it's been a while...

as of today, we have had over 8 inches of rain for the month.  that may not seem like much to some but for us, that is more than triple the monthly average.  if you know anything about gardening then you know that you simply cannot work the soil under such soggy conditions.  you also know that fungus excels in moisture and that plants tend to wither and rot away with the moisture and fungus that it produces.  needless to say, with all of the rainy soggy days and the up down up down of the temperature, our garden is lagging behind!

we have a few different lettuces, some peppers and peas out there as well as a few cucumbers and some artichokes but so far, nothing to brag about or to pick for that matter.

there was evidence of an old (very old, as in previous owners, many years ago) termite infestation in our house so we have decided to have the house treated, after all this is the south and termites are like opinions, everybody has at least one (colony) somewhere!

in the mean time, this lovely new bed will serve as my herb garden since nothing edible can be near the house for at least a year.

this years plants in the lasagna bed at the front walk.  it had to be planted a second time-sometimes, i really don't care for dogs...

we have rather shady conditions along the front of the house and i have decided to make that the theme for these beds.  we added ferns, columbines, huecheras, native phlox, caladium and more.

our sunny bed out front.  linda sent me seeds for california wild flowers and i spread them over the bed.  they are sprouting like wild fire and so are the weeds from all of the rain.  now the dilemma-is it a weed or a wild flower???

do you remember the previous post about shiitake?  here is darry out back checking the logs for moisture=they cannot be allowed to dry out or there will not be any shiitake!

more adventures with bees

since we are new members, we attend the monthly meetings for the nashville area bee keepers as often as possible.  after many of the meetings, there is a field exercise that demonstrates vital procedures and methods of maintaining a hive.  walt is explaining an ongoing experiment he tried to hopefully prevent swarming. the experiment failed but we were able to see the inside of the hive and listen to an experienced bee keeper impart valuable information.

the hive looks healthy but it is obvious to walt that a swarm took place.

a close up of one of the frames.

we also had the chance to listen to jim talk about a top bar hive.  they are common in places like africa and the two main types of top bar hives are the kenyan and the tanzanian.  these are easy to set up but are not very practical for honey production, just for pollination purposes.

the name top bar comes from the fact that the box contains a set of bars that rest on the top of the box-no frames are used.  here jim is holding a bar that the bees have not yet begun to build comb on.

a shot of some of the bees in the hive, hard at work

jim took out a bar to show us the natural comb formations that the bees make.

here is a closeup of the comb.  the yellow lumps-or bullet shaped cells in the middle are actually drone cells (male bees), the darker yellow parts at the top are honey  and at the bottom, they are probably brood cells for workers (female bees)

we were lucky to have three bee keepers speak to us!  here is trevor opening up the new hives-these were set up last month and in my last post about bees, jim was installing the packages of bees to these hives.  trevor was looking to see how the bees are doing.  he was able to find the queen easily and so far, it appears to be going well.

trevor holding up one of the frames to inspect it for varroa mites.  have you noticed that these guys are obviously fearless when handling the bees?  all three of them did so with out protective gear, just a little smoke.

here is a close up of a frame from one of the new hives.  there are drone cells in the center area-they look like yellow bullet shaped mounds.  the darker cells are worker cells and the light ones at the top are capped cells of honey.