Gardening, and the Birds and the Bees

Very busy last few days here and I don't think it will be letting up anytime soon.

I have been rather derelict in getting the garden cleared out for spring planting, although THAT would be easier if we did better at cleaning and prepping the planting beds in the fall. Sigh. One of these days, it will happen. Anyway, I have been trying to spend a few hours a day weeding and luckily everything but the dumb, stupid burdock has been easy to pull out. However, all of a sudden wild mustard plants have taken over the garden, which is irritating because that is the one weed we haven't had before and they are seriously invasive. They do have beautiful yellow flowers though and fields of them have inspired a whole series of paintings but I would like them to stay out of my vegetable garden, please.

Three beds back in the corner that still need weeding (they are done now):

This is where the tomatoes are going this year and I have handed the weeding duty over to Doug as I suspect some serious shoveling will be necessary (he is the shovel guy):


And proof that our weeds don't need much in the way of light, air or water. A tarp has been on this section for a few years now (clearing that spot is rather low on our list as it is in a shaded area) and every year the weeds under it raise it up off the ground about three feet:

But there are some bright spots. The garlic is looking good:

The raspberries look great this year (even if they are sending shoots off into the neighboring beds). And most of the beds are cleared now, ready for some mulch and then planting:

We are still a few weeks from planting for most things though, and I really should have gotten the peas and carrots in already, but I am planning to get them in this week. Oddly, my greens that I planted several weeks ago in the cold frame didn't come up, so I guess I messed up the system somehow. I am going to try planting greens again in the regular beds. Oh and the perimeter fence needs much attention. I am pretty sure that last year deer were just strolling in every night and eating everything from the top down. They LOVE peas and broccoli, just so you know.

Update on the birds and the bees:

Yes, my new chicks have arrived, just this morning in fact:

We are establishing a new coop for them as our old hen house is too small and plus it's really tough to integrate flocks. So Doug spent a few days putting up plywood on the interior of a small room in our crappy old garage. We wanted to build an entirely new building, but it wasn't in the budget and this was the next best, cheap idea. And actually it seems pretty luxurious to me, it has power and is very close to water (the garage is attached to the kitchen) so we can brood them in their coop. Doug still has to build the nests and an outdoor chicken run, but we have time for that.

It's been about four years since we got our first chicks and three years since we got the second batch and I have forgotten about the stress level with these little chickies. I have already spent so much time worrying and checking on them today and it's only been a few hours! One difference this time though is that there are 45 chicks, well actually 44 since one was trampled to death in the shipping box, and the little cannibals were already pecking it apart by the time I picked them up, and so I now get to worried about their pig pile tendencies too. Heh. But I am going to cross my fingers that they will be ok, and later on after I get some work done I will go and check all of them for pasty butt*, yay!

Doug was planning to get two more bee hives this spring but when he went to pick them up on Saturday, he was told the bees were gone. A part of the whole disappearing bee problem evidently. So Doug is calling around today, trying to find someone who has bees. Our existing hive is doing great, very busy and active bees already working on their honey, so we were really hoping to add to all that.

And besides our WORK work, there is a long list of things that have to be done around here; I was going to list them, but it makes me feel overwhelmed! I will post photos if as we make some progress. Right now I will just be happy if we can get some plants in the ground and keep my chicks alive until they are a bit more durable!

*Pasty Butt: Shipping can be hard on some chicks and a sign of that stress is that they get their butts pasted up with loose droppings. Keep a close eye on them for the first 5-6 days. If this happens, you must clean it up or they'll die. There are 2 methods: A -- you can softly moisten the plug with a warm moist cloth until you can pick it off, this being easier on the chick, or B -- you can simply pluck it off with the down it is stuck to. This is more painful to the chick, like having some hairs pulled, but has the advantage that without the down to stick to the problem will not repeat itself.

It's Honey, Honey.

Continuing on with the farm updates (super exciting, I know) Doug's beehive is flourishing. He started with 12,000 bees last spring and he estimates that there about 60,000 bees there now. They have been very productive, probably because of my flowers, heh, and there is plenty of honey, honey. We will probably fill at least fifty of these jars!

This is the first jar of honey that he extracted from his hive and you would think that Doug had negotiated world peace the way he is prancing around the house with it. Sometimes though, it's the little things......

Endless Love

The vegetable garden and the beehive in the back corner.

Doug and I spent nearly all day Sunday and Monday in a marathon session of sex. Just kidding. We spent both days, outside, working in the gardens. The kids were notified that they would get little if any attention from us for two days, unless they decided to help us out. Which they each did for about an hour then reveled in their freedom from parental supervision.

Anyway, Doug does the vegetable garden and as it is actually located in our pasture in the back, keeping the weeds at bay is a major challenge. They had grown up quite a bit last year (um, mostly because we didn't keep up with them) and we wanted to expand our planting area this year. So he rented a tiller and was out there at 7am Sunday morning mowing and then tilling in order to get down to the dirt. He cleared out the whole area before the bees decided they had had enough of all of the noise and activity and began to attack. He got about 5 stings including one on his left ear which turned red and swelled up. After that he puttered around quietly, forming the row and planning where to plant everything. On Monday he put weed barrier down and got about half of the vegetables planted. The rest will have to wait until this weekend since he is in the city for a few days.

Meanwhile, after indulging myself in a flower, shrub and vegetable plant buying binge last week, I began to clear out the back flower garden. After four years I have finally wrestled the front gardens into submission and all that is necessary there each spring is just a bit of raking and weeding and maybe planting a few annuals. The back garden however, is trying to kill me. I had it cleared out last year and I planted a variety of flowering shrubs and perennial flowers like spirea, bee balm, daisies and coneflowers. Alas, I was so lazy/busy last fall that I didn't really do a good job of cleaning it up for the winter, and then in the spring the weeds invaded and after a few good rain showers they were almost waist high. I had been pulling them out a bit each day but they would seemingly reappear overnight. So my goal over the weekend was to clear them all out, put in a few new plants and then mulch. I spent two days bending improperly at the waist pulling weeds by hand. There was rain on Saturday night so the weeds actually came out fairly easily, too bad there were at least a million of them! Anyway, I got the last bit of them out on Tuesday night and then have a bit of hoeing to do before I plant and mulch. This is how it looked this morning.

Basically anywhere you see space is where the rude and extremely audacious weeds were just a few days ago. I really must keep up this time. Right.

My hamstrings hurt like hell, my right arm and both hands are practically having spasms from pulling the weeds out, I have welts on my arms and legs (from evil bugs that laugh at the concept of bug repellent) an oval shaped sunburn on my lower back where my shirt rode up and my shorts came down a bit when I bent over to weed. Lovely. Doug has bee stings on his ear, forehead and arms and sort of a whole body pulled muscle.

Come to think of it, this is probably the shape we'd be in if we had had a marathon sex session. Heh.

Anyway, it really is like heaven here and I wouldn't trade it for anything.

The front of the house. Note our new porch. It's plumb!




The back patio with plants waiting to go in.

Oh and did I mention that I got a few baby chicks? We couldn't get it together to get a goat or sheep, so I made do with 9 chicks, seven of which are Araucanas, the hens that lay blue and/or green eggs. A little color is always good.