Tomato Seeding

2011-02-28T20:46:00.005-05:00

I'm not really sure how soon I should plant tomato seeds, but Saturday seemed like a good enough day to try it. The seeds I had ordered from Seed Savers Exchange arrived a week ago. I planted 24 seeds of each of the three varieties: Italian Heirloom, Hungarian Heart, and John Baer. The number 24 isn't magic, I just had 9 8-packs of peat pots and three cookie sheets to put them on.

I haven't a clue how each of these varieties will actually do. They are all heirloom indeterminate. I don't think I will have room for 72 plants. I plan on giving some away. All may not sprout. I just feel it's just time to get started. That's all I know.

Rhubarb

2011-02-13T17:59:00.004-05:00

I need rhubarb. It is a basic food group. The plants we had from twenty years ago when we first moved to North Carolina succombed several years ago. They had survived our move from Clemmons to Oak Ridge, staying 6-months as bare roots in the place we leased in between. But, they finally died out. My sister said they need to be replanted every so often. I think I just had them in a place they ultimately didn't like.

So, I looked around today. I had four paper catalogs (Gurneys, Burpee, Henry Fields, and Johnny's Seeds). I wondered if I could get a better price online. Here is the essence of what I found:

Wallace-Woodstock
Canada Red - Zone 3-8. A fine Canadian variety, has natural sweetness that allows you to use less sugar to make pies, sauces, and other baked goods. The earliest produce in the Spring, this variety produces long, juicy stalks that are cherry red clear through. Cooks up strawberry red color. This is a must for every garden.

Victoria - Zone 3-8. This is a very productive strain for home gardeners and commercial growers, producing large tender stalks of excellent quality. Not as red as Canada Red, but more vigorous and productive. Shows strong resistance to root rot and is a btter choice for growing in heavier soils.
Price: 1-2 $ 7.00 Ea., 3 for $ 19.00, 6 for $ 36.00, 12 for $ 65.00

Holland Bulb Farms
Victoria Rhubarb Plant. What says late summer better than rhubarb pie? Plump, fiber-free stalks with rich red inside color and a sweet only mildly tart flavor make this rhubarb a customer favorite! This is the ultimate rhubarb plant as it is disease resistant and cold hardy. Stalks should be allowed to grow two full seasons before harvesting. $5.48

Garden Harvest
Victoria is one of the earliest maturing varieties and has a flavor a little more wine-like and a little less tart than the Glaskins variety. The stalks are typically 10-12 inches long and the color graduates from scarlet at the base to light green at the top. Absolutely wonderful for pies and cobblers!
Price: $7.00

I went with Holland Bulb Farms. I turns out that, unlike the others, Holland had 3 plants per package, which made it by far the least expensive. Sometimes cheap isn't good. The plants may be very small, for instance. I can be patient. I just need rhubarb.

Getting Going 2011

2011-02-12T10:55:00.005-05:00

It has taken me a bit of mental energy to get myself started this year. I think the winter has been so cold that it has discouraged me somehow. Things in the winter garden just didn't amount to anything. The bees all died. The greenhouse is missing panes. But I've realized you need to move forward.

This week I went to the Guilford County Beekeepers Association meeting. I haven't been able to go for some time because of family history duties. I decided to get a new package at least for the hive in Clarence's yard. Larry Tate is selling, so they are going to be local bees, which is a plus. The meeting had an extra benefit. I talked to Jackie Wiggers to see about getting the feral hives. She suggested I talk to Tom Sawyer who has done extractions before. I called him. There is nothing scheduled yet, but I am at least moving forward. I went by Clarence's this morning with Doug Shaw and cleaned the dead bees out of that hive. There is a place ready for either the package or the feral colony.

I also ordered seeds from Seed Savers Exchange. I looked for some of the varieties that I had planted in the past, purchased from local stores. They didn't have the exact varieties, like Rutgers tomatoes, that I was looking for, but I decided to take what I could. Here is what I have ordered.

Bean, Provider OG, Packet 50 seeds
Bean, Empress , Packet 50 seeds
Cucumber, Parade OG, Packet 25 seeds
Cucumber, Japanese Climbing OG, Packet 25 seeds
Pepper, Tollies Sweet OG, Packet 25 seeds
Pepper, Bull Nose Bell , Packet 50 seeds
Tomato, Italian Heirloom , Packet 50 seeds
Tomato, John Baer OG, Packet 25 seeds
Tomato, Hungarian Heart , Packet 50 seeds
Bean, Fin de Bagnol OG, Packet 50 seeds (back ordered)

I still need to order rhubarb and sweet potatoes. But it is a start.

I think the challenge here is a philosophical one. It is getting started when you don't have all the motivation in the world. I still have a pretty deep commitment that the garden and bees are things that need to be done. I continue to sense a challenge to long-term survival and the only way to deal with it I know of is to prepare in every way I can. There is no imminent threat. But, unless you prepare when the threat is far away, you can't respond when it arrives.

I was reminded how quickly things can change this week. I walked out the front door to start my daily walk with the dogs. A package had arrived and was sitting on the door step. I tried to step around it, felt my ankle give way and ended up on my back. It all happened so fast. There was truly no way to prepare. I recovered, went on the walk with a weakened ankle (that recovered as I walked because I have sprained it so many times that I guess more real damage wasn't done). But it was how quickly it happened that caught my attention.

The world can changing rapidly. Tunisia a couple of weeks ago. Eqypt this week. Centuries ago it was the Mongols charging through China and the Middle East and the black plague sweeping through Europe. Decades ago it was Germany and Japan. Best to be prepared. Best to know when to leave and have something to take with you when you go.

Death to Fruit Flies

2011-01-15T09:13:00.004-05:00

Beginning sometime in late December, we experienced an invasion of fruit flies. You never know where these things come from. As the name implies, you always expect they hitched a ride on a piece of fruit. But then they multiply. It wasn't clear where they were hatching their young, but by New Years, they were plentiful.

My first response was to try to kill them with a fly swatter. The problem is that this isn't a very efficient method and, small as they are and with a brain to match, they are actually pretty good at attack avoidance.

My next strategy involved using a small hand-held vaccuum. Our little Oreck came with a long tube and a narrow slot end piece. My method then became sneaking up on the fly -- rush to them and they would fly in a random direction -- and suck the little bugger up. Over the course of the last week, I plied my hunt three or four times a day, starting at first in the kitchen where they seemed to be most prevalent and then gradually expanding to all rooms. The long tube was especially helpful picking them off the ceiling.

Our final stroke of luck came from two sources. Lisa discovered a bunch of bad potatoes near the pantry where they had been laying eggs. Then, the Orkin man came by to treat the outside of the house and he suggested putting a cup of baking soda followed by a cup of vinegar in the kitchen sinks. He said that is where they are also probably laying eggs. (I've liked mixing baking soda and vinegar since I was a kid.)

I searched the house over to find a fly to include as a photo in the blog. This one was in the laundry room on a white plastic garbage can we use to store dog food. I need to find him again. I think there may be one or two more and the hunt will continue until they are completely exterminated. It's a strange sense of accomplishment to kill fruit flies, but there it is. Death to fruit flies! All of them!

Early January

2011-01-02T16:29:00.004-05:00

I guess I should expect much from the winter. I've not succeeded very well with the cold frames this year. I think the main problem has been that for four out of five, there were gaps that let cold air in.

The one that was well covered was one of the new beds that had the new soil in them. My suspicion all along has been that the new soil wouldn't hold moisture well. I finally uncovered it today. It rained all night and the snow melted and the temperature was in the 50s F yesterday. I was mostly right. The soil looked very dry. However, many of the spinach plants had sprouted. They just hadn't grown much.

The onions and garlic are still limping along.

I think my next year's plan is to get plastic that will cover all the beds like the last one I created and then use the older covers on the bottom and double layer them.

First Snow's Effects

2010-12-05T09:07:00.008-05:00

I spent the week helping James drive from Utah to Quantico, home being the penultimate stop. It snowed yesterday, which has left a very nice couple of inches that look good on the lawns and trees, leaving the roads and driveways clear.

I was anxious to wake up this morning and see how my new cold frames had done. This was not a big snow, so the maximum stress on the engineering wasn't going to be tested. Still, I was anxious to see.

Two of five cold frames looked very good. There was a little contraction on the oldest cover because the weight of the snow pulled the ends up. This left a small gap at either end where the plastic separated from the wood of the raised bed. I'm not sure what damage, if any, this might have done by letting colder air inside the bed. I certainly like the cut of the latest cover best. It seemed to keep things sealed nicely all around.

The other three beds did not do so well. Evidently, while we were traveling, there were strong winds and a tornado watch. I had strapped each of these three covers down on the ends, but didn't bother to secure the sides, even though I did have bungie cords there. I guess I assumed too much.

I believe the onions and garlic will do just fine. The photo below is of the onions (yellow of Parma in this case). In fact, the snow may have killed off some weeds, although I don't know that just yet.

The garlic will also probably do just fine. I will re-attach the cover shortly and assume that the snow will just melt and keep the garlic and onions watered.

I am most concerned with the cauliflower and Brussel sprouts. My experience in the past is that brassicas don't like to freeze. The broccoli were covered, so I am hopeful about them. But these others took it on the chin. I will re-attach this cover, too and will check them. If they are dead, I will know shortly. Perhaps, now that the damage is done, I will actually strap down the sides. But, this may be a catastrophe from which they won't recover and it will just be a loss.

New Cold Frame

2010-11-26T17:08:00.004-05:00

Now that the spinach is planted and colder weather is on the way, I needed a new cold frame. I bought the conduit today with extra straps. Jenna helped me. She bent the conduit into hoops. (My job was holding the completed sections so that they would be more or less straight when she finished.) We did as good a job and Doug Shaw and I did the other day.

Installation when fairly quick. Jenna wanted to drill the straps in, but she didn't want to sit down because the ground was wet and she had already seen what it did to my seat, so she was a little challenged not being able to deliver all the pressure the drill needed. But she did a lot of the work and I just had to finish a few things off.

I spent a couple of hours this afternoon creating the plastic sheet. The sheets I made before are actually just a bit too short. We measured the length needed. Fortunately, I had just enough 6 mil. plastic left. I used to put in 3 grommets on each end and 2 on each side. I have figured out that the side grommets were not very useful. So I skipped them this time. I used to also hem up the sides of the sheets. I abandoned that this time. The sheet now hangs down past the bottom of the raised bed (past where the raised bed meets the ground).

It is supposed to get down to the high 20s F tonight. I'm hoping the ground will stay warm enough for the spinach to sprout. Time will tell.

Growth

2010-11-25T13:37:00.003-05:00

This morning was dedicated to starting to compost leaves. The trees shed a lot in the last few days. I don't quite have the energy to do a lot at a time. So my strategy is to pile up a tarp, take it to the compost piles and shred it. That way I get one tarp done at a time, but I get it all done. It means starting up the shredder/chipper multiple times, but I'm fine with that now that I have the secret of the starting fluid down.

It is supposed to rain tomorrow. Indeed, it rained a little today. So I uncovered the cold frames. I was also curious about how things were growing and how many weeds had sprouted. The garlic and onions are doing well, but there are a lot of weeds in those beds. The cauliflower and brussel sprouts are doing reasonably well, but there are no heads yet.

The brocolli has some very small heads starting to form. The turnips are starting to show small roots. The beets are growing, but are not large.

Spinach

2010-11-24T17:05:00.002-05:00

I planted my spinach seeds today. I had soaked them for three days in the house, laid in a paper towel. None had sprouted yet.

My immediate concern is that the potting soil in the new beds was very dry. I'm not sure how well it will hold water until it decomposes a bit. The water barrels are still nearly empty so I used the hose.

My next task is to get them covered with cold frames. It has been chilly but hasn't been below freezing the past few days.

Empty Water Barrels

2010-11-22T07:56:00.003-05:00

I went out this morning, thinking that I would start the process of getting the new beds ready to plant spinach seeds. I've counted 192 seeds (4 x 4 x 12) and got them soaking. I've tested the new soil for pH (6.5 in all beds). So I thought I would water them down.

I went to get the hose and heard a slight sucking sound as I picked it up. The cock that closes off the hose was just slightly turned to one side. I opened it up all the way and got absolutely no water. So I took off the screen on the barrel I typically use to test the depth in the barrels. I couldn't see any water or reach it when I stuck my arm through the hole. I went inside a retrieved my measuring stick. I think there is maybe 3 inches in the bottom, below the faucet inset in each barrel.

So, I either the valve on the hose was just open enough to allow the water to slowly drain, or I have a broken hose. We have had cold weather, but I am hoping it wasn't the latter. I've closed the valve completely, but I have to wait for rain to figure this out.

Dirt at Last

2010-11-21T05:58:00.004-05:00

It seems that it has been a long time coming. Finally, I was able to get soil for the three 4' x 12' raised beds that I started adding to the garden last spring. I actually got the dirt for my birthday; a very good present that I am happy with. Maybe the best present in a long while!

Jason helped me wheelbarrow the dirt in yesterday. He has become strong and was able to make the job go quickly.

The dirt wasn't the same as it has been in the past. Two and a half years ago, when I put the last top soil in the beds, the soil had been manufactured by a retired police officer who had access to cotton dust from the local cotton mills. (This according to the woman at Oak Ridge Shrubbery.) Since then, however, the mills have gone overseas and the cotton dust with it. I never knew that that was what the soil was composed of until I went to order the new soil. The new stuff is more of a traditional planting mix composed of a lot of compost and cow manure. I'm not opposed to it, I had just hoped for more of the same. Herodotus was right again. Things will always change.

One interesting fact that I had to deal with this time around was the volume that was delivered to the yard. The bed are roughly 4' x 12' x 1', or 48 cubic feet each or a total of 144 cubic feet, more or less. I ordered four yards of soil. In past orders, I certainly needed to supplement the soil delivered with compost to get the volume in the beds sufficient. Four yards should be roughly 108 cubic feet. So, what I don't quite understand is how I had more soil delivered than would fit in the three beds. I've never filled the beds completely to the top before. This time we filled the beds to the top and still had a little left over. The soil is much lighter than the cotton dust soil, so maybe it just expanded a bit and will eventually settle. I'm not sure.

I'm mostly just glad to get this done.

Various Preparations

2010-11-07T07:55:00.006-05:00

I've completed several tasks over the past several days. Lumping into a preparation category makes sense to me.

After cleaning up the garden, I had a faily large pile of cleared material -- grass from between the beds that was fully dead and tomato vines. There was also a small accumulation of kitchen compost. My experience is that it all just does better if I shred it first before trying to start it off truly composting. I bought a used chipper shredder, a Murray (the company has since been sold to someone who ended the line). For the past several seasons (I don't remember when I bought it), I would struggle to get the engine started. If a small engine isn't used regularly, it is just plain hard to start. But I've learned and verified that a little spot of some starting fluid makes it so much easier. I take off the air filter and spray it right into the carburetor it starts right up. I'm happy to do that. I was able to end up with a little less than half a yard of compost. It will grow smaller, but the raw materials are out of the way. My goal this year is to process leaves right away. Having the first batch of composting materials processed and having a method for starting the machine is a good start.

My second task has been to weed the onions and garlic. The weeds are small, but I realized that if I let them grow unchallenged, they would take over. It is a bit laborious to pull them; they are small and my fingers get very dirty. I tried the disturb them with a chop stick method. It didn't work. The roots of the weeds seemed to adapt and reattach to the soil. Pulling and casting them out of the bed is the only thing that works. (Sort of like getting rid of other problems in life if you want to use the analogy.)

It has finally become cold. Last night was the first frost we had. It was 27F when I woke up and had been down to 26F. I want to get the brassicas covered. I also covered the onions and garlic after I took this photo. I've left the strawberries uncovered for now. I want grasses to die so I can clean out the beds.

The last task was to finish the last new raised bed box. I was frustrated with the last spike in the last corner. Things weren't together like I wanted them. I finally figured out how to bend one of the side boards so that I could align it. I had to drill a new hole through the bottom board. I am now ready for top soil that I hope will come in a couple of weeks.

Feral Bees

2010-10-23T21:15:00.003-04:00

The fellow who mows our lawn, Red, tald us he knew of several places in Rockingham County where there were feral bees. I finally got around to going and seeing what he was talking about.

The first place he guided me two was an old log cabin on land he leases for hunting. The cabin is pretty much intact, but the mud has come out from between the timbers, which is where the bees leave and enter. The challenge with getting bees out of this cabin is that they have nested in the ceiling. The cabin is old and can't be occupied, but the owners reportedly would want things restored to its current state. That would mean taking down all the tongue and groove slats that make up the ceiling to find the queen and take down comb. I imagine it will be quite a job. I'm debating if this one will be worth it.

The second old cabin is about to fall down. At least the area where the bees have housed themselves. This colony would be easier to extract. The boards are vertical and the entrance is pretty clearly marked. There would be no attempt to have to restore anything. There would be brush to take out of the way, but that wouldn't be all that bad to get rid of.

If you look closely at the photo, you can see where the bees have applied a long line of propelis up and down one crack. The entrance is in there somewhere.

Come spring, we will take a second look at both hives. In the meantime, I have to figure out where to put them if I get them. The shadows are already covering the spot east of the greenhouse. I want a spot that will get sun early in the season. I will have to watch the area and see how if fares in February and March.

Virgin Queen

2010-10-16T16:13:00.005-04:00

I am not referring to Elizabeth.

Doug Shaw and I gave a beekeeping workshop to anyone at church who wanted to come. One family (another Doug) came. We had stacked examples of everything, equipment and tools, in the outdoor place we call "the grove." We did our brief explanations, Doug doing most of the explaining. Then, because we had so few there, we went to the apiary at Clarence's house, which is right next to the church. The picture is of Doug (left) and Doug (right) opening up Doug's hive. Doug's only goal was to get his feeders out, which was successful. The other Doug also got to wear a bee suit and take a good look and experience the art of smoking the hive. All was well as far as we could tell.

However, all was not well in my hive -- again. My hive, which had been strong earlier, was now week. Honey had disappeared; bees had disappeared. Most distressing, there was absolutely no brood. The new queen had clearly been released; her cage was empty. However, there was just no brood whatsoever. Not a single capped cell, not a single pupa or larva or egg. I think when we requeened, we got a virgin. I didn't see her, but the bees didn't act as if they were queenless. So, I presume she is there.

Just in case, I talked Doug into swapping a frame from his hive. We picked out a frame that had very young brood on it. If mine need a queen, they should be able to create an emergency queen. If not, I just hope they can survive until spring with what they have. I fed them with sugar water I had stored at Clarence's place earlier.

Weeding

2010-10-16T10:11:00.004-04:00

I spent 10 minutes in the evening yesterday using a chop stick to clean out weeds that had sprouted between the Long Red Florence onions and garlic (all 32 of which have now sprouted!). I had to be judicious because there are seeds that have not yet sprouted. But where it was clear to do so, I would wiggle the chop stick between the plants and uproot the weed seedlings. I find the chop stick is actually a decent tool for doing this.

I spent the morning cleaning out the garden area. The walkways had become choked with dead grasses and marigold vines. My goals are to finally finish the last of the three raised beds and to clean out the strawberry beds that have become overrun with things other than strawberries.

I used my bow rake to pretty good advantage and got a bit of a workout to boot. The paths are at least now walkable. Every year, in fact, practically every month, I make a deeply considered commitment to fight grass and weeds. Then, they sneak up on me. Despite the fact that Monsanto is known to just about everyone as the evil empire, I understand why Round-up is popular.

Even though marigold vines are pernicious, when you pull them out, they come. At least today they came without also pulling out the strawberries. The other benefit is that other weeds did not seem to get a start there. Still, I should be more diligent in the future and just keep them down from the start.

Garlic and Onions 2

2010-10-12T06:44:00.003-04:00

This is just a progress update. I had thought I had a 90% germination rate for the onion seed I planted. I have been going through both beds this week, replanting seeds in spots where I saw no evidence of the original seed sprouting. I think my original germination rate was less than that; probably 75% to 80%. On the other hand, the weed germination rate must be much higher than that. I am trying to eliminate the weeds as I go along, but they are very small. I can't grab them with my fingers because they are so small, so I have been using the chop stick to disturb the soil. I think I will have a lot of weeding to do in the next weeks.

In addition to the 2 garlic plants from the fridge, 27 of the Seed Savers Exchange garlic have now sprouted. That is of 30 that were planted. They are coming up slowly. I am hoping to get 100% germination. I will add a clove or two from the fridge if I don't get the remainder to sprout in a week.

Hoops

2010-10-09T13:24:00.008-04:00

After the disaster that befell my cold frames last winter when it snowed, I vowed to find a solution.

I found it in a conduit bender that I ordered during the summer. Today was the day to install the new frames; hoops of aluminum that will eventually be covered with the 6 mil plastic I created for the cold frames last winter. It was a beautiful day to be outside; an added bonus.

The conduit bender was designed to be easy to use and, with just a bit of practice, Doug Shaw and I developed a system for getting the conduit nicely shaped. It turned out that it really was a two-person job. When we tried it alone, all the frames had a skew to them.

From the time we left to buy the conduit and attaching hardware to the time we were finished with four beds (20 pipes, 5 per bed), it took less than three hours. That is considerably quicker than it took when I made the frames out of plywood. And, based on my experience grabbing onto the frame to help me get up off my knees, these frames will be sturdy and will be able to withstand wind and snow.

In our first attempt at installation we had the frames arc 34 inches above the top board of the bed. When we put the plastic on, the bed wasn't covered completely. So we lowered the arc of the frame over the next bed to 29 inches. This time the plastic basically fit, with not much extra on either end or on the sides. Thinking about it, given the diameter of the hoop at 4' 3.5", that still makes the frame slightly liptokurtic (a bit elongated on the top). If it were perfectly round, the hoop should be only 25.75" above the bed. But that's OK because I want as much room for the plants to grow as possible.

We covered four frames. The two with onions and garlic and the two with brassicas. The plastic will go on when the temperature drops and we get a frost or freeze warning.

Brassican Geometry

2010-10-04T19:05:00.004-04:00

I got the other tomato bed cleaned out so I could plant Brussels sprouts and cauliflower. I got the Brussels sprouts at the Kernersville Feed & Seed. I would have purchased cauliflower there, but they don't sell them. I couldn't find them at Lowes or the farmers market either. But a couple of friends had told me that there was a place in Walkertown, Webster Brothers, that would carry them. I had never been to the Brothers' place and had only vague directions. However, it just happened last Friday that I had an eye appointment in Walkertown, so I kept my eyes peeled. Just as I turned into the optometrist's, I saw them a bit further down the road. Webster Brothers is a unique place. I hope they stay in business a long time. They did have cauliflower.

I planted this morning. My concern was that, like last year, I was going to somewhat crowd the bed. I had 9 Brussels sprouts and 8 cauliflower. Last year I planted 2 packs of 9 in a bed. It was a little crowded but things grew pretty well. I needed a geometric design for the planting to work. I actually used the Pythagorean theorem to figure out spacing. (All the plants was 18" between them.) I ended up with the 8 cauliflower on the outside ends and all the other places taken by Brussels sprouts.

This bed was the bed that had a lot of blossom rot among the tomatoes this year. I figured I would get a head start on increasing calcium and I put about 30-35 lbs. of dolomitic limestone in with the fertilizer as I prepared the bed. (I plan on planting tomatoes in this bed again in the spring.) I put bt on all the leaves of plants in this bed and in the broccoli bed.

Planting Broccoli

2010-10-01T21:34:00.006-04:00

I transplanted broccoli seedlings I had bought at the Feed & Seed. I had gone to the Farmer's Market, but they had none. I guess it doesn't really matter. (I forgot that I had my own seed until it was too late to start them on my own.

Last year, I put 18 plants into my 4' x 12' bed. They produced but they were crowded. This year, I put in 9 plants, spacing them 2' apart down the rows with the rows 18" apart. I don't feel the need to crowd. That left three 2' x 2' squares. I planted beet, turnip, and carrot in these squares.

I added about 15 lbs. of dolomitic limestone and some 10-10-10 fertilizer to this bed. I used a different kind of cutworm protecting collar around the plants this time. I used some index tabs left over from a printing job gone bad at the office. They actually seem a little weak, and I'm rethinking them.

Signs of Lilly Life

2010-10-01T08:34:00.007-04:00

The lilly family is showing signs of life. The two garlic cloves planted from the fridge are up and growing. I wish I could say the same for the cloves from the Seed Savers Exchange. However, to be fair, they note on the documentation they send that it may take four weeks before anything happens. I'm not going anywhere and nothing else is competing for their space right now. If worse comes to worse, I have more cloves in the fridge.

What is even better from my perspective is the evidence of life among the Long Red Florence onions. The seeds have sprouted. I haven't counted the rate of germination, but I estimate it above 90%. The critters have evidently had little impact, with some of the seed sprouting in the midst of the critters burrow.

I plan to follow through in the next few days and plant additional seed in the blank spaces. Perhaps I should actually do a count of seeds that didn't sprout; then I would know.

The challenge I will have now will be weeds. The bed with the garlic and Long Red Florence seems to have a lot of weeds sprouting. Weeding is easy when the plants are small, but does require diligence; the place where most of us fall down. I think a daily morning ritual is called for.

I have to comment about the weather. We had a two-day storm that must have dumped at least 6 inches of rain. I'm sure that will help with all sorts of things, including the sprouting of seeds. Before the storm, I watered daily, but it isn't the same. A good drenching rain soaks the bed all the way through.

Critters 2

2010-09-23T19:56:00.006-04:00

I am now paying close attention to the bed in which I planted the garlic and Florence onion seed. Every morning, there is evidence of small critters burrowing just beneath the surface. I was careful to look for the animal's descending holes. There are more there than I originally thought. I'm not sure how many critters there might be, but I presume, given the distribution of evidence throughout the bed, that there must be several.

The photo below shows the size of the holes that go down into the bed. (That's a quarter next to the hole.) They are not large. I don't know what the animals might be living off of. I have had two garlic sprout. (The ones from the fridge.) That is all and those have been left alone.

If the onions will sprout and grow, I won't have a problem. My suspicion is that the critters are going to disrupt the bed enough, even if they don't consume the seeds, that sprouting will become a challenge. I planted a second bed with the Yellow of Parma seed. There has been no evidence of critters in that bed, so I may have something to compare productivity with.

I am getting myself prepared for a war. Right now I wish I had a pet black snake or something.

Critters

2010-09-20T08:41:00.004-04:00

Every morning as I look at the bed in which I planted the garlic cloves and onion seeds last week, I see a strange pattern on the surface of the bed. I am guessing, but I think there are small animals that make foraging runs just under the surface of the bed, pushing the soil up slightly. As I water, I usually find a hole about half an inch in diameter on one end the goes back down underground.

I'm not sure my photography captures this well enough to see, but I think you can see one of the tracks I observed this morning. It goes from left to right from the top of the photo and then makes an abrupt turn that curves back to the left.

I thought initially that this might be evidence of a vole. We've seen voles in the yard before, mostly because of what the cats have dragged in. But voles are generally much larger. I can't imagine a cut worm that large. Whatever it is, I hope it is finding no food and decides to leave. I hope it isn't finding a meal on the garlic or clover.

Carts

2010-09-18T14:04:00.005-04:00

Six or seven years ago, I bought an Ames Easy Roller cart to move mulch and dirt with. About 3 years ago, it developed a crack in the front face. The crack was caused by strain put on that side of the cart when I lifted the cart up over the front of the compost bins. Then, two winters ago, when the cart was left outside in the winter, water froze in the bottom of the cart after rain or snow and it cracked the bottom of the cart. Since then, the front of the cart has fractured even more. It still holds together to a degree, but it has become hard to use. I looked a while back at Lowes for a replacement, because it has been very serviceable otherwise, but when I looked last, I didn't see any Easy Rollers for sale.

I went to get some lime and fertilizer at Lowes this morning. I thought I would look in the wheelbarrow aisle to see what they had. Easy Rollers were there, but so was this little cart called an Easy Go.

It was a bit less expensive that the Easy Roller ($23 vs $34), but held nearly as much (2.5 versus 3.0 cubic feet). The handle is also a better height; I don't have to lean over to grab the handle, which wasn't the case with the Easy Roller. I thought about it and decided that, if I really need a new Easy Roller, I now know where to find one, but it would be just as good to try out the cheaper Easy Go.

Here's my one day review. The wheels are a bit small and so there is a balance problem. You have to pull squarely or the cart tends to tip. Something that can be mastered. Pulling it from the garden to the garage with a heavy load wasn't effortless. Filling it with compost was OK, but it tips over without a load in it, so it has to be set against something when you start. On the other hand, emptying it was very easy. So, I still may get another Easy Roller, but I am happy to work with the Easy Go for now.

Garlic and Onions

2010-09-17T18:05:00.005-04:00

I started planting again. I started yesterday and it will extend for a couple of days yet. I bought some Chet's Italian Red garlic from Seed Savers Exchange. The variety is described as a "highly productive and adaptable strain. Heirloom variety from Chet Stevenson of Tonasket, Washington, found growing wild in an abandoned garden along the roadside. A good garlic for eating raw, because the flavor is not too strong." I guess I picked it to plant because it was not described as being overly spicy. I had my little pal Jacob over to watch the process, although I think his dad (Jonathan) got more out of it than he did. Jacob was into looking at the spider that has found an ideal spot in the doorway of the greenhouse and chancing the little dog.

From the two heads, I got 30 plantable cloves. I added to cloves of whatever it is we have in the fridge to make it to 32 (4 rows of 8). Seed Savers sent out explicit planting instructions to plant between September 15 and November.

I figure what must be good for garlic is good for onions.

I have started planting onion seed from my other order from Seed Savers. I ordered two varieties. I am working on the Long Red Florence seed now. Last year, I thought I would grow sets and then replant. So I planted closely. I was going to space the sets out in the spring. That didn't work for me. The Florence came up just fine, but I couldn't figure out how or when to transplant. So this year, I am just planting 9 seeds to the square foot. As you can see in the photo, I used my templates and a chop stick to make the holes for the seeds. I usually just use my finger, but I thought the chopstick would let me keep my finger clean, which would help me pick up the individual seeds. I turned out that the soil was so dry that I swirled the chop stick in the hole to make an indentation deep enough to plant the seed properly.

I have taken the rest of the bed that the 32 garlic are in (spaced 4 to the square foot) with the Florence. I calculate having planted 348 Florence if they all come up. If they don't, I have sufficient to plant again. The weather forecast for the next 10 days has no rain whatsoever. Fortunately, I have full water barrels to draw from. I have plans for the Yellow of Parma for a separate bed, but I need to clean it out first.

Tomato Harvest

2010-09-14T08:04:00.004-04:00

The tomato harvest turned out to be a bit disappointing this year. Given all the plants, I expected that we would have between 30 and 40 quarts by the end of the season. It just didn't happen. We ended up with 15 quarts and a pint. (Kathy did all the hard work of actually doing the canning.)

Here's what I think I learned from this season. First, variety matters. The best producers, accounting for about half of what we stored, were Rutgers tomatoes. I only planted 6 of these plants, but they produced very well. The Marglobe split, were of a very uneven size (some more like cherry tomatoes). I only harvested a few Brandywines because the birds and worms got to them. Next season, I will try a mixture that will include Rutgers and maybe a hybrid just for the table.

Second, I've got to learn to control blossom rot. Dolomitic lime is cheap. I will double whatever I put into the beds this next year. The newest bed where the Rutgers were planted never experienced blossom rot at all.

Third, I've got to figure a better system for staking. The storm we had a while back had strong northerly winds that toppled all of the cages. I am still thinking about how to solve this.

Fourth, I won't plant as close next year as I did this year. I had about 15" between plants. I think 2' will be better. Essentially, as I finally get more beds, I will spread the 36 plants from this year into 3 beds instead of 2.

Requeening a Strong Hive

2010-09-10T07:10:00.003-04:00

Doug Shaw got two queens from the Wally-Wayne colony. This is a strain of queens that survived the onslaught of mite infestations a decade ago and has some very desirable qualities. He convinced me that the queen in the hive at Clarence's has probably seen her better days -- she's been there a year and a half. So we went requeening yesterday after work.

There were a couple of challenges. First, we couldn't find the old queen. We searched through every brood frame and couldn't see her. Then we dumped every brood frame's bees onto the ground and didn't see any clusters. The super above the brood frame was full of honey (good for the winter) and so we left those frames alone. We installed the queen in her cage anyway.

Here are my after the fact thoughts. First, either one queen will kill the other and the hive will have a new queen or an old queen. The new queen is marked; the old queen isn't. If the new queen survives, I'm not sure how she will get inseminated. It's a bit late in the year for drones to be floating around. We saw very few in the hives we visited. I just hope some mating ritual can take place.

Other than that, the hive looked strong. There were a lot of hive beetles. There is sufficient honey for them to make it through the winter. We will check in a week or so and find out.

Pears

2010-09-09T08:09:00.005-04:00

The pear trees are only two years old (at least planted in my yard), but they produced a decent crop of pears. I don't know what the off color spots are caused by. I guess some research is needed.

I harvested the pears several weeks ago to try to avoid damage by birds and bugs. I probably picked 20-30 (I didn't count and I didn't weigh them). They half filled a paper grocery bag. I let them sit to ripen. We waited a bit too long. By the time we got to them, half had spoiled. Kathy canned the good ones, getting about two quarts. Still very tasty.

Speed Bump

2010-08-09T18:49:00.002-04:00

I haven't posted for awhile. What's my excuse? A combination of things. I hesitate to write when all I have to write about is bad news.

Bad luck with the beehives in my yard is one frustration. Both hive were attacked by wax moths. I need to do a postmortem to be fair. Both colonies were weak. When they split earlier and when one didn't have a queen, I should have just recombined them. But, having not done that, they both limped along. At the least, I should have put an entrance reducer on to give them a fighting chance. But, in the end, they both died. Fortunately, the hive in Clarence's yard was strong. We harvested a gallon and a half of honey from it; enough for the family for the rest of the year, but not enough to give much away. (Clarence got a quart, of course.)

The failure of the tomatoes has been another issue. Lately, they have been doing much better. I think the weather has helped; enough rain and cooler temperatures. They are still ripening slowly. We have made some dried tomato but have not canned anything yet.

The zucchini and yellow squash were another disaster. The squash bugs just massacred the plants. We got 6 or 7 fruits and I think that will be it. Pretty disastrous!

The other part of the speed bump has been work (what I do for a living). I am grateful to be fully self-employed. We put out two new grant proposals last week and the prep time kept me exhausted into the evening hours. There were other tasks at work as well. We leased a new printer that requires some attention to learn how to use and to get our materials ready for production.

Finally, I spent a little time with the boy scouts and family sailing. Honestly, if you had to choose between sailing and writing about the disaster occurring in your garden, which would you pick?

I Hate July

2010-07-22T19:39:00.001-04:00

I hate July for gardening.

I've lost one of the yellow squash plants already. I presume to squash bugs. When the squash plants go, they just die quickly. I have 4 zucchini and 3 yellow squash left to go. No harvest from any of them yet.

About 3/4 of the tomatoes (at least) have blossom end rot. Next year, I will plant from other seed. I will also plant further apart. (The plants seem healthy with plenty of stocks.) I may even try staking them like my elders do. Of course, this calls for a lot more lime, but I'm not so sure that water or lack of it doesn't also play a role. I haven't harvested from the newest plants yet, so there may yet be hope.

The bean are up but a goodly proportion have had their first real leaves nibbled away. The crop was just planted to keep the ground occupied, so it isn't a great loss. I expect to harvest all we can use eventually, even if it isn't much.

I harvested grapes. I really don't like the variety (Mars) I planted. I was late and didn't get everything I should have, but I'm not sure what we will do with them anyway.

I just feel that failure is all around me out there.

July Is Slow

2010-07-14T20:31:00.003-04:00

We finally got rain yesterday. A lot of rain; about 2 inches. It knocked over some tomato plants, but other than that, everything just seemed to really thrive. It seemed that the zucchini and yellow squash added two or three leaves per plant over night. July is slow, but the zucchini and squash are taking off. I noticed today that I had squash bugs on every plant. They aren't very fast or clever, so they are easy to catch and destroy. But every time I looked, I saw 2 or 3 more, mostly in the mating position. I know the odds of outwitting them totally is low, and I don't plan any extravagant pest control applications, but I am dedicated to killing them whenever I can. There are also some little yellow and black striped beetles I haven't identified yet. They seem plentiful.

The cucumbers really liked the rain. I picked a bunch today. There has been a bumper crop all season.

I decided to plant some green beans today as well. It may be a little late in the season, but I have an empty bed. I had a mixture of seeds, so I dumped them out on the table, counted 196 out (8 rows 12 deep) and put them in the open bed. We are expecting more rain later. It seems like a good time to get them in the ground.

Hot July

2010-07-08T07:55:00.004-04:00

Temperatures in North Carolina have been very hot of late, into the high 90's. I've used a lot of water from the water barrels, at least 10 gallons per day. The plants in the raised beds are doing ok. Amazingly, the grapes have sustained themselves and are gradually ripening. They don't get any extra water. I planted them where I did because I thought there must be some underground water source, an underground spring of sorts.

My disappointment with the grapes is not that they have actually produced fruit, but that the vines have been slow to grow. I suspect now that I should have cut off the fruit and forced the vines to grow, but I didn't do that and I'm not actually convinced that it would have had that much effect.

The zucchini and yellow squash I planted is now up and growing. I have seen nothing of the cilantro or cucumber seeds I planted at the same time. It's entirely possible that I have no clue about what I am doing with seeds, especially seeds I have saved myself.

Pickles Etc.

2010-06-26T20:35:00.003-04:00

It didn't take long for Kathy to turn cucumbers into dill pickles.

I spent the morning planting seeds for salad cucumber, cilantro (saved from last year's harvest, so we'll see how they do), zucchini, and yellow squash. I added two carloads (about an eighth of a yard) of composted manure to the bed. This is the bed from which the Russets were harvested. It needed a bit of compost, probably more than I gave it.

I also planted Basil with the new bed of tomatoes. I bought some tomato cages so that now all of the new tomatoes has a cage. They were $4 each and it reminded me that growing our own is not necessarily the least expensive. My older friends who are much better at this than I am use wooden stakes. I don't know if they use new stakes every year or how much time they spend tying the stalks up. I've just opted for the wire cages. And I reminded my self that the purpose of this gardening venture does have benefits, just not economic ones. We get fresh food. We are better prepared for hard times should they come to our family. We are learning skills that, being the product of an urban youth, we weren't blessed with naturally. And, the last thing of note is that the other things we spend our money on are more expensive and less sufficing.

Cucumbers

2010-06-25T08:14:00.005-04:00

I planted three cucumbers from seed. I didn't know what variety they were, only that Doug Shaw provided some extra seeds. I planted them in the strawberry bed because I had a bit of space and didn't know how they would spread. I should have put them next to a trellis. They have started producing. I picked a bunch today, more than in prior days. I see plenty of small cucumbers on the vine, so this may be a regular harvest for a while. We've got to figure out what to do with them. They are pretty clearly right for pickling although we have also been eating them with a mixture of rice vinegar and a little sugar.

Onions Step 3

2010-06-24T22:08:00.004-04:00

Step 3 of processing onions is cutting off the bad stuff, dicing, and freezing. The onions for the most part are either small, which means that it takes a lot of time to get a little bit done, or they have heat spots where they got too warm when I dried the roots and stalks and started to cook in the field. Kathy and I worked through about 20% so far. At least we will have onions to cook with. We are storing them either in Food Saver bags or Ziploc bags.

I ordered new onion seed from the Seed Savers Exchange. More of the long red Florence and Yellow Parma. Last year I thought I would start the seed closely spaced and then transplant. It didn't work. I never transplanted because the pattern was too random. This year I think I will just plant them like I want them to grow and make sure the seeds sprout.

Final Tomato Transplant

2010-06-23T15:11:00.003-04:00

Now that the onions are out of the bed, I finally have room to plant the rest of the tomatoes. I organized them the same way the first bed were organized. There are 8 Rutgers, 8 Brandywines, and 2 Marglobe in this bed, bringing my total to 36. (The first bed is all Marglobe.)

The soil in the bed is much more friable than the soil in the first bed. I will need to add more compost at the end of the season to the first bed to loosen things up a little. I figured this out because I needed to replace one of the original Marglobes with a seedling after having planted the second bed and found the soil rather heavy.

Onions Step 2

2010-06-21T23:00:00.002-04:00

Last year, I left the onions in the ground too long and then left them out too long in the sun. I may have committed the last error again this year, but not the same extent. The constraint was that I picked on Friday and couldn't get back to them until Monday and Sunday and Monday were very hot days. In the end, you get what you get and I think I will have plenty of onions to process.

My next step (just to keep it for the record) is to bring the onions into the house, chop off the stalks, clean them up a bit, and then stick them in the refrigerator until I can get back to them for Step 3.

One of my unofficial readers, Pat P., suggested that next year, I might want to either plant onion plants (not sets) or plant seeds. I think I am likely to try seeds this fall if I can find some and let them grow over winter. The onions I am holding in this picture were planted that way. I got seeds from Seed Savers Exchange for the long red Florence variety of onion. These were the largest onions in the garden. The problem I had last year with the onion seeds I planted was very spotty germination, but they were planted with poor cover. I think I can do better this year.

Visiting Bees

2010-06-19T15:57:00.003-04:00

Doug Shaw and I made the rounds to our hives today. He has 5 active hives; I have 3. My best guess is that the hive at Clarence Brown's never swarmed, so I will be left with 3 for the year. As long as they have sufficient strength, I am happy.

At this time of year, the nectar flow is diminishing, so a primary task was to inspect hives to see how much honey was going to be available for extraction. Of my hives, I have two that may have a modest amount available. The one at Clarence's has less honey than I thought it might have. I have two supers dedicated to honey storage. One will be harvested. (The honey wasn't capped yet.)

The blue hive in my yard also has a super that is partly full. This hive has a brood box that is totally full of honey. I had placed it above the brood box where the queen was released, hoping that they would build out brood comb for her to lay eggs. My hopes were in vain. She just moved up to the honey-bound box. Doug and I switched this arrangement around. The empty, yet to be built out deep is now above the honey-bound deep.

The yellow hive is doing well for what it is. The queen is active laying eggs. This hive has one super that has only been minimally drawn out, but the bees have stored honey along the outer edges of the brood frames.

Both of the hives in my yard need more workers, but they were not as destitute as I had feared, so there is some relief there. If they continue on, they will not need to be combined.