Spring Has Sprung!

Yesterday was spent mulling over how to fill the new garden beds.  I started with a thick layer of cardboard, followed by straw and peat with a sprinkle of alfalfa meal, then any combination of manure/compost/used potting soil (from last years's containers) and/or topsoil I could find.  Then I ran out to pick up some dog and rabbit food.  This in theory will help my layers heat up and break down faster....so more straw and a sprinkling of corn, gluten, soy, and alfalfa rich pet food went on top.  I only had time to finish off one of the beds; a mix of compost, peat, amendments, and vermiculite went next, and all was topped off with some black plastic mulch.  This will most likely be the sweet potato bed.  I need to finish the other 2 off today, but hubby needs to get me some loam first.

Here are the two unfinished beds, with a dog hovering...they are being tortured by the dog food in the beds.  Amusing to watch them try very hard to get their muzzles through the fence and into the straw.

The finished (for now) bed is seen here on the right.  I will need to top it off with quite a few inches of soil before planting.  My Wintersown tomatoes can be seen in the background inside a frame, the jugs are in bags for an extra layer of protection.  There has been no sprouting yet which seems odd since it has been very warm here.  I am afraid the little seeds got jumbled around and are too deep or something.  It is very tempting to break in there and dig around, I may just have to today.

I also need to turn my coldframe around at some point, it is facing the wrong direction, and now that the fence has been expanded it can face the proper direction for maximum sun exposure and be opened!

I saw on another MA blogger's post yesterday that the honeybees were out.  It seems too early, but sure enough, they were buzzing around my crocuses as well.  No bumbles though- and they are usually the early arrivals.

This bee had nice big pollen baskets.  We caught him and watched him under magnification for a few minutes.  He was quite distraught, but the kids thought it was cool to check out the busy bee up close.




This other little fella was hovering around as well, not sure what kind of bee it is.  But seriously, where are the big bumbles?

Bumbles

Bumblebees are a gardener's dream.  They emerge early in the season and work from sun up to sun down.  Us Northern gardeners rely on their pollination during particularly cold Springs as they are able to generate body heat with their shivering.  Without bumbles early blooming species (think fruit trees) could go unpollinated  during cold spells.  This ability to work in the cold poses a risk to the gentle giants.  They can be "grounded" by cold weather.  If this grounding lasts an extended length of time the bees will perish as they need a constant food source.  Most of us have come across a bumble that can't fly away early in the morning or during a cold Spring day.  We can help these bees (which early in the season are often queens emerging from their nest) by providing a food source and warmth, here is how:


From www.bumblebee.org, this and other great info can be found under the "Help Bees" section:

If you find a grounded bumblebee early in the year, just at the start of the first warmer days, then it is probably a queen. She may have been caught out in a sudden shower or a cold spell. If the temperature of the thorax falls below 30 ^oC the bumblebee cannot take off (see temperature regulation). The best thing you can do it pick her up using a piece of paper or card, put her somewhere warmer, and feed her. When she has warmed and fed she will most likely fly off. You can feed her using a 30/70 mixture of honey and water in a pipette or eye dropper, or just a drop of this on a suitable surface within her reach, but be careful not to wet her hair or get her sticky. By saving a queen you may have saved an entire nest. If the weather is really unsuitable for letting her go, or if it is getting dark, you can keep her for a day or so if you are willing to feed her.

A grounded bee found at the height or end of summer is another matter. Look at the wings. If they are ragged round the edges (see the photographs of wings) then you have either an old queen or an old worker. There is little you can do as really it is their time to die, however you could take them in and feed them if you wish, but let them go if they start to fly. If the wings are fairly intact then you have probably got a male that is either cold or has been so busy patrolling that he forgot to drink. As above you can take him somewhere warm and feed him, then let him go.

Bumbles in general are attracted to yellow, purple, and blue flowers, especially those with tubular flowers. "Double" varieties of most flowers will not contain pollen so are of no use to bees.  Foxglove and Heather are used as shelter when rain arrives suddenly.  The following flowers are great bumble attractors:

• Blueberry Bush bells
• Blooms of the Nightshade Family
• Columbine
• Delphinium
• Snapdragon
• Bergamot
• Larkspur
• Honeysuckle
• Lavender
• Salvia
• Clover (yup, that white clover in your lawn)  :)

*Many flowers are great multi-species bee attractors in general, such as those found in 'cottage gardens', natives, berry and fruit blooms, high pollen sunflowers, and herbs.*

A food source is not the only requisite for hosting bumbles, they also require a good spot to nest.  Bees tunnel into bare dirt to lay eggs and hibernate, so mulch of any sort makes a landscape unsuitable (this is more problematic in urban settings).  The base of stones and hedges are frequent nesting sites so be careful not to disturb these areas whenever possible.  Curious about how to sex a bee to see if it can sting?  Check out an older post on the subject of bee bits here.

Wait for it.........

Holy Mother of God it is an actual MELON!! And it has grown into the chain link! I spied this fella while watering the garden this afternoon, squinting into the sun light thinking I must be having a garden hallucination. But no! There really was a big green ball where a melon should be, so I dropped the hose and scurried over to inspect a little more closely- and to my surprise I found more! So the outrageously good news is that I have melons, the bad news is my vines are a diseased mess and have been totally neglected. Sigh.

I immediately went inside to mix up a fish fertilizer cocktail for the fruiting vines, followed but the removal of the worst leaves, followed by a spraying of Bonide (neem), and here is the really bad part- an innocent bumble bee flew into the path of my poison. In all my haste I forgot not to spray the chemicals while the bees are active. *@#&! I feel horrible. I sprayed my winter squash too (first), not thinking the pollinators will will stopping by all afternoon to do their business. Bee killer, that is me.

Guess I shouldn't have stopped watering those dang vines a couple of weeks ago. Or stopped caring that they were going down hill fast for that matter. I had given up any hope of melons this year after my prized baby stopped growing and withered. Boy was I wrong, lets just keep our fingers crossed these beauties ripen before the vines succumb to the dreaded powdery mildew and other such diseases.

Friday's Garden Buzzz

The muskmelon vines are finally starting to run. This is the horse manure compost pile experiment....still male flowers only from what I can tell. Four varieties of the melon seeds I planted were 75-80 day varieties (Green Nutmeg, Early Silverline, Noir des Carmes and Savor Charentais); the other, Eel River takes 90-100 days to mature. Back on May 25 I did a Melons and Beans Post (here) on the compost pile and dog kennel sowings/transplants. Here we are 81 days later, no melons in sight. Some sowings were seeds, others were seedlings 4-6 weeks old at the time of transplant. WTF?!? The only female flowers I have seen are on the 2 plants in a container- WAY past the 75-80 days (photo below). These were transplants and are running up the kennel walls.....maybe the plastic mulch has made the difference in these two vines? I don't see how I will get any ripe fruit which is so dissapointing seeing that I sowed 5 varieties of melons, I was really looking forward to homegrown melons.

Female blossom on mystery melon vine.

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Acorn Squash, the only variety setting fruit thus far. Other varieties are baby Blue Hubbard, Bush Delicata, and Butternut.
(All squash varieties are 90 days out from planting.)
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I have been watching my eggplants flower, hoping I would get a purple or green variety out of some of the seedlings. The seed packet I purchased was a mix of four varieties, and the first three plants to set fruit have all produced white eggplants. I am quite excited to finally have a purple one growing, YES! Notice the variation in leaf vein color in the plants below.....next year I will just check the color in the leaves as this seems to indicate the color of the fruit (and thus variety). Mystery solved!-well not completely since I still don't know what the green ones would look like. Sigh.

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The true BUZZZZZ around the garden......

Lastly, a sure sign that Fall is just around the corner:

Sedum getting ready to bloom.

On that note, have a great weekend everyone, we plan on perfecting our 'beach bum' act!

The Garden Buzz

This busy bee was keeping me company as I did my garden walk through. It took many tries, but I finally caught a shot of it on the flower.


Some bumblebee fun facts: Did you know that male bumblebees have a tell tale fuzzy yellow mustache? (I didn't until now) The sex of this one will remain a mystery along with it's ability to sting. It is true that male bumblebees can not sting, they have 'boy bits' instead! The females however have the ability to sting repeatedly (no barbs) so take caution when looking for that mustache!

Bees go out foraging and mark the flowers they have visited with a scent. It seems as though bumbles will continually visit the same flowers, and at the same time avoid those that have been recently visited by other bees. The one I photographed had 'a full pollen basket', so it must have been nearing the end of it's foraging trip. Gotta love bees!

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That's the cucurbit bed. My little guy was gushing over how "soft and adorable" the flowers were, LOL. It turns out my cukes are a cold tolerant variety which explains their happiness compared with all others in the same family. I have also been very happy with the minimal vine length and spread. These are the Northern Pickling variety from Johnny's:

"A high-yielding, early variety for salads and pickling.
Medium green fruits bear early, and set heavily on short, space-saving vines. Fertilize well and pick frequently at a small size to maintain good color and fruit shape.Developed in Maine."

I had read somewhere to put foil at the base of your winter squash to deter the Squash Vine Borers. Anybody else ever tried this?

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Outie:

Innie:

(A result of the cold I believe.)