Harvest of Onion and Garlic

 It was great to visit with family this last week! I got the bestest Daddy and Momma! 

Dad gently helped me realize that I had more time to grow my hot weather crops, so the rest of the pink eye purple hull cowpeas Daddy gave me will be going in to the 8ft by 4 ft beds in the back yard

And the remaining gifted strait neck yellow squash seeds will be put in the 4 ft by 4 ft bed in front of the house.

I also picked the onion and garlic I had growing in the front middle bed, as I learned that they are as big as they are going to get. Daddy's a good teacher! 

This fall I am going to be running cabbage and carrots then turnip and carrots in 2 of the 8 by 4 boxes in the back yard. With beets in the 3rd 8 by 4 box. I don't think I am going to run anything in the front boxes as they have been going strait for 2 years now.

Harvest Time - Collard and Peas

It's the best time of a garden! Harvest!

Over the last week or so I have been harvesting from my garden purple hull peas and collards.

Collards: 2 Pounds Frozen in Vacuum Packs

Prior picking of purple hull peas got me 2/3 cups

Final Picking of purple hull peas got me about 1 1/3 cup

Bees! Update

 The bees have been castles to 3 boxes now and going strong. The front entrance has been opened up so they have more space there. Also had to change out one box due to the wood rotting out, but it was/is old equipment from my bee mentor.

Plums! and a Castle or 2

 I HAVE PLUMS! They are on the newest plum tree, but I HAVE 6 PLUMS!

Everyone seems to be in agreement that these are black berries and I have quite a bit of them as well.

The Bees are doing great as well. I just put a "castle" on them. All that means is I added a box with frames. I am currently using 8 frame boxes. It still surprises me how docile these bees are; guess I did the right thing in making solid bottoms with limited openings. Didn't even need to use smoke to add the box. The boxes on top are a means to assist the hive with not getting too hot from the sun. Allowing some shade as well as air flow.

Finally got the fence along the front of the house down as well. All that is left are the fence posts and to put up another fence or just leave it without a fence.... decisions.

Move a little there, Move a little here

 but First ....

A picture of how the new 4ft by 8ft garden is doing.

Around the outside/boarder is garlic and onion and marigold.

On the left is purple hull peas.

The middle is 3 bell pepper plants

And while I do not have a picture of them, the 2 new packages of bees seem to be doing quite well for themselves.

The front yard had a mishmash of fencing. As seen below there was wire fence then chain link fencing.

It has taken a while, but first the wire fencing came down and now the chain link fence is down. All that is left is to take down the fence posts.

Also from left to right planted (look for red-ish rings):

2 plum trees and 2 plumcot trees

The plumcot farthest away in the picture I also dug up and put in some good dirt.

Plums and Collards Oh My!

 One of the Collard plants appeared to have developed a disease/pest issue, so I chose to take it down. Don't worry though, as long as it was a healthy plant I'll get 3 to 4 branches that will sprout off it and start producing leaves for me again.

Here I go putting cart before horse, maybe. 

Couple that with receiving a gift card from the reward points on my credit card and I end up bringing home a plum tree from the store. The smallest and ironically the plumcot I have had the longest died over the winter, so I replaced it with the plum. I needed another variety of plumcot to fertilize the them and thus produce fruit, so rather than buying another plumcot, a species  I have not had much luck with, or a new species. . . well you can see what won.

Once I started digging I wanted to keep going, so next thing you know I have cleared out all the grass from between the new plum and the plumcot. My volunteer rose and the sweet mint got put in that space for now.

Buzz Buzz Bees and Wetness

 Thursday this last week I got in 2 more packages of bees. They are installed in their hives with the hard bottoms I created and only about a 3/4 inch opening. So Far it seems to be working very well.

I also got some experience in wood working by helping build a potting table for a friend's birthday.

Ran some water down to the new garden.

Got the Tomato Starts in the original garden area ... I have no hope for them they are very delicate. While I was doing this the 1 Cabbage head that I harvested the week before had its stem trying to regrow.

And last but not least the Pepper Plant Starts got put in the new garden and the water system tested.

I now have all the supplies I need to also run water to the Plumcot trees and re-do the watering system to the original garden so that I can weed and mow up there much easier.

New Bee Box Bottoms

Since the bees almost made it though the winter and had suffered through quite a few pests last year that could get through the screen bottoms I decided to make solid bottoms for the boxes.

I had to connivence the queen to give up her throne so that I could make my new bee box bottom.

She allowed me her space to start working on the bee box bottom.

They aren't the prettiest, but after some wax to close up the cracks they are ready to go.

 

Spring is Here! Seedling Watch and the Addition of 32 Square Feet of Grow Space

 Back in February I started some pepper and tomato seeds here is a look at how they are doing.

February 16,2022 planted

I used the moss rounds under soil as an experiment; figuring that the moss was good at staying damp it would help regulate the water retention for the seeds.

February 22, 2022 - The Tomatoes are pushing thru

February 26, 2022 - One of the spots with Pepper seeds is sprouting

Today I have finished, well mostly, 32 square feet of more growing space. Fortunately for me one of my local home improvement stores was running a special on dirt so it ended up costing me a bit less than it normally would have.

First up is where I put down some weed barrier cloth then cardboard. Thank you again Daddy and Mommy for the wonderful gift! The folks sent me some Christmas gifts and most of the boxes used for this part of the construction are from those gifts. I made sure to minimize the overlapping of the cardboard as its purpose is to deter the grass and other pants in the yard from growing into the garden bed; after all that soil is tasty to them. But cardboard can cause drainage problems as well, hence the minimizing the overlap. The weed barrier cloth is partly for keeping weeds out, but mostly cause it is porous, but can contain the dirt. The hopes with this set up is that it will help the bed retain some of its water, reducing the need for watering, and keep the other plants out. I am being stingy with the expensive dirt.

The bed half full.

And We Are DONE! - ish

I am still wanting to get some mulch on top of the dirt, but there you have it one 32 square foot bed ready for plants. And yes there are 2 different types of dirt in this bed it is not the light or your eyes playing with you.

Total Cost for this one bed: $231.45 (without tax cause I have other things on the receipts not related)

• $3.33 = 1/3 of a box of screws 
• $83.64 = Wood 2 inch x 12 inch x 8 foot 
• $64.56 = 1/2 the dirt Compost 
• $79.92 = 1/2 the dirt