What did you do in the garden today?

[BirdsBeesTrees]

I hadn't ever seen honeybees in my yard, so when I decided to start a small orchard in a designated place in my yard, I knew I would have to start beekeeping.
My dad had honeybees for a short time before they abandoned the hive for some unknown reason. My mom's grandma was a beekeeper as well, but she was long passed.
So, I started with beekeeping classes and got a mentor and bee friends in the process. I joined the Iowa Honey Producers Association and helped sell bee products while informing the public about honeybees at the Iowa State Fair.

 

[WthrLady]

Thousands of honey bees here OC my good across the way neighbor has 12 hives so....they come to my place to eat

 

[TJAnonymous]

This was a topic on the noon news. I looked it up and the best sign I could find was to look for a yellow area where it was on the ground. If the area is white, it's not ripe yet.

I would need an expert to thump a dozen and explain the differences in the sound for me to try that method.

I didn't see any honeybees last year, but saw lots of bumbles and other bee-ish insects with pollen baskets on their legs.

Wanting to have more pollinators is the other reason we got a hive this year. The first reason being the honey. Which we won't get until next year, but so it goes. (You leave the honey the first year for the bees to live on through the winter.) It took a few years to get asparagus too.

This watermelon (Shining Light variety) was grown on a vertical trellis so it never touched the ground. It's the right size and seemed like a hollow thunk when you tap on it but I agree with you... Would be helpful if I had an expert show me, especially since I'm hearing impaired... I haven't cut into it yet. Maybe tomorrow...

 

[TJAnonymous]

I hadn't ever seen honeybees in my yard, so when I decided to start a small orchard in a designated place in my yard, I knew I would have to start beekeeping.
My dad had honeybees for a short time before they abandoned the hive for some unknown reason. My mom's grandma was a beekeeper as well, but she was long passed.
So, I started with beekeeping classes and got a mentor and bee friends in the process. I joined the Iowa Honey Producers Association and helped sell bee products while informing the public about honeybees at the Iowa State Fair.

I think my great grandparents and my grandmother used to keep bees. They ran an orchard during the great Depression and I found old beekeeper suit and smoke can in the old smokehouse. While I would absolutely love to have bees, I simply don't have the time or money to learn right now. Too many other things going on. It is something I hope to do in the future, God willing.

 

[karenerwin]

I watered my home garden, the farm garden and the church garden and got sunburned despite having used sunscreen. Apparently I did not apply it very well and should have reapplied as well.

My helper at the church garden.

My helper at the farm garden. He even helped me look for and smash squash bug eggs.

 

[chickengr]

Amazing, after 72 hours sInce our first chick hatched, the last one that we thought was dead in the egg, is still alive.
Coming home from work last night, it was 48 hours since there was any activity in the incubator, so I assumed the last few eggs were all dead and shut it off...but two hours later, I was hearing loud chirping, thought it was from the 7 babies in their brooder, checked on them and they looked at me like I was crazy. Then I realized the chirping was coming from the incubator!
The last tiny chick was still trying hard to hatch - kicking its legs to get out of the sheIl. I know we're not supposed to help them, but by this time the shell and membrane was dried-out and stuck to the chick, so I gently broke the shell into pieces and took a washcloth with warm water to rinse off all the stuck membrane. I figured, if we do nothing at all, it will die for sure, but if I gently try, at least it might have a small chance.
I had to rinse it in warm water to detach all the sticky shells and membrane, then gave it few cc's of chick booster from a syringe (and it was able to drink) then put it back in the incubator with some food and water. It was really weak, could barely hold its head up or get its legs under it to walk.
Tonight (24 hours later) the chick was able to stand up and stagger around, though still weak and not very active. So I took it out of the incubator and put it in a small container with chick-booster water and food, next to the healthy chicks' brooder, with a heat-mat and able to share the big chicks' heat lamp. It's still not very strong, but able to walk better, eat food and drink chick-booster water, and starting to hold its head up while staggering around.
Still not sure if it will survive, but we hope it does and we're doing our best.

give your chick some sesame seeds. to the others as well.

 

[Acre4Me]

Harvested a small watermelon yesterday too... I'm never quite sure if they are ripe or not. I tapped it and it felt hollow. Oh well, deed is done now so we'll find out soon enough!

I’ve also read that watermelons are ripe when the tendril nearest the melon is dried up or nearly so.

Getting heavy rain now. I watched a video of a guy growing red spinach and Egyptian spinach. Warm weather substitute. I need to learn more about them.

We are growing “orach” which is a relative of spinach, and tastes like spinach and is completely red. The red plants in pic are orach. Wonder if it’s the same as in the video.

 

[Sueby]

We've butchered 3 ducks in the past. DH cooked/grilled all of them. They were all 3 over done so I will probably cook it myself this time. I don't have a recipe so if you have a recommendation I'm all ears!

This is the recipe I used, though I didn't quite use the ingredients it called for (no fig, pear & potato, used herbs & lemon), but the cooking method was perfect.
https://www.tastingtable.com/642554/crispy-roast-duck-recipe/

 

[Sueby]

I would love to have bees, but we just have too many bears around. I'd def need electric & feel like I might be attracting them to the chickens by having them & there is no way for me to do electric around the chickens.

 

[jerryse]

I’ve also read that watermelons are ripe when the tendril nearest the melon is dried up or nearly so.




We are growing “orach” which is a relative of spinach, and tastes like spinach and is completely red. The red plants in pic are orach. Wonder if it’s the same as in the video.
IView attachment 3560914

I have grown Orach before not the same. The red one he had was a type of Amaranth.