The First Bloom of the Season
When we first moved in here I planted 300 crocus bulbs (and some tulips, daffodils etc). The following year I ended up with only 1 crocus bloom thanks to the chipmunks around here. I never planted any more, so I usually only have 1 crocus that blooms.
My mom has tons of them that bloom in her gardens, they’re so lovely. She sent me a few photos of hers, they were blooming last week.
This year I spotted one blooming in the front flowerbed and I’m not sure where it came from. It’s right by a hydrangea I planted 2 years ago, so maybe it came in the pot with that. I was out taking photos and was there at the right time because I got to see one of our bees gathering some pollen. Talk about being in the right place at the right time.
I would love to plant more crocuses in my garden, I’m trying to figure out how to do with while keeping them safe from chipmunks. I’ve read you can plant the bulbs in baskets. I’ve had good luck sprinkling tulip bulbs with garlic to keep them from digging them up right away, but I’m thinking they’ll still eat them later, when the garlic washes away.
What’s the first thing to bloom in your garden? Anyone have any great tips on keeping chipmunks, moles & squirrels away from bulbs?
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Is That Darth Vader in the Garden?
Yesterday an old friend accompanied me into the garden while I was working.
No it wasn’t Darth Vader, although I got a great laugh when I took this photo and looked at the result. Mr Chiots is a HUGE Star Wars fan so Darth Vader was the first thing that popped into my mind. It wasn’t someone from the dark side (although he could surely deal swiftly with my mole problem), it was my trusty hat.
You may have noticed that I’m wearing it in just about every photo, unless it’s cold. I wear it to keep the sun off my face. I was treated for precancer on my face 6 years ago (when I was only 27 – YIKES). That’s mostly due to the fact that I have super light sensitive skin and I spent my childhood running around in the sun on the equator. As an adult I took to wearing this hat and I love it. I don’t like to wear sunscreen much because of the chemicals involved, so I wear a hat instead (although when I can’t wear a hat I use Colorescience Sunforgettable Mineral Sunscreen). I bought this hat a long time ago and loved it so much I bought several more.
I’m happy that the days are sunny enough to warrant a hat. I snapped this self-portrait of my reflection in the storm door, thought you’d like to see what the flowers, veggies, and insects always see around here, me in my hat with a camera in front of my face.
Do you wear and hat or sunscreen when you work in the garden?
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Checking our Beehives after a Long Winter
Every couple weeks throughout the winter, we put our ears up the side of our beehives and listening for that humming sounds that bees make keeping warm. There are a few steps you can take to help them survive the winter; you make sure you don’t take too much honey from the hive so they have enough to eat throughout the winter and you try to keep them dry. We didn’t take any honey from our hives last fall, trying to give them the best chance for survival.
If you were reading the blog last summer, you’ll remember that we split our hive. We were worried that the new hive, which was the smaller of the two, might not make it through the winter because of their lower population and less honey stored. Oddly enough all winter long they were the strongest hive, buzzing away quite loudly. When the weather warmed up they were the first bees to leave the hive.
Last week on a warm day (it was almost 70) we decided to check on the old hive, which we were worried hadn’t survived. We found a small cluster of bees and spotted the queen so they seem to have survived the winter, although they appear to be weak (although since this is the first time we’ve overwintered bees, we’re not sure). They still have a ton of honey left, so we’re hoping they make it through any more cold spells we have.
It’s good to see activity at the hives again and see bees flying around the garden on warm days. We noticed that they’re already bringing in pollen, most likely from the crocuses that are blooming and the pussywillows. We’re considering moving our hives to a different location where they’ll get more winter sun. That’s something we’ll be doing soon before they get too big this spring. We also found a great new resource with tips on overwintering bees and beekeeping in general, for those of you interested here’s the link. We’ll be ventilating our hives better this year and wrapping them in tar paper next winter.
Hopefully we’ll have a nice harvest of honey this summer from our hives. We may end up splitting one of our hives again if they’re both strong by early summer. It wasn’t much later than this last year that we got our first package of bees. If you’re interested in getting a hive now is the time to buy. Make sure you ask around to find a good reputable source.
Have you ever thought about getting bees for your gardens?
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Time Machine: What I was Doing 1 Year Ago
One of things I love about blogging that is encourages me to take tons of photos. I average at least 20 photos a day and some days more than 200 (thank goodness for digital). The best part of taking so many photos is that I have a pictorial journal of everything I’ve been doing for the past 10 years. Digital photos have a time stamp that tells you exactly what date and time the photo was taken – I love this feature. I was wondering yesterday what I was doing on March 15 of last year, so I opened up my photo program, here’s what I found:
I finished off a batch of maple syrup in the morning and put some peas in water to soak for planting the next day. These are the peas that the deer ate, so I never even got to eat any of these.
It was a beautiful spring day so we celebrated by going on a picnic with friends at a local trail. We enjoyed a good lunch and a short hike. The perfect way to enjoy a beautiful spring day besides!
After hiking we came home to get some work done in the garden. I carried 5 trays of seedlings up to enjoy the warm day on the front porch: 3 trays of onions, 1 tray of nice lettuce, and one tray of broccoli & cabbage. This year I barely have some onions that germinated this past week.
I also sifted some compost to amend the soil in the cold frame for a planting lettuce seedlings and beet seeds. This past week I did sow some spinach seeds in the cold frame after amending it with some compost.
These lovely lettuces were planted in the cold frame in the afternoon, they’re only a week or two away from harvesting small leaves for a salad. I don’t even have lettuce yet, except for a few mache plants that overwintered. These are the lettuce seeds that I started to choose the winner of the Freedom Seed contest.
I also started beet seeds in the cold frame. This past Friday and I started spinach in the cold frame.
I also took a ton of photos of the beautiful sunset we enjoyed that evening, what a perfect ending to a perfect day!
I have 165 photos from March 15, 2009. I do need to delete some of them, but I definitely have a great photo journal of what I was doing on this day last year, and what the cats were doing.
Do you remember what you were doing on March 15 last year?
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Rainy Days
“Anyone who says that sunshine brings happiness,
has never danced in the rain.”
~ Author Unknown
It’s been raining here since Friday evening, not that I mind. I’ve been baking up some more sourdough bread for the freezer and cooking up a few dishes to eat on this coming week. I managed to score some lovely mushrooms at the Local Roots Market and I paired them with a venison roast courtesy of Mr Chiot’s hunting last fall. What a delicious combination.
I’ll be baking up some squash today to make some butternut squash soup, butternut squash ravioli, squash pudding and some Barley with Butternut Squash & Preserved Lemons (remember those preserved lemons I made?). These will all be for the Real Food Challenge over at Not Dabbling, so I’ll be taking photos of everything for future blogposts. I can’t think of a better way to spend a rainy weekend than in the kitchen baking up some warmth and happiness.
What’s your favorite way to spend a rainy weekend?
