Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Annoying the Bees

I'm hoping to plant sweet potato slips at the beginning of June. The beds are currently occupied. One is occupied by my baby Asian greens. The white stemmed bok choy was starting to bolt so I picked them all. The rest will be picked before the end of next week. But the big work was pulling down the huge mass of flowering kale. I left it as long as I did, not because I'm saving seed, but because I wanted to let the bees have them. They nicely left the ones I was working on until the last one. Then I had a swarm of bees trying to harvest while I was trying to take the plant out. They really didn't want to give up.

But now my cilantro is in full bloom. Well right now it is in full bow. The rain knocked it down. I have supports on both sides holding it up, but the string was put in way too low before the flower stalks were sent up. Once it dries off a bit, I'll help them back up.

I was going to just do half the chore as it was getting hot and muggy out. But I just did it. I put a foot of kale stems and flowers into the compost bin. I should have put some leaves between the green waste but wasn't really thinking. And I'm not hauling it out now, so hopefully the stems have enough carbon so it won't get smally. The bed was raked over and the sticks were put on to keep the cats from playing in the dirt. I'm not fond of their presents.

And speaking of compost. I've finally started dealing with my compost pile. We have a black plastic bin to hold the kitchen waste. It has hardware cloth on the bottom so the rodents can't get in. Normal garden waste just goes into the pallet compost pile. The kitchen bin hadn't been emptied since last fall. It gets smelly after a while since it doesn't get turned. It can happen because there is too much nitrogen (though we do add leaves when we add the kitchen waste) or like this time, it was too wet. So I turned it onto my pallet compost pile and mixed in some dry leaves. Everything smells much better now.

I didn't get out into the garden yesterday as it wouldn't quit raining, and when I finally got out this morning. I found the beans were all up. There were some gaps in the Masai green beans. So I reseeded a small section.

Sadly the corn is only up spottily. I planted 20 spots in corn (three seeds per spot to be thinned to the best plant), but only about nine were up and growing. So I reseeded that section.

And since it was time to plant the next section of corn I did that today too. I prepared one whole 4'x8' bed. The first five feet were planted in corn. Then the end was planted in Waltham butternut squash. The end of the other section of corn was planted in Tetsukabuto squash. I've never grown Tetsukabuto. It is a hybrid that needs a C. moschata pollinator. The Waltham is C. moschata. I really only grow them because that genus is resistant to the vine borer. It is the only way I've found to get ripe winter squash around here consistently. So the two plants are on either ends of a full 4'x16' bed. With two sections of corn in between. I'm hoping to let the squash wander below the corn.

I'm really looking forward to the pea crop this year. I have both snap peas and snow peas, but to be honest I only really love the snap peas. I'm not sure why I grow the snow peas at all anymore. Maybe next year I won't.

And the favas are blooming too. So much anticipation.

13 comments:

  1. Wow! You worked hard in the garden. I hope your allergies are better now.

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  2. Butternuts are the only squash that I can rely on that will not get the borer. I'll have to try that Tetsukabotu, that looks like a really nice squash. They are predicting temps in the 90's this weekend in the midwest, and my sugar snap peas are head high and flowering. Maybe I'll get a few.

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  3. I worry a wee bit about bees because my sister is allergic to them, and I've never been stung, so I don't know if I am or not. I don't freak out or anything, though. But bees wanting that last flowering kale while I was digging it up might make me more than a bit nervous!

    I love seeing your garden and not just its harvest!

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    1. As long as you aren't near their hive, bees are incredibly peaceful. I practically pet the bees in my garden. They don't mind having me close or doing things. I often have my face in something that has bees all over it. I have been stung. Only once by a bee. But it was a very tiny bee, about a centimeter long, and it got stuck in my hair. And there are lots of kinds of bees in my garden. Many species. Now if I lived where honey bees have cross bred with the African bees I might have another opinion about them.

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  4. Everything is growing really well for you. I have some gaps in my beans to but have not got out there and reseeded yet. I need to.

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  5. everything looking very nice! i've planted both snap and snow peas as well but like snap for snacking. my hubby loves snow in stir-fry so had to plant them for him :)

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  6. I also used to grow snow peas, but don't like them as much as the snap and shelling, so this year I finally gave them up! I would like to try favas next year. I wish I had flowering cilantro right now, I would love to harvest some of the fresh green seed, it will be a while for me.

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  7. You really dug in there and got a lot done! I know what you mean about the bees. They are crazy for flowering brassicas. Hopefully they'll switch their attention to the cilantro. I envy you your rain. . .

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  8. Can you add a Twitter link to the bottom of your posts so I can more easily share them? Thanks.

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    1. Ok did that. Hopefully it is understandable. I put in the gadget that lets you share on a lot of the social sites.

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  9. Our peas are flowering as well. Yesterday there was an actual pea pod on it. Although now I cant recall if it was alaskan or snap.... I thought it was the english shelling peas but it looks just like a snap to me.

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  10. This has reminded me that I need to turn my compost, I keep smelling it when I'm out doing something else but then I forget and the problem is only getting worse.

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  11. oh my peas already!!! Mine are still in a box...LOL

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