What did you do in the garden today?

[TJAnonymous]

I love honey bees... I really wish I had the time, money, and space to have my own. Maybe one day I'll be in the right place to learn

 

[WthrLady]

I love honey bees... I really wish I had the time, money, and space to have my own. Maybe one day I'll be in the right place to learn

They do not thrive here. Sad. Hive loss it too high.
We're tops in natural swarms and solitary pollinators though.
Polishing a new loom ATM. But tomorrow is 12 miles on the bike, grabbing the last of the garden mulch in the city, and then mowing the whole place for the next round of rain.
THEN we'll green up really fast.

 

[akroberts1085]

Tomorrow I have to get started on the duck enclosure. We're expecting more rain for a few days so I have to get it started at least. Need to moisten the garden a bit before the rain and that's about all.

 

[CapricornFarm]

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Those plants look wonderful. I will be starting my plants in the house in a week, or two, for planting around the first of June here in zone 3B. If I get my plants out too early, I risk frost bite killing the young plants.

Just wanted to mention that I switched over to using net pots/cups for my plant starts a few years ago...

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The big advantage to those net pots/cups is that the roots will air prune instead of spiraling around in a "normal" solid wall starter pot. The plants grow new, additional roots when one gets air pruned. This makes the root system stronger and I have had no problems when it comes to transplanting my peppers and tomatoes after 8 weeks in the net cups.

I use the 3-inch net pots, but you can get larger and smaller pots. I have grown my pepper and tomato plants in the 3-inch net pots for 8 weeks without having to up-pot.

I mention this because I used to have some problems removing plants with the roots all spiraled around in the solid walled pots. The net cups with the slits eliminated that problem for me.

But beware of microplastics!

 

[chickengr]

Got compost put down in the new asparagus beds... Nearly put the Kei Truck in the pond in the process... It's a manual transmission and I failed to appreciate how elevated the ground is between the asparagus beds and the pond. As I tried to back up to the beds, I just kept rolling closer to the pond. Finally managed to figure out a solution and get it done.

One of my duck hens has decided to be sneaky. She's an Ancona-Runner cross and lays a distinctive blue egg. She's the only duck I have who lays blue eggs. Anyway she hasn't laid an egg in the coop in nearly a month. All the other ducks lay their eggs in the coop. This morning I noticed her hunkered down in the wood pile by the house. They all frequently look for bugs in there so I didn't think much about it except she seemed very intent on watching me and waiting to see if I was going to come over there. I ignored her because I was busy. Later I decided to go look at the spot she was hiding.... Sure enough, there's a blue egg laid there. So I'm guessing that she is laying them around the pond or in other random places instead of in the coop.

I found one turkey and one chicken hidden nest. collected turkey eggs and put them in incubator. returned to pick up chicken eggs but my vietnamese pig was eating them.

I am going to sell some duck and geese eggs, pass by a friend to pick up 2 naked neck roos and a few other staff and hope to have time to go to buy some fruit trees.

 

[cj2024]

I finally got my thyme plants. They were $7 each, so I only got two of them and I am trying to clone some branches. I dipped them in root tone and stuck them in an inert potting mix and I am keeping water in the base they are sitting in.

I saw a video of a guy rooting them in plain water, so my cutting should be better off with the rooting hormone powder and a water base.

I placed my English thyme that I bought between my Okra plants. I bought them to repel the aphids that has been bothering my plants. I already sprayed my okra plants and ground with Seven and didn't see any lately. Hopefully my thyme plants keep them away.

 

[Sally PB]

in confined hive boxes- to make make many nucs. so counting those, about 60. Ultimately, I will scale back to around 30 or less.

Wow! Do you sell nucs? They are worth a lot! Bees, like chicks, have gotten hard to find. And expensive. I'm paying a fellow bee club member $200 for one of his nucs.

Hubby and I are really new at beekeeping. We got one hive in May 2023, split it last April, and the split died in December. (We think they were robbed and they starved.) We have not gotten ANY honey.

If you include all the plants that I've bought specifically for honeybees, then we probably have over $1600 in our investment.

 

[Grandmas Coop]

So funny how the temps just switch , it is said to be up to 74 by 4pm,,
today at Grandmas,
plow the chicken run before it turns into hardpack, the chickens love plow day
mow the yard, give grass to chickens and compost , maybe plant some more ?? seeds?
feed the fruit trees and spray Neem oil on them
thats good for today

A small deviation from my list of to-dos
I figured I could get this done while the grass was drying,

And before the land dries out and I cant

at 8am I got all the dead wood I had piled up from pruning the evergreen huckleberries last fall burned and some scraps, took until 12 to finish up. there was more dead wood to cut.

Then I got to work on my list. Finished the weed eating, turned the chicken run, got all the mowing done
I did not get the fruit trees done. And I didnt plant more seed. I worked outside until 4.
Sat and took a break at 4,, my old bones hate me.

It was a 3 ibuprofen at 7pm and 3 at midnight , night.
Coffees ready, PTL
But, back at it this morning lots to do.

 

[CatInTheHenHouse]

Wow! Do you sell nucs? They are worth a lot! Bees, like chicks, have gotten hard to find. And expensive. I'm paying a fellow bee club member $200 for one of his nucs.

Hubby and I are really new at beekeeping. We got one hive in May 2023, split it last April, and the split died in December. (We think they were robbed and they starved.) We have not gotten ANY honey.

If you include all the plants that I've bought specifically for honeybees, then we probably have over $1600 in our investment.

I keep trying to throw pollinator-friendly seeds at the family member who keeps trying to keep bees, no idea if they’ll get planted this year. Got a swarm trap for them too, in the hopes that ‘wild’ bees will survive better than purchased, but I don’t know if that’s going to get used either.

 

[TJAnonymous]

Only 2 gladiolus bulbs and 1 Dahlia seemed to have survived the winter from what I planted last year. They all just rotted in the soil. When I pulled the dahlias out of the ground to overwinter in a box, they rotted to dust inside the garage.

There's a common theme here. Either treat them as annuals or plant something else! I'm done wasting money on expensive dahlia bulbs that don't last.