Garden Records March 2016

Warmest March ever.  Loving this.  In the hoop house, the radishes (Shogoin, white icicle, cherry belle) are up, along with the spinach (experimental and bloomsdale) and arugula.  The kale, broccoli, and cabbage transplants are in the ground and doing mostly okay, since I put down row covers to keep them from being eaten (chickens? voles? mice?).  These are experiments comparing seeds of two different suppliers, because I'm just curious if there is any difference.  Obviously there is, since the plants look NOTHING alike - color and leaf shape are radically different.  More on that later.  I need more row covers.  Tomorrow after kettlebell class, I will stop at the Hobbit Hole and see if they have row covers and the larger peat disks for my starting trays.  Then I must make room on the indoor greenhouse racks for another two trays of starts, and set up my last light fixture and mail back the one that does not work.  That'll be enough to do, I think, in between doing homeschool with homeschool kid and picking up charter school kid at ICA.

Straw Bale Spring

This has been the warmest March I can remember.  And so I've used the weather to advantage... I bought 26 bales of wheat straw from a local farmer (it was Round-up Ready Wheat; I will look for organic this fall).  I set up bales in the hoop house for straw bale gardening.  That means a layer of weed barrier, a layer of hardware cloth, and then aligning the bales cut side up, with T-posts (I screwed up and bought  5 U-posts, but I'll be using T-posts ransacked from the old garden fencing for everywhere else) every 2-3 bales.  It's 2-3 bales because 2 bales are 6' long and 3 are 9' and that means either cutting down an 8' 2"x4" or finding a 10' and cutting it down.  I have found 5 that are 8' long, and 1 4"x4" that is 10' and 1 1"x6" because what the hell, I might as well use it, too.

ANYWAY, there are 6 bales set up in the hoop house in the process of conditioning (apply fertilizer at specific intervals and wet down the bales daily).  This weekend we (mostly me) got 14 more bales set up in two rows in the outdoor garden.  I will put 3 more bales in the hoop house when I have time to level the ground where El Jefe removed my remaining fig monstrosities.  And the last three will go... somewhere.  Outside for sure, since there won't be anymore room in the hoop house.

I am all excited about experimenting with the straw bale gardening, primarily because if production is the same, and weeding is reduced, my life will be SO MUCH MORE PLEASANT.  Not that I dislike weeding.  I actually enjoy it.  There is just too much garden for me to keep up with it in the time I have available.  And that is true of so much of life...

Bluebird of Happiness

A bluebird perched on the balcony rail this morning while I was drinking my tea, grateful that I was indoors.  The weather has suddenly turned normal for December in Michigan - that would be nasty cold with freezing rain starting at noon.  After our weirdly warm and green Christmas, I'm not ready for this.  But the bluebird was beautiful, and he knew it.  He turned around in a circle on the rail so I could admire him from all directions, before flying off.  His spot was quickly taken by several woodpeckers of various types, who began pecking up and down the black walnut next to the balcony. I have spent the whole day being grateful for that bluebird... because I'm sure not grateful for the weather!

Bizzy Buzzy Bee Day

The pkg bees arrived early.  I wasn't ready.  I got it done anyway.  I hived the two pkgs using the no-shake method (modified Lorge - no drawn comb, just foundation).  We'll see if they are out of the boxes tomorrow.  I would check tonight, but it started pouring just as I was finishing up.  Now it is thundering and I'm not going out there.  Anyway,  I also split the original hive-that-was-new last year.  The queen went with the split (and she was HUGE), so I gave the deep that stayed in place a new Italian queen.  I checked the split I did earlier in the week and found no queen and no eggs, so they got the new Carniolan queen.  I'm assuming the old queen is still in place in the old deep, but I'll check for eggs in a few days to be sure.  This equals six hives.  I still have to put together ten more frames for the two nucs I use as swarm traps, and get one of them up on top of the duck coop (mmm roast duck with honey... look!  a chicken!) and find a location for the other one that is upwind of all the hives, just in case any of the splits are still of a mind to throw a swarm.  Or I get lucky and catch someone elses.  Oh, and did I mention hauled 12 concrete blocks up to the apiary to build three hive stands because there was no way to get three wood ones built in the time I had.  S'okay with me - we had the blocks on hand, so this was free.  And all three went together in five minutes.  It would have taken me at least five hours to build wood ones, if you include the time wasted going to the store to buy the 2x4s and 1x6s.

Then the Pirate and I made dandelion fritters for supper.  (Her idea - I came into the kitchen and she was getting everything ready).  Dandelions are plants.  So we will call that a nice healthy salad... NOT!

Not what I thought I'd be doing today

Instead of digging more trenches and planting the taters, I spent the afternoon dealing with the bees.  It is 75 degrees here.  The bees were in their two hives, with two deeps each.  Hive One had bearded up the front of their hive, almost to the top.  Hive Two, commando types, had multiple entrances/exits to their hive, and were bearding above two of the three.  This would be great build-up, except that it looks like swarm prep to me, and I DO NOT WANT THEM TO SWARM!  My swarm trap is not ready, and there is no guarantee they'd use it anyway.  So, I did a quick split on Hive One and gave each of the original deeps one more deep above.  I didn't bother to check for the queen, or even for eggs in both deeps.  Yes, yes, I know I'll have to go back and do that.  Later.  They weren't grateful for the extra real estate and stung me right thru my suit.  Twits.  Then I gave Hive Two an empty super to play with.  They were far less annoyed.  Obviously, I need to spend some time this week putting together more woodware and getting three more bases made, because I have no more, and I have two more packages of bees coming next weekend.  And I'm supposed to paint the toddler room at church this week.  And plant the rest of the garden.  I beelieve I 'll bee bizzy.

Dandelion Fritter time!

I took the girls over the hill and down to the river for a short homeschool field trip today, so we could check out the blooming spring beauty (corms taste like water chestnuts) and bloodroot (we did the face painting thing two years ago, so this time we just took pics).  Then the Pirate collected a bunch of dandelions because she remembered the fritters from last year and wanted them again, and I grabbed some wintercress that was also blooming.  I couldn't find last year's fritter recipe, so Pinterest came to my rescue, and I found another one that I think was even better - the batter was much lighter and thinner, and I just dipped the dandelions flowers in whole and tossed them in hot oil to deepfry.  Quick, easy, and we'll pretend that it's healthy.  Then I made "cheese sauce" for the wintercress buds and flowers (yes, I did the boil twice thing first).  Really, I just melted some Velveeta because I didn't want this to be a huge production.  I ate it all.  Tasty!  If I have time, I'm going to grab some ditchlily (those daylilies that have naturalized along every country road in this state) roots and do something with them, too.  Haven't decided what though.  I'll be real happy when they are blooming - I love them stuffed with cream cheese.

Peas in the ground and horses in the wind

The weather and my schedule finally cooperated long enough for me to get the peas in the ground, along with the fava beans.  I've never planted fava beans before.  Heck, I've never EATEN fava beans before, that I know of.  The seeds were HUGE.  I just figured I'd try them because they tolerate the cold better than my usual green beans.  The peas were purple blauschokkers (sp?) and some leftover-from-last-year snap, shelling, and snow peas.  I had to put them in the row with the asparagus I plated last fall.  I figured since I wasn't going to be harvesting any of that asparagus, it might be all right.  And I just didn't have anyplace else ready for the peas, which really needed to be in the ground two weeks ago.  As soon as I was done, I had to run the Pirate up to Mason to go horseback riding, which was lovely, because I got to ride first (the horse hasn't been ridden all winter, and needed to get his kinks out before putting the kid up on him.  I'd never ridden in a dressage saddle til two weeks ago, and I must say that it is THE most comfortable saddle EVER.  It's enough to make me want a horse of my own.  El Jefe would leave me, though.  Sigh.  I still like him better than horses, which would shock anyone who knew me as a teenager, when I lived to ride... I hope he knows that!