What have you done today in the Garden?

Thanks for the tip, Jane...But the coyotes seem to be a better tip. Repelling id one thing; however. the coyote option seems a more exact option. I can just imagine the authorities picking you up for shipping coyotes to europe...headlines read: "Noble American Only Wanted To Help With Rodent Control".

 

Sjoerd, the headline would more likely be "Crazy Lady Strikes Again!"

 

The weather here has been absolutely "tropical". We had some serious work to do back over by the bees...but that would have to be done during the twilight as to not excite the bees too much. There was still a sort of "Night Watch" on the flight plank just outside the entrance split...so I ushered them back inside with a foam runner strip, sealed the split and then did some strimming in front of the hives. The terribly overgrown wire roll corner just to their left had to be emptied and then I had to remove all nettles, bind weed and other nasties. Then put back. I had not closed the splits yet, so there were "visitors" that came over to investigate us and express their wish that we would leave...which we did, not having on any protective clothing. We left and stood for a moment then went back. One does not let a couple of irritated sisters discourage the work of serious gardeners. Right? There was also some Iris pseudacoris. An otherwise beautiful plant; however, they can clog the canals and we are thus required to keep our canals clear of weeds, water plants and debris. So then, I chopped them. Reed is another thing that we must fight and remove.

After three weeks of stirring, the crème honey was ready to place in jars for later use. Aren't they gorgeous. I left one jar of the honey to show how it looked before crèaming.


Further We cut the grass paths again and strimmed the edges and outside the fence.
Oh yes...and with the occasional sunshine we could melt more wax frames. Here you can see Stage two of the melting process. I will scrape off all that dark brown crud off and then melt it again with a sort of au bain-Marie method. The final stage will be using a micro filter to get the rest out of the processed wax.


With all the heat and rain the grass (and weeds) are growing like mad.
We are still suffering with voles and moles this year. I have had some success in combating them...but they just keep coming. There is a plague going on at the moment.

 

I dug and cleaned carrots this morning. We have a good harvest with the Danvers Half-long doing better than the Chantenays.
This afternoon I'm decanting basil red wine vinegars into smaller jars. The six week ripening/aging process is done, and if I do say so myself, the vinegar smells heavenly (of course, not everyone appreciates the heady smell of basil red wine vinegar--poor souls.) I have a friend who does a lot of outside grilling, and who likes to marinate steaks and pork chops before throwing them on the fire. I'm not bothering with a small jar for him. He gets the wine bottle full of vinegar (we don't use a full bottle of red wine, just clean and re-use a clear wine bottle for the aging process.)

 

Out in the front yard wrestling with weeds. Talked with a neighbor out on his walk. He mentioned that he’d not seen any honey bees in the neighborhood. Told him to look for the native bees. Seems that is all we have. I actually prefer the natives and love the 3 varieties of bumblebees, but it is sad that there are no healthy hives in the neighborhood. Am leaving most of the California poppy that the bumblebees frequent.

 

S, that is an awesome chunk of wax.

not much really going on in the garden. it rains and rains and rains. here is the latest from yesterdays storm. thankfully we didn't get the torrential downpour they were forecasting for us but others got it...
https://fox8.com/2019/06/20/photo-g...ng-effecting-residents-across-northeast-ohio/

 

Finished sowing the wallflower seeds. Did some watering.

 

Thanks Carolyn--That is just the beginning. There are several more frames to melt down.

Today I cleaned the blueberry patch. What a terrible job that was--the sun's heat annnnd the little red ant colonies. What a challenge that was. Picked more broadies. Did quite a bit of schoffeling of the flower garden plots.

 

Planted some more cosmos and weeding. Was going to water the polyanthus but it started raining but it's not enough.

 

Had to check on and repair damage to the potted plants from two days of windstorms we had this weekend. Not too bad, actually, but certainly demanded some attention. I like the rain but the wind? Not so much...

My cherry tomatoes are ripening and peppers are maturing nicely. The herbs are doing super well, and I harvest some every other day or so. Just bought a cookbook that had a recipe for cucumber and dill salad. I have fresh of both!

 

Potting up new plants. Gerberas for winter.
K

 

I know that it's a bit late but i gave the michaelmas daisies the Chelsea chop. That's when the Chelsea flower show is in tv.

Pulled up some of them that were over crowding the roses.

 

Watered everything this morning as well. Man, was it hot!

Planning to prune the plants of dead and sick branches after harvesting all the ripe fruit. Tomorrow is fertilizing and weeding day.

A farmer's work is never done... Lol

 

Watering and harvesting till it got too hot.

 

Too hot to do anything in the garden, waited till 7pm to do the watering.