Bees: let's get this fruit on the road!

Almond blossom, Apr 2018

So many flowers on my fruit trees and bushes!  Though we've had a cold, wet and snowy winter, the trees are done with it (hopefully the cold is done with it too).  The bees are out in force, including a lot more honeybees than the past few years.  Normally our prevalent bees are bumblebees.  I'm not fussy:  I'll take both, please!  Though honeybees are best for pollination as they'll focus on one type of flower--hopefully getting my Williams pear pollinated this year (simply covered in blossom).

Last month I hand-pollinated both my almond tree and my young peach tree (first flowering this year).  The almond has put out its second flush this month and I've let the bees take over pollination duties:  too many blossoms!  I'm also letting them deal with the rest of the fruit trees which currently includes the pears, cherries and plum.

I have other non-fruiting flowers out now too:  gorse, daffodils, tulips, hyacinths, honesty, flowering currant, berberis.  Actually flowering currant and berberis both form tiny fruits;  the former is dry and tasteless while the latter, though seedy, is quite nice but we generally let the birds help themselves.  I like flowers as well as fruit, and anything to tempt the bees into the garden this time of year is valuable.

Losing plants over winter

Still alive!  Apr 2018

After a long (ish), cold (ish) winter, spring is in full force and we've even had a few days of 20+ Celsius.  I fully expect it to cool off again until the end of June, but it's been nice to sit outdoors unwrapped and without supplemental heat (during sunny days these past several weeks I've been known to take my hot water bottle out into the garden).

But the prolonged cold and snow may have taken its toll on a few of my plants, notably my tarragon and mint.  Neither have sprouted yet, and while both are rated for temps lower than we actually got, I'm a bit doubtful.  I know where the wild mint grows so I'm not as concerned--I can get a rooted bit again easily and can take a small harvest for mint sauce (a necessary condiment in my opinion). 

Tarragon, just as valuable, isn't so easy to replace.  I'll have to search the garden centers and grow it on to a reasonable size before planting it out.  My maybe-dead plant lived in a pot for a full year before it was big and woody enough to withstand the slugs.  If it truly didn't survive, I might consider just growing one in a pot to overwinter indoors.  Not ideal but better than continually replacing.

Which leads me to rosemary.  I thought I'd cracked rosemary--my plant was so big and bushy!  It was the latest in a long line of failed rosemary bushes, and the longest-lived, but it looks like it's gone for good like all its predecessors.  Once replaced I might try my hand at growing cuttings so if one dies off (likely) I won't have to buy yet another (and another, and another...).

The last one on the list isn't actually due to come up quite yet, but I'm a bit skeptical:  asparagus.  I grew it from seed last year, and was it ever spindly!  I pre-sprouted the seeds before sowing them in situ;  I thought they might have a better chance this way than as transplants, even though germination rates are lower.  Well, five plants survived the summer and I marked their spots with stakes (also to protect them from being scratched up by chickens).  No sign of them yet though I've not quite written them off.

I've not written off the tarragon or mint yet either, but I'm pretty sure rosemary is a bust.

Raised beds and slugs

Newly planted blackcurrant in the old chicken yard, Apr 2018

I remember reading a lot about raised beds when I was first learning about gardening.  They seemed to be a panacea for all gardening woes, and I really wanted to build some in my own garden.  Many years later, I have dismantled all of them, keeping only the three brick and mortar ones built by a previous owner.

I think for some climates/situations raised beds probably work just as promised, but here they are just a magnet for slugs and snails.  I had different beds made of wood, brick and stone, and those pesky molluscs would climb in, tuck themselves away in the convenient hiding places I had provided, and wreak destruction every night.  In the last raised bed I took apart, the wooden walls were covered with happy fat slugs on all the inward facing sides. 

Slug pressure is pretty constant here, and I have come to accept that they will eventually find their way anywhere in my garden.  I've even found them in pots on top of my cast iron patio table, and in my window boxes.  Why (and how) they manage to climb such a height is beyond me, but they do.  Rather than provide them with a free B&B in a raised bed, all my vegetables are now grown in deep beds, completely level with the rest of the garden, and with no type of border or wall around them;  at least this deprives the slugs of a convenient hiding place. 

Of the three brick beds remaining, two are in the old chicken yard, which is still recovering from too much chicken for a bit too long.  Pictured above is some newly growing alfalfa, feverfew, a weed or two, and of course one of two new blackcurrants.  The slugs aren't much interested in any of this, but no doubt the population hasn't recovered yet after all those chickens!  I don't plan on putting any annual vegetables here in any case.

State of the flock, April 2018

Behind bars, Apr 2018

Our biggest news is that we have four new chicks, bred from our Orpington rooster and our two Australorp hens.  They were hatched around the end of March under our broody Pekin hen and are growing well.

The sad news is that our Orptington unexpectedly died.  We can't say for certain, but it might have been related to his no-crow collar which had been adjusted earlier that day.  This is the third young rooster to die without explanation, and all three had worn a collar (though none had been adjusted so recently before death).  Coincidence?  I'm having a good hard think about keeping another rooster.


We're at eleven adult hens now:  six ageing brown hybrids who are giving us up to two eggs a day, one each Cream Legbar and White Leghorn (both now two years old), one year old twin Black Australorp (honestly, I think of them as one chicken in two bodies), and our Pekin bantam.  We're getting an average of four eggs a day, with no one seeming to lay every day, not even our young Australorps who only began laying this year. 

I haven't put them back on their regular garden rotation as it still isn't growing much out there;  they're getting one hour a day of free range, with the rest confined to their yard which has been mulched with straw to try and soak up the mud.  Mother hen Cookie and her chicks are in a separate rabbit hutch with full access to grass and a little patch of the perennials section (mainly weeds).

Keeping up with the greens

Artichokes, daffodils and bricks, Apr 2018

We really haven't had many nice days still;  I've missed sitting out in the garden regularly, but have taken advantage when I can.  Right now we're in full daffodil bloom--mainly in the perennials section, but a few stragglers left in the vegetable patch, somehow.  I put a couple stakes next to them to mark where to dig once they've finished;  I'll move them after they flower though this means they probably won't flower again next year but the year after (I'm ok with this though).

I'm a bit surprised with the amount of vegetable harvest we've got right now, actually.  It's been cabbage every day for the last week, including extra for sauerkraut.  Salad greens every day for lunch too (mainly miners lettuce and a little arugula), and I had to put a big batch of new chard up for later--leaves to dry using my usual technique, stems in the freezer.  I might have to do another batch in a day or two;  the winter cabbages are more of a priority:  they're trying to bolt and the chard isn't just yet.

And then there's the kale.  I think there's only two plants left from winter, but both are growing very strongly and I know it--like the chard--is putting out its new growth now in preparation for going to seed soon.  I need to harvest it quickly!  It's softer than the winter cabbage so unsuitable for sauerkraut (even with that I only used the tougher outer leaves).  I'll give drying a shot.

Chicks ahoy!

One week old, and their first ever grass

Well, suspense over:  broody hen Cookie managed to hatch five chicks from seven eggs total.  Sadly one died soon after, but the other four are happy little fluff balls.  Cookie's been a busy mother for the last two weeks:  showing them the ropes and keeping them warm;  it's been unseasonably cold and she went broody a month earlier than last year.

We got our first confirmation of them on Easter Sunday, when refilling Cookie's water:  there was a loud cheeping from under her while she was clucking.  Eight year old and I agreed it was the best Easter present ever--even better than chocolate!

March 2018 garden notes

Garlic patch with leeks in front, Mar 2018

Roots

Finally finished eating celery (2017's Roots bed) by the end of March, and let the chickens onto this bed to scratch and clean it up in preparation for this year's Misc bed.

Garlic growing strongly in this year's Roots bed, but only a few shallots sprouting up.

I sowed a patch of parsnip seeds early in the month--and they got snowed on!  No sign of them by the end of the month;  I didn't get a single one last year so I'm not holding my breath for them. 

Sowed a few beet and carrot seeds at the end of the month.

Onion and leek seedlings now sheltering in my cold frame, to be planted out in April.  Last year's leeks still growing slowly, with a couple now ready to harvest (I'll let the rest carry on growing and dividing).  I sowed another tray of leek seed early in the month.

Peas and beans

Dwarf broad beans growing and thinking about forming buds.  Seed sown in February now sprouting up.

Early, maincrop, and (I think) mange tout peas all sprouting up, having been sown in February and early March.  I lost track of what I've sown, but all are in separate patches this year--the maincrop peas are actually in their own bed with the plum tree.  Put a small batch of mange tout to sprout near the end of the month.

Brassicas

Began harvesting winter cabbages in March, some of which are now trying to bolt.  Harvested a small amount of kale, mizuna (self-seeded) and the last of the Brussels sprouts including leafy tops.

Spring cabbages growing well, particularly in the cold frame.  Purple sprouting broccoli also growing well, but no shoots yet.  Neither of these harvested in March.

Planted out about a dozen overwintered cauliflowers.

Sowed two varieties of Brussels sprouts in trays outdoors, but none appeared by the end of the month.  Sowed a small row of radishes and another of turnips at the end of the month.

Miscellaneous

Overwintered chard beginning to put out new growth this month;  a little harvested.

In the cold frame, lots of growth on winter salad greens (mainly miners lettuce and arugula), giving us a small salad per week.  Harvested a few overwintered spring onions, grown in a container.

Fruit

Took a few cuttings from the redcurrant and cut back the yellow raspberry;  all fruit bushes putting out new growth by the end of the month.  Planted out two new blackcurrants which I got for free--one definitely growing, the other possibly.  Blackcurrant cuttings taken earlier are leafing out, but I don't know if that means they've rooted.

Almond tree and patio peach flowering at the end of March;  I've been hand-pollinating them both, although bees have been spotted on the almond.  Many flowerbuds formed on the Williams pear, Kumoi pear, plum, both cherries--none of these opened yet though.

Slightly pruned Sparta apple tree;  both it and Laxton Fortune starting to form buds by the end of March.

About a dozen strawberry plants left after chicken rampaging.  They scratched up most of the alpine strawberry plants too.  

Perennials and herbs

Artichokes growing strongly.  Rhubarb forming new leaves and stems.  No life spotted yet from asparagus.  Sorrel growing a little, but has been eaten by chickens.

Been nibbling a few daylily shoots (chickens have too) this month. 

Chives growing strongly, picked a few parsley leaves, thyme still alive.  All other herbs still dormant or dead (rosemary probably).

March 2018 Food Totals

Making the most of our one nice weekend, Mar 2018

Vegetables:

5 oz kale
7 oz celery
9 oz Brussels sprouts and leaves
6.5 oz chard
1.5 oz mizuna
2 oz salad greens (miners lettuce, arugula, spring onion)
27 oz cabbage

Total: 58 oz, or 4 lb 10 oz

Note:  I weigh all my vegetables after preparation:  peeling, trimming, etc.  Does not include fresh herbs which were too small an amount to weigh, i.e. less than 0.5 oz.

Fruit:

No fruit harvested

Eggs:

Total: 104 eggs from 11 hens
Total feed bought: 2 bags layers pellets (40kg total) and 1 bag chick crumb (5kg)

Preserves:

1 medium jar fermented carrots (own garlic and dill seed, bought carrots)

Homebrew:  

Cider still fermenting

No new homebrew begun