Growing poppies is a long term affair. We planted these under lights in the house. After two to three weeks in a plastic bag to keep it moist, the very fine seeds have sprouted.
Poppies ready to be transplanted into bigger pots. The plants in the foreground are St. John’s Wort (Hypericum).
The poppy seed was planted in February. It is just now blooming in September. I think we’ll start earlier if we want poppies in spring or summer for the bees next year.
Here’s the beautiful result of our labor of love…
The poppy has finally opened up. I wonder when the bees will find it.
A couple of days after this first one opened up, we had a bee doing something strange (to me). It faced away from the center of the flower, beating her wings rapidly, vibrating the pollen off the stamen and onto her body. After getting a layer of purple pollen, she landed on the outside of the flower and groomed herself with her middle legs, pulling the pollen off her back and into her pollen baskets. It was incredible. I had my little pocket camera with me and got some video of it.
This has nothing to do with bees or gardening, but I like her style of writing. i’ve often had some of the same thoughts about sustainable living. She expressed them very well.
I have dressed early–6 a.m., in sweatpants and hoodie–to stave off the morning chill. Yesterday was rainy, all day drizzle interspersed with sudden heavy downpours. When I wake this morning and see skies clearing, I know I have to get down to the lake to watch the white tendrils of mist rise from the glossy, rippled surface of the water. I bring a blue chair and a mug of coffee, a camera, and my journal.
The tiny community beach–one of over a dozen–is a short walk from my doorstep. For the first eight years we lived here, the beach was nothing more than a weedy opening in the scrub brush lining the lake. A pine needle- and leaf-covered path slopes down to the water’s edge from the gravel road.
We leave our canoe here, red and tipped upside down, most of the summer and fall…
Quite a mouthful. This photo was taken the evening before.
The bees started being very active fairly early in the morning. I ran to get the video camera to document what was going on. They grouped up on the outside of the hive entrance. The group slowly moved up the right side of the hive and then under the nose. My wife thinks this was a bunch of drones hatching, because they look bigger. I couldn’t get couldn’t get a good fix on the eye pattern. The next day was normal activity. Any ideas? We welcome your comments.
Our nights get down to a chilly 47 degrees F (8 deg. C.) so without extra care it would be impossible to grow things like peppers and eggplants.
Water grid in place, hook up hose and place transplants where the water drips out.
Add hoops, deer netting and the plastic film weighted with 1×2’s nailed to 2×2’s.
This is what it looks like now (after 3 1/2 months) with some calendulas that my wife won’t let me take out and a volunteer Swiss Chard.
The green peppers are small because the nights are so cool, but at least we get some.
Japanese eggplant (the only one that will ripen here because it’s smaller) is finally ready to be picked.
Tomatoes are coming on strong…ready for sandwiches or to be roasted.
Tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, string beans, carrots, beets, basil, (and other herbs like oregano and thyme), onions and garlic slathered with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper. Roast it at 425 deg. F for about 25 minutes or until the tomatoes start to brown.
After this cools, we throw it in the blender, then it goes into the quart size freezer bags so it will stack up well. It can be used over rice or potatoes, or as a spaghetti or pizza sauce.
What is making these circular holes in the Black-Eyed Susan Vine? Slugs can’t get up that high and birds wouldn’t cut circles.
Last year my wife noticed circular holes in her Thunbergia’s petals. She couldn’t figure out what could have made the holes. We soon found out after spotting a bee carrying a leaf. It flew into a hole in the side of the shop.
Dahlia blossom with circular holes
As I was looking for more evidence to photograph, a leaf cutting bee landed on this Dahlia plant and cut a segment out. She was fast. It took about 10 seconds to cut the petal and fly away. I was able to point the camera and shoot away. It wasn’t until the next day that I was able to catch the bees flying into a hole in the newly replaced shop wall, between two spider webs. Both spiders failed to trap her…this time.
Burying the very available crab shell and coffee grounds to spice up the soil is the first thing. Warre hive is on the left and Bee Beard carved log hive on the right. I’m in good company.
Potatoes…should we harvest now or leave them in to grow more? If I leave them in, the voles might eat them…I better take them out. Then I can plant buckwheat in both beds.
Red Pontiacs – Three at once
A mole tunnel…the moles dig the tunnels, the voles follow the tunnels to the potatoes. More than a few potatoes had been chewed on, so it was good idea to get them out of the ground.
Some of the potatoes harvested from this first potato bed. We could have left them in to grow more, but the voles would have taken a big bite out of our harvest. This way we can grow buckwheat in both beds for the bees in September.
We’ve been fairly successful in the “no tilling” method for a few years. We think it’s important to use less manufactured energy and more physical energy. Is spading ‘as good as’ using a tiller? Probably not, but it’s important to be able to grow food without using fossil fuel for the possible time when we don’t have any.
We have dug in crab shell, kitchen scraps (no meat), comfrey leaves, and coffee grounds to enhance the soil. Now we’re planting the buckwheat seed.
The drip irrigation grid and the deer netting are in place.
Why do we need deer netting? Because of her…and all her offspring!
According to this article by the Thomas Jefferson Agricultural Institute “…buckwheat crop seems to improve soil tilth, and is reported to make phosphorous more available as a soil nutrient, possible through root-associated mycorrhizae. Buckwheat flowers profusely, making it popular with bee keepers and an attractive crop in the landscape.”
Sept. 9, 2012…about 5 weeks after planting, buckwheat is looking good. Bees have been working the blossoms for a couple of weeks already.
Sept. 9, 2012…Honeybees attending to the buckwheat blossoms under the deer netting.
A fly mimicking a bee on the buckwheat blossom.
My wife saved me the ultimate embarrassment of thinking I found some kind of new bee. “Honey, that’s a FLY!” “Ulp.”
Two years ago we wanted to quit having to mow between our blueberry bushes. We laid down landscape cloth, covered it with sawdust, and our mowing days were behind us. That year we watched the bees pollinate the blossoms and the berries grew like never before. We had a huge berry crop but couldn’t eat a single berry because as they ripened, a family of robins spotted them first…each bush was clearly visible from a bird’s eye view and as the berries ripened, the birds easily picked them off before we could. We laid fake snakes on the ground. We hung shiny wind socks to distract them. We thought about netting them, but it would have been difficult to pick them. So we let the birds have them.
Last year we tried a different strategy. We let the comfrey that we had been treating as weeds, grow up next to the bushes. We didn’t have any bird problems. So this year we’re doing the same thing. The comfrey provides blossoms to attract the bees which pollinate both the blueberries and the comfrey and we are assured of having berries without birds.
Bumblebee pollinating Comfrey blossoms. The bees work both the comfrey and the blueberry bushes that the comfrey hides from the birds.
Bumblebee on Blueberry blossom
The comfrey is still blooming!! It’s been over two months since the first picture was taken. The blueberries are now ripe and ready to pick. Thanks to the comfrey for hiding the blueberries from the birds, we can now pick them.
The bumblebees are still pollinating the comfrey even though it’s been over two months.
These blueberries were picked today. This is probably our best harvest yet. We’ve been getting this much every couple of days.
It’s been a successful experiment. The comfrey might compete somewhat with the blueberries for water and space…but what matters most is the successful harvest before the birds get them.
As a win-win, comfrey is known for it’s healing qualities also. For growing and using comfrey see this article by The Mother Earth News. And here’s a another person’s story of how to make a poultice and apply it. I just came across yet another site about the great qualities of comfrey.
This short video shows the progress of the swarm that was transferred from the bait hive to Bee Beard on June 2nd. Now after 7 weeks, viewing through the observation window, you can see the bottom of the bee cluster is below the level of the mouth entrance. Initially, bee beard would face southwest into the winter wind. For that reason, an alternate entrance was drilled towards the north rear. When we decided to locate Bee Beard facing east, that alternate entrance was plugged with tissue paper. To my surprise, the bees have just pulled out that tissue paper and you can see a bee flying out with a bit. In the slightly out of focus video through the observation window, you can see bees carrying out bits of paper. Also seen are bees carrying pollen from blackberries and St. John’s Wort…my bees won’t suffer from depression!
I decided to try out growing some mushrooms after my daughter sent me a mushroom growing kit from the SF Bay area. They were oyster mushrooms and worked well, so I wanted more. I trade printing services for the opportunity to pick up coffee grounds from a place in town. I only needed about a five gallon bucket load.
Since we are adamant about having as many car-free days as possible, I try to use the bicycle as much as possible.
Two full buckets…that’s heavy. I hope the wind is at my back on the uphill stage.
Drill holes in the bottom of the bucket to drain the excess water
All mixed up and ready to wait. It takes about 3 weeks to start showing.
I placed the bucket outside under some fir trees. It’s mostly in the shade with a couple of slices of sun early and late.
Day 18…whitish color on surface of mixture. oh boy, it’s going to happen!
Day 25 Ain’t they cute?
They are growing at Day 28. Soon we will cut just a little to try out. The directions say that 1-2% of the population is somewhat allergic. If you eat just a little and get a reaction, it’s better than eating a bunch.
Just to be sure they were ready, I inquired about the mushrooms.
Letter from Fungi Perfecti
Day 30…Harvest time. I wish I could say I ate a small sample to test it out, but I couldn’t hold myself back and ate the whole batch!
Adventures in Natural Beekeeping 