Beeeeeeeeeeees!

We are planning to start a bee hive next year.

Tonight, we go to our first meeting of the Orange County Beekeepers at 306 Revere Road in Hillsborough.

They meet the second Thursday of each month.  Except next month. They are skipping July because they/we will all be at the state beekeepers meeting which, very conveniently, will be in Elon this year.

I'm pretty stoked.

When I was a kid, my grandmother had bees.  She just took the comb out of the hive and stuck it in jars, no centrifuge or other processing.  So, we always had honey.  I was shocked when I went to the store for the first time as an adult and found out how expensive it is to buy.

I'm really looking forward to having honey.  I'm also looking forward to helping the little pollinators into my garden.

June 1st status

I said this was going to be a learning season, but there is still a slight twinge of disappointment with some of the plants so far. The lettuce & greens never did much and the Spring veggies, broc, cabbage & brussel sprouts, the same. I think a couple of things were involved with that. Don't think we got the early stuff in the ground as soon as we should have and I think that more watering was needed than I anticipated with the raised beds. We got a 3-4 day stretch of rain a couple of weeks ago and the plants started making more progress.

Now I am watering every other evening unless we get rain.


The good news is the tomato bed is doing quite well, as there is fruit on almost all the plants so far.


Peas and okra are coming up nicely as well.


This little guy was helping me water last evening.


Kitty nursed a curry plant inside through the winter that she found at the Indian market in Cary. She finally moved it's pot outside when it was looking sort of yellow, but it didn't make it. Fortunately it came back as volunteer purslane.

More fruit!

Thursday night, we went out to admire the beds and move the sprinkler and realized that the cherries were ripe enough to pick and that the net bag had kept the birds off the fruit so there were actually fruit available to pick.

I got the tree two years ago in my fruit tree planting frenzy and this is the first time we've really gotten to taste the produce.  They are sour cherries, which means better (in my opinion) in something rather than just good to snack on.

So, will it be cobbler or a very small batch of jam?  Decisions; decisions.

Thy-y-y-yme is on your side. Yes, it is!

 The Women's Resource Center in Burlington, NC has a fundraising Herb Festival every Spring.

I've been looking forward to the absurd abundance they provide to put a variety of thyme in the front of one of the vegetable beds.  I passed up 3 that didn't have enough scent to convince me they'd be any good for cooking.

Left to right, they are Creeping Lemon, English, Foxley (which I"d gotten at the Carrboro Farmers' Market a month ago.), Red Mother of and Transparent Yellow.

It cracks me up that the tall one is Creeping Thyme and that one is really, truly named Red Mother of (thyme).  It doesn't look particularly red right now.  I'm hoping the sun will inspire it.  I had English thyme in the kitchen garden by the house until the lavender overwhelmed it, so it it the one I'm most familiar with.  I'm looking forward to using these because I really do love the flavor.

Critter Netting

Installed critter netting today using standard 1" PVC pipe and netting found online specifically designed for farming purposes. The pipe will allow us to use clear plastic in the winter for greenhouse/cold frame growing. I need to get some tent stakes to help anchor it. The wind today is blowing it around a bit.

Beds are full

From the house this is the back left bed.  Full of tomatoes.  Romas, Sweet 100s and some "heirloom slicing tomatoes" that Liane gave us when they had as many as they could use for Vimala's Curryblossom Café.  I planted "French Double Dwarf Mixed Colors" marigold seeds in the holes on the outside edge.

This is the back right bed.  Chuck started "Little Marvel" peas, "Red Burgundy" okra and eggplants in the bed from seeds.  He also started "Ruby Red" Swiss chard and (mixed, orange yellow and white) carrots in pots and they have been transplanted, today.   Carrots in the left side holes (from this angle) and chard in the bed and in most of the other holes.

I, also, put marigold seeds in between the strawberries in the bed in front of this one.

Also, please note the outside of the blocks have been stained "Tuscan Sunset."

Sprouting

Peas sprouted yesterday, okra today.

We will NOT be mowing between the beds.

Also, rabbits found the strawberries Saturday night.  Chuck is working on netting to keep the rabbits out and still let sun and rain in.  They haven't gotten to the other stuff, yet.

We intend to stain the blocks to make them a little more attractive, too, if it will stop raining for a few days so they can get dry enough to to that little chore. It's hard to let myself wish for a little dry spell, though.  I have a fear that it will become another drought.  The stain can wait if it suits the weather.

Chuck added seeds to the back right bed.  Peas are starting to appear.  Nothing from the okra or eggplants yet.

Three nasturtiums have shown up in the holes on the outside edge of the left front bed.  Cilantro seeds in the back holes of the front right bed and basil seeds in the back holes of the front left bed.  Still waiting for sprouts.

We found more volunteer leaf lettuce in the old salad bed that is incubating cantaloupe seeds.  They have been moved to the holes in the front of the left front bed, where the other salad stuff is growing.  The arugula/rocket seeds are sprouting in between the other lettuces, too.

First fruit

Planting seeds

Today I planted peas, okra, eggplant, basil and cilantro in the raised beds. I also planted cantaloupe seeds in a separate spot for my sweetie who loves the lope.