I thought that I might have a nice garden this year but the soil is too sandy and almost no organic matter. I've decided to go to raised bed gardening for the fall and next year. I love home grown pimiento for making my own pimiento-cheese sandwiches but didn't get a single pepper due to sun scald and poor soil.

I did get some good cantaloupe though. Burpee's Ambrosia Hybrid variety.

It is in my blood. Our soil is poor. It is mostly clay. I tried container gardening this year, but our weather has been cold and growth has been slow.

I ma envious of those that have posted pictures of harvests already.

I cut way back on garden a number of years ago. Now I just have small strip patches.
Pulled up the peas the other day. They were very good, but we didn't get many. Part of the problem was that I put nylon netting over the top to keep the birds out and the plants turned out to be a very tall variety that grew into the netting. When I tried to disentangle them, I tore them up quite a bit. Live and learn.
Beans have been doing well.
Cucumbers are just starting - have had a couple.
Tomato plants are very healthy, blooming, but showing no inclination to start any tomatoes yet.
Carrots are looking fine.
Pulled up the last of the German Giant radishes this morning.

My radishes seem to go to seed and do not grow the tuber. What am I doing wrong? Too wet?

In Riverton my soil is pretty good. This area was part of a river valley. I've been eating spinach, beets and cucumbers already, and got tons of tomatoes still green on the vine. Peppers are getting big, green beans finished blooming, so starting to produce. I got small summer and winter squash growing, some punkins, cabbage is balling up finally, and corn is thigh high. We had a major hail storm July 4, and the apricots were shredded from the tree. Apples were bruised, but they're still growing and getting bigger. I used soil pep in the soil this year before planting, and have been fertillizing the tomatoes and peppers once a week. Its all looking good. Sunflowers are humungous! The're for the birds through winter.

Elkhunter. Are you planting seeds too close? Do you thin them out? May also be not enough nutrient in the soil. Just thinking...I know my beets do much better when I throw in and mix some spagnum moss along with soil pep. It breaks up the soil, allowing it to drain better, and adds nutients.

I mostly grow peppers. There are Habaneros, Jalape�os, Tabasco, Chili and Serrano peppers out in the back yard.

Eating raspberries right now, tomatoes are starting to form, have peaches for the first time on my 2 year old tree and the biggest apple crop yet on my 4 year old trees. Planning on putting in a herb garden next year.

I think you nailed it. Didn't thin them soon enough. I used containers this year with Miracle Grow potting soil. Trying to kill whatever evil weed has taken over my garden spot.

Both crops of my radishes (I like the French Breakfast type) are done, beets are gone, sugar pod peas are gone, and all three rows of lettuce are gone. I was out of town for the past three weeks and actually missed eating most of that - darn it.

Cukes and zuchs are almost ready, peppers blooming and setting (already had one very early one) and the 'maters are turning red. Beans are setting as well.

Our secondary water (unpurified, for lawns only) has been off for four days, and the lawn and veggies are suffering. May have to use some city water on the garden this evening, after it drops below 90.

elkhunter, sprinkle some French Breakfast Radish seeds in your garden in late August, dust them with some 10-10-10 fertilizer & keep the bed moist, not wet. You should have radishes in early October.

Getting a lot of tomatoes and peppers. The tomatoes are still green but I have a bunch of them. The peppers are good and the sausage and peppers were even better! Bear

Our garden isn't doing anything this year. I have a few tomatoes and my basil and the rest didn't do squat. We are moving it to a different area next year and enriching the soil with horse manure this fall. The garden area this year didn't work out. Should have known if weeds won't grow in the area nothing else will.

I have a small square foot garden I plant with lettuce and what the cat's didn't dig up did pretty good but most of that is done now.

You Utah fellars sure know how to grow stuff! When I lived in Evanston, my friends and I used to go to "Fruit Alley" as we called it, the state highway between Ogden and Brigum City. Wonderful produce!

+++++++++++++++

How'd you keep the deer out,Sam? A judge friend of mine is a avid pepper growing gardener but he just can't keep the deer out of the stash. I don't think he was into the expense of elaborate fencing.

My soil is poor but it's from lack of organic matter and high sand content. My tactic is this:


and this:



I'm going to build several more of these in the next few months.
I bought Scott's top soil from Wal-Mart and mulched with pecan hulls. We are blessed with a pecan shelling facility about 8 miles from here and they have a pile of pecan hulls out back for the taking. In the fall it is a small mountain.

I take the tractor w/front end loader and my 16 foot trailer and bring back a load. Cotton seed hulls make an excellent mulch as well. I bought some shredded cypress bark and used it in the tomatoes. Feed with Miracle-Gro and step back.

I have a friend that plants tomatoes in peat moss and feeds with Miracle-Gro.

You can build up the clay but it will take a year or two. Grass clippings and any organic matter will work. Newspapers, cardboard boxes and stuff like that.

Troy-Bilt makes a small electric tiller that is perfect for these raised beds and if you pay your electric bill it cranks every time!

Any Rodale press book on organic gardening will give you plenty of tips on building your soil.

Good luck!

The only way you can grow peas around here is to plant more than the deer can eat. An electric fence w/solar charger will work.

Sassy - be careful with that horse manure. I would make sure that it is a couple of years old before using it as it can burn things if too fresh. When I was a kid, Dad wiped out our garden with some mule manure one year. Best, John

Ever eat fried green tomatoes? They're good.

I had no idea. I'll have to have some of that.

Heavy clay in Idaho also. First year I have gone with raised bed. Will be doing another one next spring. Don't grow too much other than herbs and necessary to make fresh salsa. Have been commposting for five years, but somebody at my house steals it all to put on her flower beds, so had to go buy a yard for my raised bed. Stuck a black heirloom tomato in that my sis started. Thing is about 4ft tall and just starting to set tomatos on. 100+ temps for the next three days and we will be in Oregon at the cabin. Thank god for good neighbors.

Don't you let me catch you in my pecan hull stash.....

I'm picking between 2 and 3 gallons of produce a night,more than I can get given away. Mostly cukes, zukes, yellow squash. Grew a cuke this year that is a 'lemon cucumber', about the size and color of a lemon, but tastes just like a cucumber. Picked enough green beans for a couple meals, as well as okra night before last. Have 30 tomato plants, but all are green, only had one ripe one, when they start turning my neighbors are going to get sick of me asking if they want any. Same way with peppers, 30 plants of all different varieties, habanero, jalapeno, serrano, poblano, anaheim, cayenne, cascabella, hungarian hot wax, and more.

I get as much enjoyment from picking the stuff as I do from eating it, I think I just like to see it all sitting on the counter.

Oh, you bet! I'm waiting for the first ripe one though! Bear

I planted 3 hills of squash and couldn't give it all away. I have four tomato plants and can't eat them all. I have had bacon and tomato sandwiches for lunch four days in a row at times. Love them.

German Johnson's are coming in strong - I planted 55 plants and they are coming out my ears!

October beans and half runners are really producing. I have canned 28 quarts and 10 pints of the green beans and have vacuum sealed 24 quarts of October beans. We put up 40 dozen ears of Silver King over the July 4th holiday, most of it cut off.

Taters and onions are playing out, but I will plant some more onions in September for a late crop.

It has been a good year so far, cooler than usual and decent amounts of rain when needed.

To make a good bacon and tomato sandwich, try cooking the bacon on the grill. Thick cut works best, and you have to baby it to keep the flare ups down, but its good stuff. I too could eat them for every meal.

I've got a 400 sq. ft. garden that's just now giving up cukes, zucchini, peppers-both bell and jalapeno, and tomatoes. My corn is tasseling, and I expect a large crop. I tried bush beans this year instead of pole, and so far the results have been less than impressive. Still waiting on carrots and taters, but I planted both very late because of rain.

I plan on expanding the garden next year to include more varieties of vegetables, and more of what we like. We can alot of the excess and keep it in the pantry for wintertime treats.

I tried blueberry bushes, but the rabbits had other ideas. I'll try those again next year with protection this time, and I want to put in about 30 grape vines on 5 rows of trellis, but I haven't prepped the beds or constructed the trellises yet. I plan on doing that this fall for planting in spring.

Between the plantings and the apiary, I have my hands full on my days off.

Had green fried tomatoes for dinner last night.

I know about the horse manure, that's why we will put it on this fall and till it in hopefully before the ground freezes. We cleaned out my uncles barn one time and had the best garden we have ever had the following year. Neighbors didn't appreciate it much though. Now we don't have any close neighbors so that shouldn't be a big problem.

I have great soil here - one of the things I'll be giving up when in SD..

Sweet corn, potatos, broccoli, cabbage, peppers (green, sweet yellow and hot) tomatos, asparagus, beans and sugar pod peas. Oh, plus chives and rhubarb..

I'm gettin' too old for this big a garden.. (about 75X50)

First year gardening here in Colorado at 7600' (raised bed). Peppers and strawberries are doing great. The tomatoes are doing well, but they'll be racing the frost to ripen I'm afraid. The raspberries are coming slow, but I think will be producers next season. Also have a couple of bee hives that are doing well.

All the herbs have been growing like weeds. This was a good year to start gardening in Colorado--non-stop rain!

How are your bee's doing that high? Have they overwintered yet, or is this the first year? I'm getting ready to extract from my first super in about half an hour. From what everyone else in this area has said, it's been a poor year for honey, but the clover is still blooming, and we may get some fall nectar. Fingers crossed.

You gotta a good brain Mike and you wash a good amount of dirt off your hands each week, as well.

I have to respect that!

As for produce,all I need is a wallet and a Farmer's Market! I'll leave the toil and trouble to you folks.

I have a big fence. Any deer that get past that I'll shoot.

Mike

The bees seem to be doing pretty well. I started with two five frame nuc's and just added another super on each hive two weeks ago. We've had a lot of rain, which I think has been slowing them down, but have supplemented with syrup and pollen patties. Lots of wildflowers blooming now, so I think the rest of the month should be productive for them.

This is my first year, so I'm not sure what to expect with winter. I think they'll do okay though. Even at 7600' the winters here are pretty mild--lots of sunshine. I'm also running the polystyrene hives which should help insulate them from the cold.

Good luck with the extraction. I don't expect to see surplus honey until next season. How many hives do you have? Have you had any issues with CCD, mites, beetles, etc.?

Right now running two. There were three, but one absconded and joined with the other. Too close I guess. That's the one from which I'm getting honey. The other is an experiment with Russians. They started late, and I had to requeen, and am still feeding them. I will more than likely have to feed through the winter, as they've only filled out 6 frames in the first brood box. Still getting capped brood in all filled frames, so hopefully the population will start increasing, and I might be able to get the first brood box completely full before first frost.

I'm adding four more hives next year. I have another piece of property close by that has a 9 ac pasture in it, and would make a perfect apiary. I've decided to plant buckwheat next year on that piece. One of my compatriots at yesterdays beekeeper's meeting had some buckwheat honey, and MAN, if you like sorghum molasses, as I do, it's top notch. Eventually I'd like to run 15 or 20 hives on two pieces of property.

I have had a small problem with hive beetles, but they seem to have died down as the Russian colony gets stronger. No Nosema, tracheal mites or Varroa (fingers crossed). Hopefully I won't have any problems, but everyone usually does eventually, so I'm prepping for it.

Thanks Bob. Since my real job has become part time with the reduction in hours, I get to spend more time working outside. Besides, my Papa was a farmer and a carpenter, so I guess it kind of runs in the family.

My experience is to get stuff in the ground early and use lots of compost...Mulch is a must too....
I've got four Celebrity tomato plants that are still producing when my neighbors plants are burned up.

BB how ya say garden? Are you country, do ya say gard*en or gar*den?

I guess...

Yep you be country or maybe its TX. Just noticed TV commercials have em saying gar*den...must be a NYC thing.

Il Giardino would be more New York, I think.

I started three hives from packages this year. They are doing great! put on the second honey supers today. Blackberries are in full bloom and we still have the late Summer/early Fall bloom to come. Hives are carrying over 120 pounds of honey without the honey supers. Looks like a great year here too.

I'm container gardening this season. New house, lousy soil.
I am composting alot this season in anticipation of being able to turn it all in next spring and plant out in the ground.

However, I did some cold framing and greenhousing this spring and my tomatoes and cukes are doing GREAT. Peppers are behind because its been a cool summer thus far. Cilantro, basil, lemon balm and onions are doing alright.

Compost all of the vegetable material you can and add copious amounts of shredded newspaper and or shredded brown paper grocery bags. I am getting some incredibly good compost out of it.

You can bet your bippy it ain't an Alabama thang.

I'll be composting a lot this fall. Bought me a lawn mower w/grass catcher to pulverize all the grass clippings and oak leaves from the yard.

Worst year I've ever had gardening. Started off too wet and could not get anything planted. The deer have cleaned out my purple hull peas before I got a single one. They started on the sweet potato's but I have been dusting them with Sevin dust and that has kept them out for a while. Starting to get Okra and have had tomato's, cucumbers and yellow squash since the middle of June. The Muscadine vine is loaded and will be ready in about three or four weeks. It will soon be time to plant turnips and put in food plots. miles

I've dabbled in vegetable gardening from time to time. Rewarding, but the bugs here in Florida, once they figure out you've got a vegetable garden, just eat so much of it up that it's hardly worth the effort. Raised beds is definitely the way to go, though.

Grass clippings and live oak leaves are the best base for a good and healthy compost pile. I put everything that I can in my pile(except meat)and turn it in. I also water it once a week too...
Anyone that claims to have a green thumb has a compost pile.

If you are blessed with stinging nettle add as much as you can to your compost. It is a great source for nitrogen.
Will try to list what all is in out garden and get new pictures this weekend. Have to work tomorrow but will try on Sunday.

I also put the ashes from my charcoal grill in there...

Watch those Oak leaves, Sir,.....VERY high in tannic acid.
Balance with judicious Lime, and mebbe a whisker of Gypsum.
The Pecan hulls sound like a really hot ticket, I envy you that good source of "Bulk".

GTC

+1 on getting the plants in the ground early. I put mine in a month earlier than usual and it made a huge difference. This year we grew tomatoes (Early Girl, Champion, Better Boy and Ace), sweet peppers, serrano peppers, jalapenos, pickling cucumbers, zucchini squash, onions and green beans.

Below are some photos of my tomatoes from back in May.

Garden's not doing nearly so well now - the Phx summer is starting to take its toll.

Rich

Bought a house this year, with a large neglected back yard. I'm not big on growing veggies, but the climate here is amenable to citrus, so I planted a Bearss lime, a couple of Moro blood oranges, a Lane Late Navel, and two Washington Navels. Lousy clay soil in my subdivision, odd that the lime is the one that's doing the best. I am still learning what combo of fertilizer, bug spray and watering is best, but so far they are still alive. I will have a handful of limes to harvest this season. No oranges until 2011, though, probably

I also planted two passion flower vines. One is doing okay, one is barely getting by. They make very exotic flowers & some fruit. We'll see how they do.

I like carrots and broccoli, never have tried growing them but there's no shortage of space here.

I also planted 12 roses in the front yard, and put two sago palms in pots. Bought used an ancient and massive jade tree in a pot, and so far it is surviving the heat with some shade and daily water.

Mail ordered a ocotillo cactus. It now seems to be quite happy in our current heat wave, I guess since it's native to the chiuahuan desert

We're just starting to pick the cherry tomatoes, there's a ton of the big heirlooms that are still green. Been eating the Anaheim and Jalape�o peppers, while the Haba�eros are still tiny and green. The Zuccinni and Squash are eating well too, with the Eggplant just about ready. All of these are behind a fence or in containers on the deck, otherwise the deer would have destroyed them back in April. One of these years real soon, the Cherries, Nectarine and Persimmon will bear fruit, as well.

For the vegies, I do something I read about in The Mother Earth News back in the 70's - Double digging. Lots of Steer/Chicken Manure in with grass clippings to add organics to the local clay soil. Grass clippings for mulch.

Scott

lettuce and radishes are good, something seems to be throwin a wrench in the zucchini, nice little ones but the leaves have been chewed pretty gnarly, small green tomatoes are coming on and truthfully I've not looked at the spuds. Peas aren't ready yet.

the Mrs. gets the credit, just like back in the day with gram riding herd I try and do what I'm told and not muck it up.

we've a garden spot and a decent little greenhouse, but we're doing everything on the deck in beds and buckets.

been a good summer to grow here, oughta be some whopper cabbages at the fair.

Scott, the stinging nettle is our county flower. There is a lot of it on this sandy soil. I'll have to live without it in my compost, though. Going around and pulling them up is just a little too labor intensive for me.

Deer will walk over peas to get to muscadines, you know. As they say in Japan, rotsa ruck.

I started by putting up a wire fence enclosure that I plant peas along, and later beans. Inside I planted 43 cabbage. The woodchucks got in and now I have 10 cabbages. They hit my wife's herb garden eating the lettuce and parsley. I had two rabbits hitting the cabbage at one time.

I bought two conibear traps and put one on a hole under my shed and the other on the hole under the fence. I've gotten 15 woodchucks so far, most under the shed. I got a piece of a rabbit in a snare but it pulled out, left a bunch of hair. I went out by the enclosure and saw a rabbit in it. I was standing over that hole and the panicked rabbit went through the fence to get away. That fence is 2 x 4 grid, it left a lot of hair. I haven't seen either rabbit since, I figure that one getting caught and fighting a snare, and the other forcing it's self through the fence, damaged both and they died.

The corn is doing well, some of it is 7 foot tall now with tassels out. The 60 day corn is coming in, dang coons are getting it. What would you think if I staked out a conibear through both springs and put a piece of apple covered in peanut butter on the trigger? It's a 4-1/2" square trap.
The corn is planted in dang loamy sand, we had a wind storm that knocked it flat. I had to go out and stand it back up and hoe dirt around it. That happens at least once a year.

The green peppers are growing well, got some small ones on them. I planted cubanerros this year, I don't know if I'll like them or not. The spaghetti squash is going crazy, the plants are huge!

We have Brussels sprouts, zucchini, tomatoes, peppers and swiss chard this year. Only harvested some swiss chard so far and it was terrific.

Really looking forward to the Brussels sprouts but must wait till fall. Peppers look cruddy, between the rabbits and the cool damp weather I don't think they'll be very good.

My garden the last two years looks like an Aushwitz reproduction. Outer wire is three strand electric, inner wire separated by 3 feet is rabbit wire 4 ft tall. My blueberry's were outside the wire and got et, but so far nothing has penetrated the perimeter for the main garden-knock on wood. I wonder where I could get some claymores...?

I have been in tomatoes for a while now. Applewood smoked bacon is my favorite with tomato sandwiches. The heat and lack of rain are about to do them in though. I have heard arguements at work over which is the best horse or cow manure. My BIL has a couple of horses and the manure is free, so that is what I go with. I have a couple of pecan trees with a ton of hulls underneath, hmmm. I was doing good on my pinkeye purple hulls and have put up several quarts. The drought has slowed them down and now the deer are mopping up the rest. I have watermelons that came up on their own on the edge of the patio and I transplanted them to the garden. There are 2 on the vines that would run about 20lbs a piece.

Deer love watermelon so be on the watch for them. The pecan hulls I use are from shelled pecans, not the husks that cover the pecan shell itself. If you mulch well you'll be amazed at how much less water your plants will need.

I feed my tomatoes with a tomato food that you mix with a gallon water and I feed each plant a gallon a week. My tomatoes were looking bad until I mulched them and began feeding them. Now they're rebounding beautifully.

Here are a couple of pictures showing the pecan hulls. This is the trailer load I just got:



and this is a closeup showing how they break down into great humus:

I had a compost garden for many years. I laid railroad ties around the area to be gardened and dumped my grass clippings in it. At the end of the season I'd till them under.

During the growing season, the grass clippings hold the moisture in the ground and keeps the weeds down. They also add huge amounts of nitrogen to the soil.

After doing this for a couple of seasons, you wouldn't believe the results. Plants grow to enormous size out of the composted soil.

My garden was about 300 square feet. 6 tomato plants would grow to a size which would cover the entire area. The regular little wire tomato cages that you see for sale weren't anywhere near big enough to contain them. I bought some sturdy fencing,..shaped it into hoops about 3' in diameter, then staked them into place around the plants with a length of 1/2" electrical conduit on each side. The hoops were about 4.5 feet tall. The totamo plants would completely fill the inside of the hoop and get to about 6' tall before they would collapse and crawl all over the ground.

One side of the garden was bordered by a chain link fence which ran the length of our yard,..an 80' distance. Once, I planted a 15' long row of half runner beans along the fence in the compost, and the beans grew runners that extended the entire 80' length of the fence. That one row of beans produced enough beans for us and the two people who lived on the other side of the chain link fence. I mentioned to them that they were welcome to any they could get to from their side and I'd see them out there picking some for their dinner every few days.

Every year I would try something different just to see how various plants would respond to the compost. One year I set out a few sunflowers and before the frost got them their stalks were about 5" in diameter at the base.

I had a lot of fun experimenting with that compost.

The squirrels leave plenty of shells and husks all around my trees. My compost pile caught fire a couple of weeks ago. I could smell smoke and went out and saw a small burnt spot on top of the pile. I got the hose and soaked it down. I raked it back and it had been burning underneath for a while. I have Bahia grass in my yard and I will have the pile built back up in no time.

One thing I miss about Long Island vs Northern Florida is the ease of growing tomatoes. You pretty much just had to clear an area and plant your seeds, water as needed, and you'd have big beautiful red ripe tomatoes all summer long. Just had to watch for one bug, and that was a big green worm that looked like it had big white eyes on it's head, but it was just a color pattern, but they could be plucked right off and you'd be fine. Never more than two or three of those bugs a season, and they only went for the leaves.

Here in Florida, the stink bugs destroy the tomatoes before they can ripen. They just go around and puncture them here and there. Once punctured, they're ruined, and they generally get them all before any can ripen.

We've already started canning and freezing.

Doubled the size of the garden about a couple of years ago. Deere Tractor made that much easier. Almost a half acre now. Might expand even more with all the offspring popping up. Our God-given bounty feeds 19 family members each year

TRH - those tomato worms are a bugger. One of them can make a plant look like it got hit with hail just overnight. Sevin curls them up right quick if you can't locate them. One time I stomped on one and it was more impressive than stomping on a ketchup packet.

My "orgasmic gardening" trick is to plant marigolds between my tomatoes. Tomato worms HATE marigolds, and I haven't had such a worm (or any other garden pest) in 20-some years.

that's what we do as well Rock.....looks purtyyyy too!

Gardening is pretty big in my family, more or less. My pap gets pretty crazy with his stuff, especially about tomatoes, onions, and zucchini. My mom's garden is starting to look pretty good, and mine is as well. I started my plants a little late this year, so it'll be a pretty late harvest. So far it has been a cold growing season for us, with night time temps into the high 40's, about 25-30 degrees below average.a

Mickey, as far as I am concerned, the only way to go about it is doing a raised bed. I built one for my mom a few years ago and it's great. My garden this year wasn't raised, as I have pretty good soil where it's planted, though next year I will be making raised beds. A lot easier to manage and providing you do it right, a higher yield is possible. Something else you may be interested in taking a look at is square foot gardening.

http://www.squarefootgardening.com/
http://www.squarefootgardening.com/index.php/The-Project/how-to-square-foot-garden.html

Have heard that chicken schit is great for compost piles, though it can't be put on the plants immediately, as it will burn them. It's real rich in ammonia and must age a bit before using.

we use mushroom compost....

One danger in using chicken litter from poultry houses is that it's usually full of pigweed seed and it will take over your garden. If you use chicken litter it's best to compost it first.

Flowers, Sakatoons, and raspberries is about all we grow - LOTS of flowers.
The scent of the lilacs, roses, and such almost knocks you down in our backyard.
We live on a corner lot, but in town, so we don't have a lot of room....
Cat

You can start early by not using the indoor toilet.. Place that outhouse right over the garden..

Mike

Where did you get your Russians? They're supposed to have better grooming traits than other bees which should reduce the impact of Varroa on the colony. I'm interested in knowing if you've found that to be true. Are you doing mite counts? Do they have a good disposition?

I'm running one hive of Italians and one of Cariolans. Both hives are very gentle and easy to work with. May have to add a colony of Russians next year...

Very nice Scott. Two honey supers! I'm jealous. What kind of bees do you have?

Good idea! I'll be shipping you some veggies......

I have Cariolans. First time for me and they are extremely gentle. I am teaching my wife to work then without gloves and these bees are the ones to learn on. I am pleased with their honey production and they are great at filling out new foundation. We started with all new frames this year and decided to go back to wired wax and get rid of all the plastic in our hives. I am installing screened bottom boards tomorrow too. Another first for us.

I too will be planting buckwheat this fall for an additional nectar source as soon as the berries and thistle are finished. I could have the best year ever. May be time to upgrade to a redial extractor.

I got my Russians from Walter T. Kelly out of Clarkson, KY. They're only an hour and a half from my place, so we drove up there to pick them up. I had to requeen, as the first queen disappeared, so they're a little late in development. I checked yesterday, and they're increasing in numbers very well. I don't find them any more aggressive than my Italians, and since I seldom use smoke anymore when opening a colony, you would expect to see upfront if they were any different in that respect. I have not noticed any mites at all, and I'm using screened bottom boards in all my hives, with a beetle/mite trap below. I filled this with Canola oil, and have found beetles in it but no mites. On inspection of the larvae, I have seen no evidence of mites either-fingers crossed.

My Italians were snappy yesterday, but since I robbed 3 frames of capped honey to extract, I would expect them to be. I managed to get 8# 3oz of honey from 3 frames, and there were two more almost ready. I didn't want to take the other two until they're fully capped, as I have no way to reduce the moisture content once extracted, and I don't want fermentation. I re placed the 3 extracted frames in the hive, so with any luck, they will spend more energy getting nectar and making honey instead of drawing comb. We still have clover blooming, and some wildflowers, so between now and September I might get lucky.

You'll like the radial extractor. I got one from Rossman Apiaries this year and I love it.

Next season, I'm going to experiment with one of my hives. Michael Bush of Bush Farms www.bushfarms.com claims that NOT using any foundation is the way to go, as the bees make the comb themselves faster than they do with any type of foundation, including wired wax. He also says that they make the cells the proper size of 4.9mm vice 5.2mm in which most foundation comes. He says that this has eliminated Varroa from his colonies. I figure if the bees are left to their own they'll figure out the correct cell size to make, and if they do it faster, it's better. He recommends that you buy wedged frames, and instead of using the wax foundation, break the wedge off, turn it in it's side and nail/glue it in place to give a central ridge upon which the bees can build, and string wire horizontally for strength. The bees will incorporate the wire into the comb that they build. Since it's going in the brood box and not subject to extraction forces, it should be plenty strong. I figure it's worth a try.

Mike---that is so very cool. i need to learn more about this. great post!

Thanks byc. Bees can be addicting. The bug bit me-no pun intended-pretty hard.

Bart, is that the upside down growin' thang that you posted last years ???
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I'm not a gardener now but if pot becomes legal, who knows?

Nope... I haven't used that think this year. I was thinking about putting a cucumber plant in it for the fall though. Pickles.....

Yup we always had the bug and the addiction because we had the sourwood trees, which for me is one of the best. I will be curious to hear the outcome of going without foundation.

David

Yah right----If pot becomes legal your practice will grow exponentially leaving no time for gardening...

Thanks for the link. I know there were some experimenting with small cell foundation for mite elimination. I may give your way a try next season.

As for the Russian bees, my understanding is they are pretty easy to be around until they cross with other breads then they can get a little difficult.

Another place for Russian cross queens. Olimpic Queens

I'm a fan of gardening, and I find it therapeutic, very much like hand-loading. Both offer a very good return on investment too.

I'm living in the second home i've owned in my life (both have been on Long Island, NY). My old house had much better soil for gardening. My current home has a lot of clay in the soil, so I made my own soil mix with different brands of bagged soil and a smaller percentage of soil from my yard mixed in.

This year I've got 3 types of tomatoes (beefsteak, plum & cherry), Zucchini squash, Red Bell peppers, sweet corn, sugar snap peas, string beans, cucumbers, lettuce and watermelon growing in the garden. I have Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme (there's a song in there somewhere), Dill, sweet & Genovese Basil, Cilantro, Chives, Spearment, Peppermint growing in pots & window planters. There's nothing better than using herbs and vegetables that you've grown, together with fish and/or meat that you've caught/shot.

I started all my growing, mostly from seed, but some from starter plants around May 1st this year. Later than usual, but we had a cold, wet Spring here in the Northeast. My tomatoes are big now, but have not turned red yet. I've already harvested many sugar snap peas (they grow fast) and a bunch of zucchini, but like some of you have said, I'll have more veggies than I know what to do with come the end of Sept. If I can win my war with the rodents, that is.

I think bee keeping is great! My father had freinds that had a dozen or so hives. I can still smell the "honey shack" in my mind and that was when I was a kid, over 30 yeas ago. That's a hobby I would love to learn more about and do, but my area is not rural enough to keep bees. BTW, forgive my ignorance, but how do you make the bees "go away" while you take the honey from the hives if you don't smoke them out? Mind you, my knowledge of honey making is from my memories watching the adults when I was a kid. I remember the net suits, the smoker (kinda looked like a oil can) and the smell but that's about it.

Happy gardening. -TomT

By cross, you mean mate, correct? I will requeen every 3rd year with a known queen from either a supplier, or with one reared and bred myself, once I learn that aspect of the art. There's a fellow from KY, a commercial BK who's coming down in August to give a show and tell on raising queens. I sure would like to be able to do that; that way, you don't have to sweat inadvertent Africanization due to your queen mating with a wild drone who has those attributes.

TomT,
You don't really have to be in a rural setting in order to keep a couple of hives. I know plenty of people in my club who live in neighborhoods and keep them in their backyards. Check your local ordinances and start one up. When you get some honey, give some to your neighbors as gifts to smooth the way.

As to harvesting the honey, if you smoke, it can present in the flavor of the honey, which isn't desirable. Some BK's use escape boards, which allow the bees to leave but make it difficult to return. Some use a scented pad with a noxious pheromone to drive them out, but what I do is have an extra honey super on a piece of cardboard next to the hive, and have an inner cover with the opening taped closed. Open the hive, remove the capped frames and place them in the super on the ground. Cover them up each time you do this with the taped inner cover to keep other bees from getting into it, especially if you have other hives nearby. Once you've removed some or all of the frames, fire up your trusty Stihl leafblower, remove the taped top cover, and set the super on it's side with the frames oriented vertically, and the super facing the hive on the downwind side. Cut loose with the blower, and it removes most of the bees pretty quickly, and keeps them near their hive when they're blown clear. Put the super with the honey back on the cardboard, replace the taped top board, and tote your harvest to the honey room. There's usually a few bees left around, but they tend to congregate together, and you can shake or brush them off of the frames and onto the cardboard and take them back to the hive afterwards. Pretty simple really, and quicker to do than to write about.

I finally have time to sit and do this topic some justice. We have 40 acres, 20 of it in hay, about seven in woodlot two of so in garden. Being in a valley at the base of the Olympic mountains and less than a mile from the head of Discovery Bay we have soil composed of clay, clay and a little more clay. We have gone to raised beds mixing certified organic compost with donkey dung and well rotted horse manure. We also built an eighteen by forty-eight greenhouse.

We are big on herbs selling to a local restaurant and the Port Townsend Food Co-Op. I think we hoe have seventeen different herbs growing. Then we have Artichokes, bets,carrots,wild garden kale, sugar pod pees, raddicio, white and red kohlrobi, Walla Walla sweet onions, red onions, cauliflower, broccoli, asparagus, several verities of summer and winter squash, pickling and slicing cucumbers, bush and pole beans, two kinds of potatoes, tomatoes, hot and sweet peppers, leeks, fennel, okra and flours everywhere. There are wild blackberries, salmon berries, thimble berries and out two verities of raspberries. We have planted seven fruit trees and wild cherry trees are abundant on the place.

For animals we have eighty some chickens (go ahead and try to get an exact count, I double dog dare you!) and a hen due to start hatching a huge clutch of eggs on Monday. We have Icelandic sheep we raise for meet and wool and two guard llamas who are also wool providers. Then we have three hives of bees with a goal to expand to twenty.

That is pretty much it. I am sure I have overlooked several veggies but I am a guy and according to my wife we guys never get it all down right.

Here are a few recent pictures. First is the house we moved from down the road and set up for our daughter and her family.






[img:center]http://i721.photobucket.com/albums/ww211/compassrosefarms/DSC_5390.jpg[/img]
[img:center]http://i721.photobucket.com/albums/ww211/compassrosefarms/DSC_5614.jpg[/img]
[img:center]http://i721.photobucket.com/albums/ww211/compassrosefarms/DSC_5702.jpg[/img]
[img:center]http://i721.photobucket.com/albums/ww211/compassrosefarms/DSC_5622.jpg[/img]

Nice digs Scott. Looks like a full time job.

It is a full time ob, after I drive a truck for 68 or so hours a week.

Wife and daughter do a great deal of the work and I just try to wade through the "Honey/Daddy Do List"

I know the feeling. I'm gone two weeks out of every month too, or I was until they cut back my hours, so now it's more like 9-10 days a month, but it can make getting things done on the time line in which they need to be done problematic.

WOW. Thanks for the bee keeping info. Mike. A leaf blower, that's great! Hopefully when I retire in 10 or 15 years, I will get some bees.

Scott, beautiful pics, looks like a little slice of heaven. Happy harvesting!

Thanks guys. -TomT

I sure do!
[img]http://www.huntingpictures.net/photo/018103[/img]

Lookin good!

Does it count if I like to WATCH our gardener tend to ours? jorge

Anybody want some cow manure for the compost pile? My brother had a dairy here and it was wet this spring, had to pile most of it out of the freestall barn instead of spreading it on the fields. Should be fairly solid by now, but well stocked with weed and johnson grass seed. I'll even load for nothing as long as his loader is still here. 3 cubic yard bucket should get the job done quick! Don't be bringing any half ton pickup! He'll be spreading it this fall if things work out.

Scott;
Thanks for putting up the fine photos.

Your place looks wonderful, I especially like the old farm house and what you all have done with it.

Thanks again,
Dwayne

Oak leaves work great for me. A cometary bails them up every fall and I snagged about 40 of them a year.
Got stuff in late this year as it was a chilly spring. Summer is the coldest on record. Tomatoes will grow to the top of the 5' rebar wire and really put out.



raspberries should be coming in a couple weeks, big as your thumbnail

Great thread, .....and an important one.

I'll post some pics pretty quick,.....

just a mite bushed ( guess why ) right now.

FUNNY Honey-Dew Melons getting it on,....and beans from another universe.

All the Tomatos wanna' do is grow bloody VINE ?

This is all probably Bush's fault.

GTC

Not at all. Nothing wrong with the plantation model.