What did you do in the garden today?

[Sally PB]

little fella

Any honey bee you find outside the hive is most likely female. The males (drones) exist for one purpose only: Mate with a queen.

The workers (all female) feed, clean, and clean up after the drones. The drones leave the hive on "mating flights" when there might be a virgin queen out and about. If they are successful in their mating, ummm... the act rips their phallus off, and they fall to the ground and die.

So guys, in your next life you might, or might not, want to be a drone bee.

 

[Sueby]

I used that Sunshine pro-mix brand from my local Lowes in my DYI earth box with a top line of Dr. Earth Organic Tomato fertilizer; and my Hoss tomato plants loved it, and they are producing a lot of tomatoes.

It's the best performing inert potting mix I have available in my area. By the way, I don't see any sand in it, it looks and feels like peat and perlite.

Good to know.

My chickens don't mind walking on leaves even if there is a foot or two of snow underneath. They just will not walk on white snow.

Same here. Little weirdos. I'm down to like a half a bag left, probably only 1 snows worth. I'm over winter though, bring on spring!

 

[Sueby]

So I decided to try something - I wasn't able to plant garlic in the fall as I usually do but I saved the best ones anyway. I just put them in the fridge (all softneck) - I read 3 weeks in the fridge & then plant & I should get some sort of a crop over the summer. Has anyone tried this? I hate to lose my garlic, I've had it for many years & it's done very well here.

 

[gtaus]

Same here. Little weirdos. [won't walk on snow] I'm down to like a half a bag [of leaves] left, probably only 1 snows worth. I'm over winter though, bring on spring!

Yep, next fall I am going to fill up a number of garbage can storage bins first with leaves, then put everything else into the chicken run. My chickens don't seem to mind if it's cold outside, they just refuse to walk on white snow. At least I have enough leaves in that garbage can storage for 2 or 3 snows, which should be enough to get me through the rest of the winter months. As I said, we have almost no snow on the ground here in late February, which we usually don't see until late March or early April.

I am more than ready for spring. If you have been following my Show Me your Pallet Project! thread, you might have noticed that I just finished building another pallet wood raised bed and am currently working on more pallet wood flower planters for Dear Wife.

Just a few pictures of what I am doing with pallet wood...

 

[Liz Birdlover]

Rainy all day here today.
Flock just hunkers down indoors on these dismal days. Very cloudy, I need to turn lights on in the house. So...yes washing & crating eggs for market, but also checking out the American Meadows seeds for transforming the lawn, going to start with rye to kill off as much nutsedge & Bermuda grass as possible before I plant the low growing flower & white clover lawn alternative.



Ordering more Milkweed varieties for the existing Butterfly & Bee garden.


Pricing out some planned Chicken Coop & Pigeon Loft improvements. I want to plan what pairs I'm going raise younsters from, Pigeon & Chicken. A few chicken loving friends have requested Olive Eggers & offspring from my pure Wyandottes, Blue Laced Red pair & my Silver Laced Roo with hens of Blue, Blue Lace, Gold Lace & some Backyard mix surprises.



Yesterday, I got a whiff of that sweet spring smell in the air when the sun popped out & a flock of Starlings were singing their Spring song loudly & flying as a group from tree to tree. Several red Cardinals were picking through the seeds on dead plants I leave just for them & Robins were pulling worms up from the ground.

Yes, I'm getting Spring Fever!

 

[Molpet]

So I decided to try something - I wasn't able to plant garlic in the fall as I usually do but I saved the best ones anyway. I just put them in the fridge (all softneck) - I read 3 weeks in the fridge & then plant & I should get some sort of a crop over the summer. Has anyone tried this? I hate to lose my garlic, I've had it for many years & it's done very well here.

The worse would be it would only make one clove, I had some sprouting in the house so I planted them.... great green garlic
but if you replant in the fall it will be normal, or at least mine did

 

[WthrLady]

View attachment 3755130

Hmmmm. I could make that shorter, put in an internal hanging frame and shove a 5 gallon bucket in there. Hmmmmmm.
=======
Went out to feed the critters and spent an hour putting the gourd house back up. I cleaned it out yesterday, and the birds are coming in, so it's up and ready when they really come back for good.
I could NOT find the lift pins for the pole. In the time it took me to drive back to the house, root around in the garage, and find the pins, a small bird was in and exploring the gourds. I about took a sparrow to the eye. LOL.

Good grief.
I still need to empty all the fence boxes, but I prefer a windless day for that.
I prefer NOT breathing what's in those boxes.

Oh, and walking the garden for trash yesterday, I found three onions, up about 2 inches, that I obviously missed last fall. WTH?!?!?

 

[Sueby]

@Liz Birdlover can't wait to see how your lawn project goes! I over seeded my lawn with clover a few years ago, much to DHs dismay. He is one who would have a manicured lawn if I let him, but he now saves big blocks of clover for the bees when he mows & leaves the dandelions. He's even stopped using weed killer. He's coming around, I discreetly keep make the garden bigger & bigger, one day there will be no lawn left & he won't even notice what I did there.

 

[Sueby]

The worse would be it would only make one clove, I had some sprouting in the house so I planted them.... great green garlic
but if you replant in the fall it will be normal, or at least mine did

If I can just keep them alive till fall I'll be happy!

 

[Liz Birdlover]

@Liz Birdlover can't wait to see how your lawn project goes! I over seeded my lawn with clover a few years ago, much to DHs dismay. He is one who would have a manicured lawn if I let him, but he now saves big blocks of clover for the bees when he mows & leaves the dandelions. He's even stopped using weed killer. He's coming around, I discreetly keep make the garden bigger & bigger, one day there will be no lawn left & he won't even notice what I did there.

So funny, things change slowly here too...same reason, he needs a bit of time for my ideas to grow on him.Then, next thing ya know, that small wildflower garden that started in the useless space behind the garage has "somehow" Grown Exponentially!

A "Little Bird" somehow must've planted the appropriate Shade loving vs. Sun loving seeds to just the right locations, on all 3 sides of garage now. That Little Bird's name is Liz...shhh, don't tell anybody.