Strawberries, Potatoes, Basil

I planted 25 of the Eversweet strawberry plants in a raised bed. A row of 9 down the middle, spaced 15.5" apart and two rows of 8 on either side, 9" from the outside border and spaced the same, but offset so that the pattern formed a diamond.

The night before last, it got down to 35F in the greenhouse and there was a frost freeze warning, so I covered the strawberries and potatoes with my plastic sheets I created for cold frames. It got down to 35F in the greenhouse last night as well, so I may have helped the plants along a bit.

I replanted basil seeds in the two 9-pot containers which combined had four basil sprouts. I put each container in a gallon Ziploc bag. I like to use a straw to blow the bags up just before I seal them. I figure it keeps the plastic off of the seedlings, which experience has shown to be bad.

Basil in Ziploc

I looked at the basil I had planted a few days ago and kept indoors and in a gallon size Ziploc bag. Just about every seed I planted had sprouted. For basil at least, this is the method. I will bring the basil from the greenhouse in and in the pots where nothing is growing, I will replant and put them in Ziploc. I don't think it will hurt the existing four plants any.

Too Many Strawberries

My order of strawberry plants arrived. I immediately knew I had a problem. When I was ordering I wondered if more than one plant came with an order. I looked but didn't see any indication. When they arrived, it was clear. Instead of 20 plants, I got 500. There were 25 per order.

So, the plan is to plant 50 in my own beds. That only leaves 450 to give away. I have found homes for about 200 so far. If you are local to the Oak Ridge area and want some, first come, first serve.

Compost, Mixed

I looked at the compost in both the leaf and the manure bins over the weekend. I didn't have to go too far under the surface of the manure bins to feel heat. The leaf bins still seemed cold, even when I went down half a foot.

I decided to combine them. The horse manure clearly brings more microbes to the process. I took compost out of the largest leaf bin and layered it with ingredients out of one of the manure bins (until I exhausted that and started taking from the next manure bin). I was able to fill two bins this way.

I actually did find some composted leaves at the bottom of the leaf bin, maybe a foot and a half from the bottom. Although the composting was pretty spotty, meaning that there were patches of dark composted leaves mixed in with leaves that had not yet begun to compost. I have one bin of leaves and about half a bin of manure that I need to yet mix. I quit because it got dark. Besides, an hour's worth of shoveling is sufficient exercise for me for one day.

It was windy today. I lost a pane out of the greenhouse. I am going to have to bolt the panes in I am afraid. I would not recommend this greenhouse to others.

Weeding, Replanting

I spent today weeding one of the raised beds so that I can plant strawberries next week. Weeding was easy; I have good soil in that bed that is very friable.

I also decided to replant basil and pepper seeds. This time, I am keeping the seeds indoors and sealed in Ziploc bags until they sprout. Sprouting is a problem in the greenhouse. I think the problem is controlling moisture and temperature. The pepper seeds did not sprout at all and only a few basil seeds had sprouted before.

O Happy Day!

I got a call at work today from Jeff. He said I had a swarm of bees in the front yard in a tree across from the mail box. I ran out to the car and drove right home, but alas, I saw no bees. Jeff was not home; he had gone to a medical appointment. So I drove back to work. I was there half an hour and I got a call from Kathy. She said I had a swarm of bees in the front yard in a tree across from the mail box. I ran out to the car and drove right home. This time, I made sure I looked in all the trees. Sure enough, I had a swarm of bees in the front yard.


On the way home, because I had been told twice, I called Doug Shaw who was just getting off work. So he joined me, just as excited as I was. I quickly cleaned a hive and installed brood frames in it. I only had two frames with decently drawn wax, so there are eight frames that are brand new.

As we looked at the swarm, we realized that we would not just be able to knock the branch or shake the tree. The swarm was on a pretty solid branch right next to the trunk. Fortunately, it was only a few feet off the ground. I brought out my Black and Decker workbench and set it up directly under the swarm. We set the hive directly on top of the workbench, just six or so inches from the bottom of the swarm.

We sprayed sugar water on the bees and on the frames. I don't own a bee brush and Doug didn't bring his, but we figured we could just sweep the bees into the hive. I used my gloves (very gently) and Doug used a small whisk broom that I had. The bees fell into the hive quite nicely.

We replaced the frames we had taken out to ensure that the bees actually made it into the hive body then set the hive on the ground. We needed to wait a bit because there were still bees on the tree. So we went and looked at the other hive. We think the swarm must have come from the nuc I just installed. It still had plenty of bees, but we saw no new brood other than capped cells. When we installed that hive last week, we noticed swarm cells at the bottom of some frames, but I thought nothing of it. This was a new nuc after all. But, I guess the queen swarmed. I am hoping a new queen emerged in the nuc and was off getting impregnated somewhere because we didn't see her.


I am very happy! I lost a hive last year and had to combine the one hive in my yard that survived the winter. Now I am back up to three hives. It was very fortunate. I would not have seen the swarm, but Jeff and Kathy did. It was lucky it landed where it did. Good blessings all around.

Composting Manure

It rained today, so I decided to forgo shredding the manure and just had Jason help me load it into bins. There was not quite enough to fill two full bins, but it was close. I made sure I sprinkled water on as we put the mix into the bins. There were parts of it that were already hot to the touch, so I am hoping the composting will move right along.


I also had Jason help me level the raised bed he built. It's not perfect, but it is close enough. I may adjust it slightly if I look at it and find it bothers me. I think one corner needs to be raised half an inch.

I took the time to weed the Yukon Gold bed. The plants are now up and it's time to start filling in the holes as they grow. So weeding fit with pushing a little soil back into the holes. I noticed that the Pontiac Red are also starting to leaf up just a bit. It won't all be lost, which is what I had feared.

I ordered two types of everbearing strawberries from Gurneys, Eversweet Everbearing and Ozark Beauty. They should arrive the first of May. I have a bed picked out for them. There will only be 20 plants total (a row of 8 down the middle and a row of 6 on either side, spaced on the bias is my plan). If they are anything like strawberries I have had in the past, 20 will turn into 30 very easily.

I broke my compost bin in the kitchen. I've ordered a new one but Amazon.com said it would be July before it would be delivered.

I installed a hit counter on the blog today.

Leaf Compost

On Easter Sunday, Bonnie Bales asked me how often I rotated and mixed my compost. Truth is, I only have done it when I have needed to, which means I don't do it at all if I can avoid it.

Getting ready to get the new horse manure into a compost bin, I decided I needed to free up a compost bit. I have three that are dedicated to leaves. So I combined the leaves I had shredded last fall from one bin into the two others. The contents of each of the bins had settled, so I thought that composting was in full swing. I was a little naive. Nothing much had happened. There were no worms to speak of. Much of the leaf matter was dry. So, nature gave me a come uppance. If I am going to get the leaves to compost, I will need to start doing some mixing.


As I recall, the square foot gardening rules for good compost include a lot of words that begin with M. Mass (I increased it by combining the bins; one is now at least a cubic yard, the other just under), Moisture (I need a bit more, but it's raining today), Mixing (need to do this, of course, but more often), Microbes (the bins should be getting sufficient air to let the biotic elements do their work).

My next goal is to get the horse manure chipped and shredded. But I think I will also shred a little of the compost from the kitchen and mix it in with the leaf compost.

I do dream about a rotating drum, but I am just too cheap to buy one.

Green Acres

Jenna had her horseback riding lesson today. Because Kathy is still laid up, I volunteer to take her. My plan was to ask Jessica if it would be possible to get some horse manure from the stables. She asked Larry, the owner of Green Acres Horse Stables in Stoakesdale, who was kind enough to even load it on my trailer with his front loader. It is uncomposted, but it was free.

New Nuc

Doug Shaw had made arrangements for us to get new nucs to replace the hives that had either died or needed to be replaced. Two became available today. At first, I was just going to let him take both of them because Kathy is still in the hospital and I felt my priorities were there. But, she needs rest more than me, so I called him this morning as he was driving to Larry Tate's to get them and told him I would take one.

I cleaned out the old hive and selected four reasonable brood frames, but them got a new hive body to put the frames in. They were very gentle. Neither of us saw the queen, so I need to go in next weekend and take a look to see if there is evidence of her laying eggs.


Kathy's little dog seems to really like bees.

Status Report

Kathy is in the hospital recovering from a scheduled lower back operation, which gave me a little extra time this morning. (I'm taking the day off work, but Kathy isn't an early riser, so I do not need to show up at the hospital early.)

I took the time to side dress the onions. I sprinkled 10-10-10 all around. For the eastern most quarter of the bed, I took the added step of disturbing the soil with my fingers to work the fertilizer in. My thinking is that this should help get the fertilizer where it is needed and that I can also get rid of grasses and weeds at the same time. I stopped after the first quarter because I discovered that I was disturbing the onion roots.
But, it was a clean quarter and so I've introduced a bit of experimentation into the onion patch. I watered all sections well and equally. If there is no discernible positive difference, I will just side dress and hand pick weeds in the future.

I counted Yukon Gold sprouts. There are sprouts in 43 of 48 holes. Of course, I planted some seed that were just eyes where nothing had yet sprouted, so I will recount in a few days. I watered both the Yukon Gold and Pontiac Red. I've seen no sprouts among the Pontiac Red yet, but I will be patient.

Nothing has changed in the greenhouse. The Marglobe are doing well, the Brandywine look weak and are slow to take, the Basil still only has 3 sprouts among 27 pots and they aren't growing well. I may just plant seed in the beds when I transplant the tomatoes. No Marigolds or Peppers.

The five grape plants are showing signs of life. Two of them have grape buds showing.

I saw a wild turkey run across the corner of the yard when I was out there.

Queen-Rearing

Today was a very interesting day.I attended a queen-rearing workshop sponsored by the state extension office. This was a class for intermediate beekeepers. Doug Shaw and I both enrolled and attended together.

The content was actually very different than what I expected. I thought there were going to be general principles discussed and a lot of options presented. The morning was spent learning about the Doolittle method of grafting. So, while there was a lot of general information covered, especially information about queen biology, it was all background for that specific method. So, instead if talking about splits like I thought it might be, it was a course on how to take honeybee larvae and transform them into queens 20 to 60 at a time.

The three presenters, Juliana Rangel (standing to the left in the photo), Jennifer Keller standing in the back without the veil), and David Tarpy (talking with his hands) really knew their stuff and were great at communicating. The morning was spent explaining. The Doolittle system is pretty straight forward and precise. I think I will be able to follow it.

The afternoon was spent with hands on activities. First we practiced grafting with tools and fake larvae. Then we all went outside to look at hives to see how the Doolittle technique might work in practice. The challenge I will have will be identifying the very young larvae that are needed to complete the grafts.

The only challenge was the number of people. I enjoyed the demographic. Most were slightly older men, like myself. In fact, I think I hit the center of the demographic.

The entire project got me thinking about the social psychological side of beekeeping. The entomologists are concerned about bees and bee handling techniques. I started asking questions about human data collection. I think I will have something to think about for a bit, including how to assess practices and problems and figure out the human side of the equation. It might be an interesting next step for my research (when things slow down with my real research). At least it could provide an occasional distraction.

Yukon Gold

The new Yukon Gold potatoes I planted seem to be successful so far.


These are the potatoes that were left over from last year. I think the difference between my first attempt and this second attempt is just that I didn't let the heat of the greenhouse bake them too long. It gives me a little more confidence that you can grow things from your own seed. I understand that with potatoes there is an increased risk for blight, so I'm not inclined to do this too often.

Potato Redoux Two, Etc.

The first planting of Pontiac Red potatoes were as dead as my first planting of Yukon Gold, so I stopped by Feed and Seed to see if they had any potato seed left. They did and it had started to sprout nicely, so I brought it home last week. This time I cut the eyes out inside the house and let the crust form out of the sun. Saturday I replanted.

I have now thinned my first planing of tomatoes (the Marglobes) down to one plant per pot. They seem healthy. I have been setting them out in the greenhouse during the day, where the temperatures have been up in the high 90sF lately during the day.


My second planting of tomatoes (the Brandywines) are having a harder time. I planted extra seeds per pot, but the germination rate has been less than desired. There are plants now in 11 of 12 pots, but only one plant in most cases. Two of these have had a hard time losing the seed casing and look like little sticks with balls at the end. I have replanted some extra seeds (4 in the 12th spot). I guess I will just be patient.

I only have 3 of 27 basil plants sprouted. I am wondering if I am doing something wrong there, too. I have plenty of seeds. I will just continue to watch and maybe look a bit on the web to see if I need to improve conditions. They have been kept wet, but the house may be too cool for them. I'm not sure.

Nothing yet from the peppers or marigolds.

Combined Hive

Saturday I helped Doug Shaw install a package. Honeybees are becoming hard to get. I attribute this more to increased demand than anything else, although Doug and I have both lost colonies. His new package seemed to take well.

Then we headed over to Clarence Brown's to finish the process of combining the colonies there. It was a simple task. We took off the upper super that had the bees from the hive in my yard and set it to the side. The bees in the top super had managed to store a fair amount of honey. They had access to the syrup in the top feeder and evidently worked diligently on it.

I pulled some of the frames from the super I had removed and replaced totally empty frames from the middle super (the one that I kept with the hive) so that there was more honey for them to build from. I looked again Sunday at the super I had removed. The bees hadn't robbed any of it yet, so I will need to inspect again.

We also inspected the brood box, saw the queen and that there was brood a couple of days away from hatching. It's still a small colony, but active. The combining worked and I think the hive will produce this year.

Bed #7 Assembled

I finally had time and was able to persuade Jason and Hayley to help me finish my seventh raised bed box. They did most of the work. I just gave direction. I don't have the strength to help much. Pounding the half inch rebar through the holes is a bit of a challenge. I can do it but it takes time. They on the other hand each did well.

The biggest trick is getting the holes lined up again. We had waited two weeks since we cut the wood and drilled the holes. In that time wood will warp. At least this wood warped. Fortunately, we had some narrow pieces of plastic and some 3/8" rebar that we used to align the holes. We used the Stanley Fubar Jared gave me for Christmas as well the other hammers to pound the rebar through the holes

I tried to take photos of all the activities, but the camera got stuck on movie mode. That I was holding it sideways to get a portrait rather than a landscape view, thinking that I would get a better shot of Jason and Hayley makes it odd to view. But, hey, that's what happens. Even though the videos are sideways, you get the idea.

Growth

Things are starting to grow. If I have a success so far this year, it is the onions. Nearly all of the sets have grown into decent looking plants. The plan is to water every day and fertilize with 10-10-10 every month. I am trying to catch the small weeds and grasses that are already sprouting on a daily basis. Last year's onion crop had a lot of small bulbs and, by the end of the season, a fair number of competing plants in the bed. I didn't fertilize, didn't weed, and didn't water as regularly as I think I should have.



I am also pleased that the 5 grape vines (Mars) that I planted last year have begun to grow. Two are now full with leaves, three are starting to bud. I felt that the grapes struggled last year. They are in an area that, when we put in the trellis, we found ground water just a foot or two down. They are too far from the source to water, so I am hoping the ground water will work. I picked the area they are planted in because the grass is always green in that area of the yard and I think there must be an underground spring or something.

I have asked Doug Shaw for some muscadine and scuppernog starts. I visited his yard the other day and they are starting to grow at about the same rate as my grapes, sending out leaves.

Basil, Peppers, Marigolds

I woke up today determined to get something done, despite work during the day and my assignment at the family history center this evening. So, I picked out some planting tray inserts, wetted some potting soil and planted Italian Basil seeds (27 plastic pots) this morning and then planted some Anaheim peppers (4 peat pots) and Habanero peppers (4 peat pots) and Marigolds (12 plastic pots) this evening. Except for the Basil, the seeds were from last year's garden. I planted multiple seeds in each pot. Hey! I had a lot of seeds, more than I will use and I'm not sure about germination rates for saved seeds.

The Marglobe tomatoes are making progress. For the past couple of days I was putting them in the greenhouse with the door and the top vent open, just to get some extra light. However, the temperature in the greenhouse has been as high as 135F, so today I just put them outside on a table on the deck during the day. The plants are all past the cotyledon stage and each has a pair of leaves coming off the epicotyl. I still feel they are tender and most of the stems don't have much strength. I have yet to thin them.

Thanks Doug

Doug Shaw took care of me.

Potato Retry

I have grown suspicious that the potato seeds I planted had been too dried out to work. After two weeks, I have seen no signs of life whatsoever.

I was in the garage the other day and saw a paper bag on top of our refrigerator that is there. We kept last year's Yukon Golds in the fridge to store them, so I wasn't sure why the bag was where it was. I looked inside and saw a dozen potatoes, most of them with nice sized sprouts. So, yesterday, I cut out the eyes and let them sit over night. This evening after work, I went out and replanted the 48 seeds I had cut out in the holes where the other potatoes had been. Only one of the potato seeds that I plucked out had any sign of life. I am hoping that, even though the seeds were relatively small, the fact that every seed that went in showed good signs of life will save me this year.

Now I just have to figure out what to do with the Pontiac Reds. I don't sense life there either.

Day of Compost

I made a list of things to do Saturday. There were 9 items. I did 3. I raked leaves and put them through the chipper-shredder. That accounted for 2 of the items on the list. I assumed from the beginning that I was going to have no help, so I paced my work.

One valuable thing I experimented with was starting the chipper-shredder. I know this is a small point, but it helped me. I have degenerating something (I think torn tendons or something like that) in my elbows, which makes it hard to pull the starting rope when standing up. I figured out that I could compensate for this basic weakness by sitting on the ground, bracing the chipper-shredder with my feet and pulling with two hands. That gave me enough leverage to get the rotation on the engine.

I could get the engine to spin just fine; however, with long intervals between use, the engine still is reluctant to catch. So, my next point of learning was spraying a bit of starter fluid in the carburetor. We had this problem earlier in the fall. I replaced the spark plug and squirted starter fluid in the spark plug hole. I was about to do that (not being very smart) when I realized I could take off the cover of the air intake very easily -- just 2 screws -- and there it was. It did the trick.

The next challenge was scooping the leaves. There were some that had sat on a tarp over winter. They had settled and were pretty wet. I had to feed those in at the top. However, the dry leaves I rakes could be scooped in with the feeder in its down position. It still took two hours to get the compost done.

The third task was planting more tomato seeds and some cucumber. Doug Shaw gave me left over Brandywine that he got from Burpee. I lost track of where my Marglobe and German Johnson seeds went, so I was glad to have something else (an heirloom, too) to plant. I should have a total 36 tomato plants this year.