My head hurts from all the online reading I’ve done on honeybees in the past few weeks. Every couple days I discover a new website and explore every corner of it. I’ll provide links to the more informative websites once I’ve committed to starting my own colony.
These Backwards Beekeepers videos are what go me interested in the first place, especially this video about harvesting the honey (I posted it before, but I’m throwing in a few more to go with it):
I’ve been looking into starting up a honeybee hive here in St. John’s, either in my own backyard (which is already getting crowded with raised beds), somewhere in the field behind my shed (if I think it’s safe enough that the neighbourhood kids won’t destroy the hive), in a friend’s large enclosed backyard a few houses down from us, or maybe even on the roof of my shed if I can build a platform to create a secure flat surface (that’s a long shot). I’m learning as much as I can every day (there’s a lot to know) and I’m meeting up with a local bee keeper in mid-April to learn more. So I might be able to get a hive started this year.
In the meantime, here’s a video of a guy starting a new hive with a 3-pound mail-order package of bees and a queen — the typical method of starting a new hive. (Heads-up: There’s wind and noise in some portions of the video.)
Hopefully I’ll write another post in April about my first honeybee hive.
Via Central Beekeepers Alliance.
We just finished drawing a map for our 8 x 8 foot raised garden bed and the 4 x 8 foot bed we plan to build. Stand back and prepare to be dazzled, because this is high tech stuff we’re talking about.
We decided to nearly double the amount of peas and carrots from last year because they’re the most fun to pick and eat right there on the spot. They’re delicious. We also doubled the space for our zucchinis (or summer squash) because it’s so impressive to watch it grow into a huge plant and continually produce zucchinis. We reduced the space for beans and we’re not growing garlic. New veggies for this year are celery and broccoli.
It took a while to decide what to plant and where to plant it because some vegetables get so big they grow over other plants and block their sun; certain parts of the 8 x 8 bed don’t get any morning sun; and some vegetables grow best in the corners or on the sides where they can fall outside the bed frame. So it took a bit of juggling, but we got it. (UPDATE: We didn’t even know it, but all that juggling is part of the practice of intercropping.) We’ll see how well we stick to the plan come early June when the last of the seedlings go in the ground after the last frost. (Last frost in St. John’s, Newfoundland, is June 2nd.)
We tried using the Online Garden Mapping Tool to create our map, but it doesn’t allow for an 8 x 8 configuration; some of its estimates were a bit optimistic; and it was quicker and easier to just map out the garden by hand. Still, it’s not bad for people starting up their first garden beds. This is only our second year, but we’re already relying mostly on our practical experience from last year.
We decided to pass on the potato tower this year, because filling it up with new good soil is too expensive; it requires more work than anything else; and it still might fail miserably. We plan to use its old frame to build two 3 x 3 raised beds instead. We’ll probably get twice as many potatoes that way. It’s a safer bet.
We might also build a small raised bed just for herbs, and of course we’ll grow as much as we can around the yard in various containers. I hope it’s a good year.
Next on the list: Start some of our indoor transplants so they’re ready for planting in about 10 weeks.
Here’s a slideshow of our 2009 garden bed from 3 different angles. There are better photos of the garden, but these are the only ones we happened to take from corner angles and a middle angle, so it plays out in time-lapse fashion. The whole things takes about a minute and a half. (UPDATE: Picasa slideshows don’t progress automatically anymore, at least not today. You may have to manually click through to view each photo.)
Related posts: How to Build a Raised Garden Bed, Filling a Raised Garden Bed and Garden Update (Video).
If you have a raised garden bed like we do, you probably map out on a grid everything you’re going to plant before you plant it. Maybe you draw it out on a piece of paper like we did last year. And you know what? There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s a simple low-tech method that works.
But if you’re a beginner and you want to get fancy and let a computer do all the calculations for you, check out this free online Garden Planner. It’s provided by a retail outfit that sells stuff you can build yourself for much less cost, but they offer all kinds of sensible advice for growing veggies in a raised garden bed, and they have this nifty little online garden mapping tool.
Read on . . . »
Here’s something I don’t have a clue about, but even if I had half a clue, it’s something I’d like to try. I know there are beekeepers in Newfoundland. There have to be because that guy who sells me fresh honey at the farmer’s market must get his honey somewhere. Setting up a small honey bee colony seems like a real Zen kind of thing, and I love fresh honey. Even if I only got a couple bottles of honey a year, who cares? I bet it would be fantastic. Check it out:
Via Living the Frugal Life and Backwards Beekeepers.
I found what might be a potato tower success story. (It might also be a potato box or potato bin success story. As far as I know, I came up with the term potato tower, but it’s the kind of phrase anyone could come up with, so I’m probably not the first. Most people seem to call them potato bins. That’s not nearly as cool as potato tower, though, is it? I didn’t think so.) Anyhow, Jaki over at Farming At Country Dreams [a site which no longer exists] managed to grow about 25 pounds of Yukon Golds in her potato tower. That’s not great, but it’s the best harvest from a potato tower I’ve found evidence for so far.
I would have liked to have seen photos of the potatoes in the tower as she was harvesting them so I could actually see how high they grew, and links to her online references would have been helpful too, but otherwise Jaki’s post is very detailed, showing how the whole project went every step of the way, from building the tower to harvesting the potatoes.
I found something in Jaki’s post that might explain why potatoes didn’t develop above the first level of my potato tower. Everybody pay attention now because this might be the magic trick that makes the potato tower work. Jaki got some of her info from the Gardening with Ciscoe web site. Let’s hope it’s correct. She says:
Read on . . . »
Latest Comments