A holiday weekend at home was just what I needed to get the garden fully planted. I'm behind schedule due to weather and work, but not hugely.
Moved the 3 blue cochin 7 week old pullets from the brooder to the mini-cooper their transition coop until they are old enough to be integrated with the flock. To make space for the chicks, I rehomed 2 Maran hens that are no longer laying. Made a split from a bee hive and added a new queen on Saturday. She's still in her cage until the bees get accustomed to her. Later today, I will take the tape that is covering the hard candy plug to allow the bees to eat through it and release the queen in 4-5 days. One of the new beekeepers that I'm mentoring, had one of his 1st year nucs swarm on Friday so we set up a lure hive in the hope of coaxing the swarm into it. It took off late on Saturday afternoon. Sunday morning I led an inspection with the other mentees of his hives and found 4 hatched queen cells in the first hive and 1 capped queen cell in the other hive. Very unusual behavior for nucs with plenty of space.
Saturday and Sunday I moved slightly aged chicken manure and compost to the raised beds. I forked the manure deep into the beds to allow it to compost in place. Then I put the finished cold compost on top, and set up the soaker hose and timer. Planted 10 assorted bell peppers, 16 bush tomatoes, 8 mixed variety (cherokee purple, etc), basil, parsley, cilantro. Put in seeds for 8 summer squash, about 70 dragon tongue pole beans, dill, sunflower, calendula, and hollyhocks. I like to mix flowers among the veg to entice the bees to neighboring plants. Mixed epsom salt, eggshells, worm compost in all of the holes before planting the tomatoes to encourage growth. Then applied a foliar spray to feed.
The green and purple bush beans are about 7-10 inches tall with two sets of leaves. I noticed something was chewing on them, likely slugs or pill bugs, so I sprinkled about 2 cups of lightly crushed eggshells around the plants to deter the pests that would have to climb over the sharp shells to get to the plants. That seems to have slowed the pests down.
The cucumbers finally germinated after being planted 2 weeks ago. Sugar snap and snow peas are getting taller and the tree branches pruned off the trees in January aren't tall enough to give the tendrils enough support. Added stakes to hold them up. Moved wayward blackberry canes that rooted where they didn't belong. Blueberries are coming along nicely and will be covered with mosquito netting in three weeks.
Started cleaning out the canning jars and taking inventory of the lids and rings to prepare everything for the upcoming canning season. Looking for new salsa and relish recipes to try out.
Next up I need to tackle a new location for the compost pile and locate another goji berry plant to companion plant with an existing plant. Mulching beds will happen this week too.
Wishing your gardens sunny days and rain only at night.