We were away for three weeks, so the garden was left mostly to it’s own devices. We had set up an automatic drip irrigation system, so were hoping for the best. We were pleased to come home and find that it was mostly successful. The whole thing has gone a bit wild but most things have survived. The zucchini especially was doing well and I have harvested 18 pounds worth already. We washed and grated them and froze them in two cup portions for use in soups, sauces, and ground meats this winter. I also may squish some into ice cube trays to make smaller blocks of it for smoothies and smaller portions of sauces.

We have also started to harvest potatoes, and so far have dug up about 13 pounds of them, with lots more still to go. We had roasted potatoes for supper tonight and they were absolutely delicious. I forget how much better they are than store bought. Even Kris mentioned it and he normally doesn’t notice differences, and Meredith ate quite a few and she normally does not like potatoes so that was a big endorsement for them. We need to figure out a good, rodent-proof method of storing them. In the past we’ve kept them in a cupboard and they’ve kept until we ate the last ones in December-ish, but I think we will have a lot more this year than we have before.

Strawberries, grapes, and asparagus:

Tomatoes and carrots:

Bolted lettuces. I need to dig these up and get some winter veggies in.

Corn! I’ve never had much luck with corn, so we will see if this year is any different…

Spaghetti squash. None of my other squash plants germinated and I was a bit busy having a baby so I never did get them reseeded. But this one spaghetti squash plant seems to be making up for it and has tons of squash on it already.

We also went for a walk around the block today and picked a full bucket of blackberries, about 6 pounds worth. It was some work washing them, laying them out on a flat sheet to dry and then freeze, and then bagging, but I think it will be worth it in the winter time. We go through a ton of frozen raspberries, but I’m hoping this year to substitute blackberries instead in a lot of things and save us some money.

What’s growing in your garden?

The closest one above has grapes, strawberries, and asparagus. Next to that is a tayberry and boysenberries, then four varieties of blueberry, then raspberries, and at the end some blackberries.

The rest of the garden is coming along too. Most stuff has been planted. You can see our potatoes have really taken off in the picture below. We have corn and peppers and tomatoes to plant in the bed on the left that’s still covered in plastic.

I’ve also planted a couple of elderberry trees. This black lace one and a green one.

Our cherry trees are starting to produce some little fruits. Our peach tree has leaf curl, which we knew was a potential problem. It’s in a sheltered spot, but obviously not sheltered enough. We are going to have to look into ways to treat/prevent it for next year.

Most of my garden is edible, or beneficial herbs and flowers, but I do love daisies so I’ve planted some osteospermum daisies. I love how pretty and bright these ones are!

Yesterday was Kris’ birthday, so he had taken it off as well, and we went down to Bees ‘n’ Glass to pick up the rest of the supplies we need. Unfortunately they were out of veils, but we got gloves for Kris and I, and a whole bee suit for Meredith, as well as a hive tool and another used honey super, with drawn comb. The only other place in town we know of that sells bee supplies was also out of veils, so we will just have to go slow for now. Kris wasn’t too concerned since he doesn’t have hair for them to get caught up in. We decided rather than a smoker we will start out trying to use just a mild sugar water solution in a spritzer as needed, as it is less stressful on the bees but still works to calm them.

Kris and Meredith did a hive check today and it went well, though Kris said it was a bit nerve wracking with the bees flying around his face. No one got stung though. Everything seems to be moving along as it should, with the bees making honey in the top box and the eggs and brood remaining in the bottom two boxes.

It’s neat to just sit near the hive and watch the bees go in and out. You can see the pollen on their back legs as they return to the hive after gathering.

Fiona is of course wanting to try it out as well. The suit is still a tad big on her though!

We have talked about getting honey bees pretty much since we moved here. Last spring we almost got some but then decided we would wait until this year instead. Since then, we’ve been casually reading about them, talking to local beekeepers, and just trying to build up some information. Then we had a chance to tour an apiary (Bees & Glass) with a local home learning group, so Meredith, Fiona, and I trooped out to go learn about them. Kris told us to make sure to ask lots of questions about getting them ourselves.

It was kind of amazing to see. The bees were very calm and he moved them around (gently) with his bare hands to show us the brood and the honey and the pollen. He found the queen (pictured above) and all the kids gathered close to see. Meredith had been a little worried about being so close to them, but she grew comfortable very quickly and was soon standing near the front asking questions and making sure she saw everything.

Meredith even got to hold a drone. She was fascinated. We sampled some honey and they showed us a bee suit (and even sell a kid-sized one). After the official tour was over, we stuck around and asked even more questions. It’s obvious I’m pregnant, and she said I’d want to make sure Kris was up for checking the hive every week even if I wasn’t. I told her the days we are going to be away this summer and she said by then the hive should be okay to be left alone for 2-3 weeks. Meredith and I went home buzzing with excitement and telling Kris all about it. He was pretty excited too and said he would have no problem doing most of the care of it this year.

I posted on Facebook asking for more information, revisited some of the bee blogs and sites I have bookmarked, got some books from the library, and Friday called her up to ask for names of local breeders, thinking that we’d order some to pick up in late May. Turns out she had just found out about one wanting to downsize and selling off a few hives for really cheap. She gave me his number, and he told us he’d been inundated with calls and couldn’t hold them, so we would have to get them this weekend if we wanted them. I called Marilyn back up, and she said if we could find a place for them and had a stand, that we should go for it and she could come out on Monday and have a look at them with us and help us figure out what equipment we would need and show us a few things in person on handling them. We’ve had a place picked out pretty much since we seriously discussed it last year, so that was easy, and Kris hammered together a stand with some scrap wood, then left at 6am Sunday to go and pick them up.

They spent most of the day flying around the hive. It was neat to see the orientation flying they were doing in person, since I’ve only read about it previously. We made sure they had a water source nearby and otherwise mostly left them completely alone.

When we went out to check on them in the afternoon, one landed on my arm. I admit I was a little nervous, but it was also really neat to see one up close. The girls and I had a look at her and then she flew off to join the rest of the bees. I’m hoping that they will do okay. I’ve read that it is harder for a beginner to start with an established hive since the colony is bigger and needs more maintenance than a new, smaller one. But I think we’re up for it. And we might even get honey this year. Though to be honest, even if we don’t having them around to pollinate our trees and veggies and everything else is actually the main reason we wanted them. We do have mason bees already but only a really small house of them. I’m excited to see what Marilyn has to say about them tomorrow.

Our trees and berry bushes from last year are all starting to bud or bloom and seem to be doing really well so far. We have bought more to plant this year. We made a new bed along our fence and plan to extend it along the entire length of the fence. It will be mostly for berry bushes and companion perennials. The part we’ve done so far has grapes, asparagus, and strawberries.

We have planted tons of strawberries this year. We had lots last year too, but have added to them again this year. We’ve also planted more raspberry canes. Last year we ate most of our berries as fast as they ripened, and ended up buying local berries to freeze for the winter. (We still have some of the berries we froze, and it’s been really great having such fresh-tasting fruit all winter!) We also have new boysenberry, blackberry, and more blueberry bushes for this year.

We’ve added a few extra beds to our annual vegetable garden area as well. I planted peas before we did so, so now the peas are in front of the new sections, but none of the peas I planted this year are particularly tall growing varieties so I’m not overly concerned.

We’ve been preparing the beds since February, and so they have manure and fertilizer and compost, depending on what we had decided to plant in each one. A few of the ones which won’t be planted until May we sowed some green manures in and will just let that grow until closer to when we need the beds ready. The wooden frames standing up in the picture above are pea trellises Kris built. They are overkill for the pea varieties we will have this year but will be nice if we do taller ones another year. I’m thinking of maybe adapting them for tomatoes if the peas are done being harvested in time.

Our potatoes are all planted. I dug trenches this year, and will slowly fill them in as the potatoes grow.

Meredith has taken a huge interest in the garden this year, especially in regards to herbs and medicinal plants. She’s been reading some books about herb fairies, and loves them. One of the fairies is Rosa, who uses rose hips medicinally and for nutrition. We’ve planted a couple of rose bushes at her request.

She also has her own bed in our garden, and wanted to plant lots of peas, a few potatoes, and some flowers and herbs. It’s mostly planted now, though there are a few things that will need to go in once it’s a bit warmer.

And last but not least, Kris built an awesome new compost bin for us. So much bigger and more practical than our old one. The boards in front can all come off, one at a time, to make it easy to shovel stuff in and out.

I can’t wait to see how everything grows. This is such a fun time of year!

Other plans include a better compost system. We’re hoping to build one out of pallets with three compartments, so one can be resting, one can be for adding to, and one can be empty for turning into. And a priority this year is some sort of watering system, as I think that was the biggest downfall of our garden last year. And we will be away for probably two weeks or maybe a bit longer this summer right in July/August, so will need some way to know it’s being watered while we’re gone!

I got some soil block makers for Christmas this year, so that is another new thing we are trying. So far, I really like them. They seem really small to me (I have the 2” size which from reading has been suggested as enough for the majority of plants), but time will tell. I have planted some early veggies in the first batch of them I made, mostly just to test them out and see how they work. So far most things have sprouted so that is a good sign at least!

The tall green ones in the pictures above are peas. In the pots on the left are peppers, as I have read they actually like to be root bound so I wasn’t sure the soil blocks were the best idea for them. They did terribly last year but we have added a few new beds this year so I have room to try again. I also have chives, onions, strawberries, fennel, lavender, and catnip sprouting in the blocks. The shelf below the one with the light is just empty seed blocks. The weather was great and the soil mixture was perfect so I figured I might as well make a bunch and I’ve just been keeping them moist enough to keep their shape. I’ll likely plant some more early stuff this week, and at some point this month will be planting broccoli and cauliflower and a few other things in the rest.

I’ll definitely need more too but by then the peas will be outside I hope so I’ll have more room. I’ve started hardening them off already and hoping to get them into the garden with some cover maybe by the weekend. I may need another light on another shelf this year though. I almost ran out of space last year and now I have even more garden space outside.

The picture above is from last week. They’re at least twice as big as that already now. I’ve never started peas indoors before, so we will see how they do. I started some outside too at the same time, but last I checked those ones hadn’t sprouted yet.

There are six in total this time.

This little guy is about half the size of the rest and has fuzzy feet, so I assume our Silkie rooster has managed to fertilize some of our eggs finally. There is one other with fuzzy feet too (though he’s bigger, so obviously got the hen’s size). The rest would be Ameraucana crosses from our other rooster.

The girls like the little yellow one the best. I think because that’s classically what they look like in their stories and such. (The classic white Leghorn hen starts out as a yellow chick.)

It will be neat to watch them grow and see how they feather out. I love baby chicks!

The kids were thrilled (and tired!)

It took about a yard and a half of sand to fill it this much! They won’t run out any time soon though. We still need to get seats and build little diggers for it too.

The swing set is a little wobbly still. We are going to anchor it to the trees somehow and then it should be perfect.

There is room for a third swing on there. Meredith wants one she can stand up on. We need to move the see saw and the trampoline down to this area, and it will be done for now. Though there is still lots to do (a pirate ship play house, a tree house, some balancing equipment, a rope swing of some sort, etc).

Most of the work was actually spent leveling and clearing the ground where we put it. While we were working, the ducks came waddling down to see what we were up to. (They have been outside free ranging with the hens.) They are so sweet and friendly! They look pretty funny right now, half feathered out. Liitle teenager ducks. We were finding lots of worms while we were digging and they were thrilled to receive most of the bounty from us.

When we were done putting the sandbox together, we stapled thick landscape cloth to the bottom. We don’t have much sand yet. Just a little bag left over from when we filled their small sandbox. We dumped that in anyway so they would have something to play with and they had a blast with it.

It costs $40 to have something delivered here from the local gravel mart, so we’re hoping to find a friend or someone on one of the used sites willing to do it a bit cheaper, since the sand itself will end up being less than $20. Our plan is to add seats to two corners of the sandbox, and little handmade ride-on digger toys to the other two seats.

Then at some point we will move the trampoline and seesaw down there, and we want to build a tree house and maybe a pirate ship playhouse we have plans for. In the background of that last picture you can see the swing set we’ve built. We just need at least one more person to help us put it together. Over time, we hope to add some natural log blocks, maybe a rope swing or tire swing, some sort of balancing apparatus, and probably more. Hopefully it will all get done while they’re still young enough to enjoy it!

They’ve been growing! (My real camera is going into the repair shop tomorrow, yay!)

This is the same five in the same box as above that they only took up a tiny corner of. Now they barely all fit inside it! They love to swim. They’ve graduated from the little paint tray to our bath tub now though. In the video, you can see a couple of them playing with the running water on the right.

Our chicks are doing well too. The one hen ended up hatching out five babies. I believe they are two Easter Eggers, two Lavender Orpington/Ameraucana crosses (so basically Easter Eggers too, I think, but I know the exact breeds), and one Marans. They were out free-ranging with the other hens the other day and for the most part it went really well. None of the other hens bothered them at all, even when they ventured out and were wandering around amongst them.

The other hen only hatched out two, one Silkie and one Belgian D’Uccle. I was really hoping for more Silkies, as I’d like at least two hens to keep our Silkie rooster company and for them all to keep each other warm in the winter. I haven’t got any good pictures of them unfortunately, so I’ll post some later.