after several attempts, i believe i have 3 tea trees growing:
the flower bed is filling in. i weeded and mulched it a few days ago so hopefully, the flowers will take over so i won't have to weed anymore.
i used to hate flowers/growing them because they were useless. well, i've changed my tune. i love the muted pansy colors. and, as a bonus, they are edible (most of my flowers are edible or serve some purpose even if it's to attract hummingbirds, bees and butterflies).
the greenhouse is filling with plants for the festival this weekend. i need to get a lot more potted up in the next 1-2 days.
ok, at this point, i'm feeling like a failure for this but some success is better than none at all. out of 36 eggs, 2 hatched and 1 lived. and, this live one has something weird on its butt. in addition to the normal hole, it has what looks like a 2nd hole with a mole-like growth. i tried to photograph it w/o success.
another pseudo success...tiny zucchini plants are flowering.
out of a packet of seeds, i ended up getting 2 lyre leafed sage plants (one is shown on the right side). out of another packet of seeds, 3 white sage (the plants on the left). another pseudo success.
however, mugwort is king. this plant came from 1 tiny plant last year. i am still yanking seedlings left and right from the ground. they keep sprouting up. this plant is about 6' tall at this point and still growing. to the right of it is silver sage in the middle (squeezed in there) and skullcap on the right. unable to see is chamomile and fennel starts in the front. on the left of mugwort, in the front is a huge fennel plant from last year. behind skullcap is horehound, the bees LOVE it. in the far back ground is sunchoke city.
and, something in the greenhouse growing: on the left, my namesake, tansy. on the right, spilanthes.
dinner 1 - 25. they kept coming at me. if i had been in there with them, they probably would have eaten me. savages!
cinnamon, the hopefully reformed self sucker
the boys...rue and comfrey
the first hive...see all the bees outside? tabitha thinks they are hot and cooling themselves off. i hope she's right!
this is the new hive on the left. greg is building a platform for them this weekend.
we found what i think are stinkhorns in our yard today. it's very phallic, isn't it? complete with an egg sack at the base and all that brown slimy stuff at the top??? squirted out of it when my daughter touched it:
Hi!
ReplyDeleteI just saw your blog... sorry that you think your veggie garden isn't doing too well, but the pictures you posted look great and your effort to grow naturally is really commendable! I thought you might be interested in some info about organic farming and gardening.
The Rodale Institute(www.rodaleinstitute.org), a leader in organic living
and thinking, is reaching out to community members to provide them with research and information.
Please go to hero-farmers.org or e-mail me back at kshah@gold-group.com if you want more info!
Tansy, not to scare you, but keep an eye on those bees. It can be a sign of swarming. I almost left a comment of on Karl's blog to do the same because their's are doing the same. This is swarming season (as you know!!) I'm certainly no expert, but every resource I have says this is the first sign. They suggest putting a window screen in front of the hole until you get another super on it (this was only in one source though so I really don't know how reliable that advice is). It has gone from cool to HOT fast so maybe Tabitha is right on, but I would still keep my eye towards on them in case they swarm in the next few days. it won't be at night (probably late morning through evening).
ReplyDeleteI hope they don't!!
Oh, and I think you are right on the fungus (both it is VERY phallic :-) and I believe it is a stinkhorn too. I was just reading about those today at work. How weird!!
ReplyDeleteHey, Tansy. Your pictures are great. You have so many "irons in the fire"... sheesh, not having a few things work out the way you wish is to be expected!
ReplyDeleteI sure am amazed at how your (and Karl's) broilers have grown. Wow, makes me realize that I'll need to have a decent chicken tractor next spring. :)
You have lots of wonderful things growing. Always look on the bright side of life (as if you needed to hear that). :)
Ron
Tansy, I think your plants look great, and I like the sun in the photos! We need some.
ReplyDeleteYour bee post makes me miss my bees - we have too many bears. I haven't the gumption to start again.
Here's an old saying, "A swarm in May is worth a ton of hay, a swarm in June isn't worth a tune" I don't know if this is true of not, we picked up swarms in June and they did really well...
roflmao
ReplyDeleteOMG, that last photo almost had me spitting coffee on my laptop. Kinda phallic? You think so? Tsk, tsk: where is your mind?
Our hens didn't set worth a damn, and the turkey hen who was setting ended up eating all her eggs, I think. *sigh* We're wondering if something has been visiting them at night and spooking them.
On a positive note, our geese seem to be diligently setting, so maybe we'll have some goslings soon.
As far as bees, I just screened inner covers on mine to help dissipate the heat a bit. If you don't have some, that might really help. We're supposed to be in the 90's for the next week. Ugh.
Wow, very strange. I do think very phallic! Anywho...you can also offset the cover on your hive ever so slightly so air ventillates out the crack...as we know heat rises...soooo, offset in high heat is the name of the game. :o)
ReplyDelete