Gardening for a loser

As I age, the heat bothers me more and more. We actually run the A/C in summer now, not just relying on the fans. And as I have had my third skin cancer removed this week after having 6 keratosis frozen off last month, I have to wear long sleeves, sunscreen, and a big hat to be outside, so not comfortable when it is in the upper 80’s, so the garden is winning, I’m losing. All of my efforts last year prior to the garden season of putting down cardboard, building boxes, and mulching paths hasn’t helped much. The paths are full of grass and prickly weeds, there are two weeds that seem to love the beds and require lots of weeding. It can only be done first thing in the morning or late in the evening and the weeds are winning. The heat has caused the spinach to bolt, the peas to wilt, and the potato foliage is already dying back. All but two spinach plants were harvested last evening and stripped of useable leaves, the last of the stressed sugar snap peas were picked and shelled as shelly peas as the pods were too tough.

The line trimmer needs to be taken to the paths, the comfrey cut back, the potato bed heavily mulched with straw until they can be dug, the tomatoes and peppers hand weeded.

More cucumbers and sunflowers were started late last week and there were nice shoots in starter pots on the deck table. We had a wicked storm last night that required bringing the umbrella in, flipping the glass top table over, so the shoots were placed on the deck floor, in a sheltered place. When trimming this week, I twice spotted a field mouse under the deck and this morning, half of the new shoots are gnawed off.

The back flower garden that was so much effort last year is a weed fest. The flowers are mostly potted as we aren’t finished back there yet, but the soil surface is full of unwanted growth and since the soil layer is thin over weed mat and cardboard, hoeing it doesn’t work. The deeper section below the retaining wall has enough soil to be fairly easy to hand weed.

The deer are feasting on plants they have never bothered before and the hay is still standing. At least the mowers are back home and local grandson got the yard mowed this week with me getting the parts I don’t want him doing by mowing in the evenings.

At this point, instead of enjoying it, I am frustrated with it. Maybe it is time for old lady beds that are at least knee high and set over a substrate material that will actually block out the weeds. I love the stuff growing in half barrels that are easy to reach and maintain, but not a lot can be grown that way. Once we are really getting food from the garden, my feelings will become more positive, but right now, I’m glad we have a great Farmer’s Market and a grandson who enjoys riding the riding mower for a few bucks every now and then.

Not a good Bee Mama, I guess

On June 1, my friend and I did a hive inspection. One hive had a virgin queen, one was queenless, 1 had a queen that died of shock while she was being marked, and 1 was truly Queenright. We hoped the virgin queen would make her mating flight and return to provide brood, shifted a couple of frames of brood around to queenless hives with queen cells on them, and waited to see results. Yesterday, I went to inspect them alone. Three hives have no eggs, no larvae, two with good population, the third not so good, the 4th hive thriving with a marked queen. A message was sent to Son2, the bee owner, but didn’t hear back from him. Messaged my friend and posted on the local bee keeper’s forum and it was suggested to shift frames again, look for queen cells, wait and hope they make new queens.

Another inspection with intervention will occur this week, maybe tomorrow before the heat dome returns to cook us. I feel bad that this has happened, but am at a loss as to a solution. We may have to reintroduce new queens to the three hives and hope for success. Three of the hives are or have been making honey and the honey supers on those hives are heavy.

I fear that the weakest hive has a worker layer as there are lots of drone cells in that hive and that is not sustainable.

Unfortunately, the beginner beekeeper class occurred before I knew there would be hives here, so I missed it this year. A couple of the keepers offered to come put another set of eyes on the situation, but today is Father’s Day and other plans had already been put in place.

Son2 is due here this week at the end of their vacation, I hope he has time to inspect while he is here and can offer guidance.

Purgatory

The hens are 2 1/2 years old and laying has significantly fallen off the cliff. Only about half as many per week as a year ago, plus this summer, they are taking turns being broody that also slows production. The first hen to go broody was a Buff Orpington and trying to wait her out was unsuccessful. She sat for 5 weeks. Without a broody cage, the only solution that came to mind was to put her in the Chicken Palace, a large A-frame coop made from scrap wood and extra roofing material that was going to be for meat chickens. It has never really been used that way, but is used to isolate old hens when new pullets are ready to go to the coop. It has proved a good purgatory for a broody hen to be isolated for 3 days and 3 nights with food, water, and an old homemade ladder to perch on, but no nesting boxes. It worked with her and when late last week another Buff went broody, she was immediately removed to Purgatory for three days and three nights. She was freed Tuesday night, just in time for an Easter Egger to go broody beginning last night. Tonight, she was put in there to begin her cooling off period.

She is most unhappy with her current situation, but if left alone, she would just encourage more copycat behavior.

Early in the week, we had two of our grandchildren for two nights. They are 10 and 15, so old enough to do adventures with. We took them to the Amish store in Whitegate for the best sandwiches that are huge and relatively inexpensive, then a few more miles to Dismal Falls or Falls of Dismal depending on which sign you see. Last time we were there, almost no water was going over the falls, but there was still a swimming hole. This time, a lot of water was spilling down, very, very cold water. Still not as much as photos show, but still very pretty. Though none of us were brave enough to actually swim, we all waded, and granddaughter managed to dunk fully under once.

An AT thru hiker and I debated whether this was a water snake or a copperhead. I didn’t want to get close enough to see if it had pits, but it did have the hourglass markings. The hiker thought it was a water snake. At any rate, he knocked it off the log with a trekking pole and it went downstream.

Tonight a thunderstorm passed to the south down the river, producing a lot of cloud to ground lightening that I tried to capture with a photo unsuccessfully, but the storm light made the still standing hay look red.

Even though it didn’t pass over us, hopefully it will cool the 92 degree day down. Tomorrow is still very hot and Saturday is supposed to be 16 degrees cooler, a welcome relief after this week. Our hay is still standing, the deer are eating the lower branch tips on all the fruit trees, the potted plants on the porches and back garden are requiring daily watering.

The garden still has no cucumbers and few sunflowers, corn is beginning to show. More cucumbers and sunflowers were started today on the back deck. The heat is going to wipe out the peas, but the beans are beginning to flower. The potato plants are beginning to die back, so a storage plan needs to be decided on soon.