Hopes For This Year

I'm so happy to be back at TEND for another season!  Thank you for joining us!  When it comes to my garden, I dream big. My list of ideas and wants for my garden is pretty large, but here are a few that I'd like to get checked off this year.

• I'm hoping to fill in some gaps in my established perennial beds.  I'd love to add some ground covers and additional fillers to tie some of the existing plants together.

• I dream of a larger, more tidy vegetable garden.  The wooden raised beds are starting to rot, so replacing those may be a larger project later on this year.

• We have some shaded areas on our property that are pretty bare.  The front yard of our home, which faces west, and the north side of our home both need some help.  I've started purchasing some shade perennials to plant in those areas.

•  My biggest yearning is to have more hard scape done around our home.  Brick, cobblestone, pea gravel, and cement paths around the garden beds would be so wonderful!  Honestly though, those are some high-priced tickets that I don't think we'll be able to afford this year.

I'll be sure to keep posting some of the progress throughout the season.  That's one of the things I appreciate (and sometimes despise!) about gardening - the work is never complete!

Happy Spring, my friends!

A New Season ~ 2015

Happy Spring my friends!

It is always so exciting to start a new season here at Tend. It amazes me that we are going into our 5th year here in this space. Our archives are growing and full of some great ideas and inspiration so pour a cup of tea and peruse when you get a chance.

I want to take the time to say thank you to both Natalie and Melissa for their knowledge, expertise and contributions to Tend.  I learned so much from Melissa about bees and bee keeping last year. It is still a long time dream of mine to keep a roof top hive. I am determined that one day it will happen and I know who to refer to when it does.

Melissa will not be a regular contributor here at Tend but I am hoping that from time to time she will pop in to say hello and let us know what's happening in her garden.

Natalie has been a part of Tend from the very beginning and such a help in getting this space established. It was such a pleasure reading about her beautiful gardens over the years and watching as she found the farm of her dreams.

Natalie will no longer be contributing to this space but you can always visit her over at her gorgeous website and read all about her farm adventures and homestead Freckled Hen Farm.

This year, Tend will be written by just three of us- Amber (on Mondays), Annabelle (on Wednesdays) and myself (on Fridays).  

We are excited to share our gardens with you throughout the season and hope that we will be hosting a few guests this year on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

So without further ado please say hello to my little Spring garden adorned with pansies, lettuces, rhubarb, asparagus, flowering cherry and crab apple, forget-me-nots, swiss chard and kales.

I have been working hard out there and am excited to share my gardening adventures with you.

See you next week!

Amy

fall chores in the bee yard

On Sunday, I discovered a tiny swarm had landed in my back yard, hanging on to the bottom of my top bar hive. 



Several times during the day the back yard had been filled with bees- flying every which way.  This is unusual for my bees.  Their "flight school" lasts a short period of time and is centered around the hive entrance, but these seemed be be like bee storms.  I suspected I might have a swarm, but I wasn't at home to witness either one, so I when I got home, I walked around the yard to check out what had happened and spotted this cluster immediately.






As I knew a cold front was expected to come roaring in- with temps in the 40s and thunderstorms, I knew I needed to act quickly, because the bees would be dead in the morning.  I took my bee brush, flicked them into a plastic shoe box, and put them in the back of my top bar hive.  In the morning, they looked like this- all tucked into a corner, just hanging out:

After I talked to my bee mentor, we figured out that this late swarm didn't seem to have a queen, and since both of my hives were full of brood and eggs, they didn't come from either of my colonies, so he recommended that I spray both the small colony in my tbh and the swarm with lemongrass-scented sugar water, remove the divider, and let them merge.  So I did.

When I was checking my langstroth hive, I spotted the queen (can you see her below? She is in the bottom center of a cluster and has a naturally blackish, hairless thorax, where the other bees are fuzzy and golden) laying eggs, so I knew the swarm hadn't come from that hive.  The honey stores for both my hives are very low, so I made some heavy sugar syrup, to start feeding them.

 This morning I took the top super off of the langstroth (because there was no brood, honey, or anything but bees guarding small hive beetles in "jail" in this super), pitched the lighter syrup, and refilled it to begin feeding them heavily as we head into cooler weather.  I'll continue to keep the feeders in both hives filled with 2:1 sugar:water syrup over the winter.  Summer syrup ratio is 1:1, so this will help build up their stores. 
























And here's my little langstroth hive, ready to snuggle in for the winter. It's been an interesting bee season this year.  I've had a lot of swarming and learned so much.  My mentor has moved away and is now a phone mentor rather than a physically-show-me-mentor, but I've learned a lot by working on my own.

I'm making a list of what I'll need for next bee season: a swarm catcher, since I had no less than four swarms in my back yard this year, another bee suit (or at least a jacket and gloves) for visitors and helpers.  I hope that if you're interested in bees, my bee adventures have fueled your desire to keep bees!

Lemon Verbena

Although autumn is here in full swing, my garden is still full of life and abundance. We have yet to have our first frost, so there are still cherry tomatoes on the vine. Greens such as swiss chard and lacianto kale are growing prolifically amongst the blooming asters and toad lily and there is still quite an abundance of parsley making it's way into many a meal these days.

Another herb that is still growing strong is lemon verbena, an herb that I most recently fell in love with. I have my neighbor to thank for that who gifted me a little brown bag of homegrown lemon verbena tea for Christmas a few years ago. That spring it was the very first plant I bought at the nursery and I find that each year I buy a few more plants than I did the last. I tuck them in to as many pots and planters as possible amongst other herbs and annual flower. I love it's bright green leaves and it's spindly, trailing habit.

I use the leaves fresh in both iced and hot tea throughout the summer and in late summer I begin to dry the leaves to store a way for winter. A few weeks ago we were threatened with some cold night time temps. Since lemon verbena is an annual I pulled a few plants from my pots and hung them in my pantry to dry.

Because the leaves are a bit more dry and tough compared to mint or basil, lemon verbena dries quickly. Simply hang in a dry, cool place. In about 7-10 days strip the leaves from the stem and store in an airtight container. To make tea , simply place a handful of leaves in a teapot, cover with boiling water and let steep for 5 minutes. I like my tea with honey but it's also delicious plain both hot and cold.

DIY - Concrete planters

 I  have a lot of succulents that needs to find new pots. Making your own planters is fun and doesn't take much time. Just need to have everything ready.

So you will need :

Plastic containers ( soft plastic )

I reuse containers, plastic cups, yogurt cups, plastic containers from the restaurant... be creative ! 

Vegetable oil ( I used canola oil ) 

Concrete, I use a mix that you can get anywhere... Of course than you can start to play and add colors, materials... 

A large bowl to mix the concrete 

A little water ( for the concrete ) 

Gloves ( latex )

Here are the plastic containers I used. You will need to find some that are soft, it makes it easier to get the planter out...

Then you fill the bottom with concrete and place the smaller container in the middle and fill in any remaining space between the two containers with more concrete. ( again make sure it's very oily )

I didn't do it but, if you want a planter with a drain I guess you can add in the bottom a piece of a cork or something with a smaller diameter that you'll remove after. ( make sure it's oiled ) 

You wait until it's dry. ( depending on the mix you are using ) 

And tada !  I made 2 of them just to make sure one of them would succeed for the picture and they both worked !

Isn't it sweet ?  It's perfect for a gift as well with a cute little plant in it.

These pansies found a new home

And my little succulent can grow until it will need a bigger pot...

Have fun making these !

Annabelle 

fall flowers

Yesterday, on the way home from school, we walked down the back alleys of our neighborhood and brought in flowers for the dining room table.  All of the goldenrod is taller than I am and I picked armloads of it.

 

Although it is far from my favorite color, I love how all of the blossoms of fall are purple and brightest gold.  There was so much going on it the alleys- goldenrod swaying in the breeze, swamp sunflowers, almost 10 feet tall, budding out.  The poke sallet was full of dark purple berries on magenta stems, and the wild false ageratum looks like lilac pom pons.

From my own yard I picked more of the jerusalem artichokes that run wild through my front flower bed, and some of the hyacinth bean vine, both in blossom spikes and in spikes full of deep glossy purple beans (I'll dry them for next year; I've already noticed someone has been munching on them in the garden).  It's almost time to put in pansies and violas, and I hope that I'll be able to find some decorative kales and swiss chard starts soon since I neglected to plant my seeds when it was time.

Happy Fall, y'all!

End of summer

I have been away from my garden for a long time. I was happy to be back, I feel I missed a good part of the summer in the garden.

End of summer. I like this time of the year when you can feel things are changing, the garden is dying slowly. 

Let me give you a tour of what is happening here.

Harvest of the day,

 I am really happy with those round carrots. We only had a few of them as one of our chickens escaped and ate all the seeds...

Tasty tomatoes for my salads

Pansies in the planters for a little color

From my trip I brought back a hazenult tree...  

Asters are in bloom, this morning walking out in the garden I saw a bunch of bumble bees sleeping right on the flowers ! What a great bed for a bee.