What did you do in the garden today?

[OnlySympathy]

my seeds got here! Now to get out of bed…

Swiss chard, winter squash, water melon, cantaloupe, cover crop, carrot, parsnip, cabbage, basil, bush bean, 2 mung beans, 2 kale, 2 cucumbers, 2 lettuce, 3 peppers, and 14 flipping tomatoes

 

[Supercow]

Was reading an article today about staggering losses caused by varroa mites....

https://www.zerohedge.com/food/record-us-honey-bee-losses-and-what-mite-be-behind-them

It got me thinking about natural predators so I started googling. I came across an article that said varroa mites can't survive temperatures between 104 and 108 degrees for more than a few hours.

This heat dome has been centered over the middle of the country for a month and doesn't seem to be lessening for at least the next 2 weeks. Temperatures here in Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, etc have easily exceeded those temperatures. I wonder if that might be a silver lining to help our bee populations?

I have seen less than 5 honey bees ALL SUMMER. I get a moderate amount of Bumblebees and far more wasps... But honeybees are almost nonexistent around here.

Hot summers do help with varroa - a little unexpected since it came from India originally. On the other hand temps of 40 C and more can be tricky for the wax structures the bees build.

 

[Rick589]

my seeds got here! Now to get out of bed…

for you.

 

[Sally PB]

I dug the row of potatoes near the rhubarb. Diddly piddly, tiny spuds. I won't plant taters there again.

I dug 4 plants that were volunteers from last year near onions, near beans. GOBS of much bigger and better looking potatoes. 3 plants were Elba (white), 1 was Magic Molly (purple). The purple ones are smaller, but still bigger than the ones in the row by the rhubarb.

 

[Sally PB]

I dug up 3 of 6 hills of the zucchini. The SVB got them. The other 3 hills have new growth! I saw a couple of female flowers, so I might get a couple more.

I plan to shred the ones I have sitting on the mudroom floor, and freeze it for zucchini bread this winter.

 

[Ponypoor]

Crap wasn’t the first word to come to mind, now was it?

Ya - I have 3 and my LO thinking she may want to join them.

I am too old for this craziness!

And yesterday the brats managed to stick their heads through the fencing and snag the one ripening tomato that I have! Oh they will eat the green ones also. And the leaves and stalks - pretty much just destroy the tomatoes if given a chance. But really - my only ripening one? Brats all of them!

 

[Bsmac]

Now I’m wondering if enough would get in the hives if one were to put it in the middle of a parsley patch and harvest/weedwack it occasionally.

This is part of why I frequent seed libraries and swaps and such. The risk of something being other than advertised is still there, but at least the seeds are freeI

Now I’m wondering if enough would get in the hives if one were to put it in the middle of a parsley patch and harvest/weedwack it occasionally.

This is part of why I frequent seed libraries and swaps and such. The risk of something being other than advertised is still there, but at least the seeds are free!

I would say we save about 80% of our own seeds! Then it`s on us lol

 

[Bsmac]

I like MI Gardener EXCEPT when he does his videos( which are informative)he talks way way too much for my taste.

Lol He is a bit long winded lol