The Garden
Unlike last June, Mother Nature has jumped right into the heat this year. I have been wondering if that means we might have an extra long summer, almost hoping, actually. I still haven't gotten pumpkin seeds in the ground, but it might be a little late for them.
All of my worries from a few weeks ago about whether anything would grow have proved wrong except for one. I'm trying a number of new things this year that are proving to be fun. One is Swiss chard. That has come up vigorously even though the seed was a couple of years old. I also planted some lettuce that just lights up my eyes every time I look at it. The packet just said "lettuce." Not what color. Not what particular variety. Just Lettuce. The row is fully of bright green curly leaves. I'm also trying broccoli. It sprouted well, but I hope the heat doesn't do them in before we get any broccoli heads. The other new stuff is Utah Sweet Spanish onions from seed, Anasazi beans (it's in the dried beans category. They're enormous seeds, bigger than lima beans, but very pretty mauve with darker speckles), and leeks.
Half of the green bean seeds sprouted, so we'll have just enough for fresh eating, but not enough to overwhelm me. The carrots, peas, broccoli (that I hope can actually grow broccoli heads instead of bolting in the heat), and cucumbers are all looking great. The leeks I tried doing from seed tried to start, but I don't think they got enough water. That's okay because I bought a set of leek starts at the nursery and they look quite happy. The onions from seed are growing like crazy. I'll be able to harvest some as green onions to thin them out.
The only thing I tried new this year that didn't do anything at all was soybeans. I gave that row a chance, but nothing ever sprouted.
The raspberries, strawberries, and blackberries are going to be wonderful prolific, as are my peaches. I thought the peaches were done for this year thanks to the inch of snow Mother Nature dropped on us the day before Easter.
So the garden is looking good. That also means I'm going to be busy trying to preserve it in one way or another, but that's okay by me.
The Bee Report
The Old Vic hive that overwintered well is thriving with their new queen. I've been so happy to see all of the activity going in and out both the top and bottom entrances of the hive. I'll be getting in there this week to see what is going on.
The Flower hive, however, is dead. I just don't know what happened. For two weeks there was no queen activity. Week three brought two, almost three, frames with eggs, larvae, and some capped brood on them. Ten days after that, though, I noticed the bee population was way down, the capped brood pattern seemed scattered, and there were quite a handful of dead bees in the process of emerging from their capped cells. It was like they died as they were trying to hatch. I've tried to do some investigating, and one forum thread I read about someone else's similar problem thought it might be mites that killed the emerging bees. I didn't want to bring a new queen into that situation, but boy am I sad to lose that hive. That's two years in a row now that I haven't been able to get a second hive going. I'm considering trying to do a split of my good hive next spring, but I've only ever read about that. Maybe I'll try catching a swarm.
So there you are. We've started eating a few things already out of the garden, and that's always such a good feeling. I know what went into growing the food; I worked for the food; and now I get to eat it. It's the epitome of "going local."
1 comment:
Way to go. My garden has mixed results as well. I planted carrots twice and I think now I have some from old seeds. The new ones didn't grow. I planted beets twice. They came up the first time and then were all gone. They might have gotten watered into oblivion by Jake. They came up the second time sort of here and there. We lost almost all of our strawberry plants but the three that survived seem to be doing better. We'll see. Sorry about your bees. That's a bummer.
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