What have you done today in the Garden?

I await with bated breath. (I've never really know where in the world that expression comes from).

 

Hiya Cayu--Bated is an old English word used back perhaps five hundred years ago. It is a shortening of abated.

This morning I went to the lottie to place a bee outlet under the honey attics. I will remove the honey frames tomorrow and my old bee father (mentor) will centrifuge them. Actually my Bride and I will do the work and he will have to stay in another room, as he is in the danger zone where Covid is concerned.

We also harvested the Swiss chard and schoffeld the purple sprouting broccoli before coming home. The wind was terrible today--Beaufort 5-6, so being there was not pleasurable as all that wind just gives one a sort of 'busy' head.

Those of you who keep bees know that when the weather is bad or going bad the bees are irritated. I managed to get stung a few times today. They went right through the protective gloves--fingers and palm.

You could well ask me why, then did I go into the bees. It was the day that I had to check them (every 10 days) as they have decided to make swarm cells and of course, I had to place the bee outlets. It is unfortunate that we are having in-climate weather at the moment. Ach, sometimes it just goes that way.

 

Oh dear yes sometimes it just does go that way.

Hope the stings aren't too bad. I know there are a lot of nerves in our hands.

 

You are quite right about there being lots of nerves in our hands.
Ha, ha, ha...my index finger is almost wider than long now....Not really.
The stings are not bad at all, just a little prick. I find the itching later far worse.

We cleaned those broccolini plants today--the ones under the net. What an awkward chore that was. I recall that you like broccolini, so we thought of you whilst scratching around in the patch. Since you like them so much, are you growing them this year?

 

Sjoerd, so sorry you got stung. There is an anti-venom liquid on the market (Baker's Venom Cleanser) that if applied within a few minutes after a sting, no pain, no itch! We keep a small vial on hand for wasp stings or any other stinging insect. It even works for fire ant bites!
www.BeeStingCure.com. Although it is from Illinois here in the states, they may be able to ship. The ingredients are simply listed as "natural herbs."
We dug potatoes today, Kinnebecs and Red LaSodas. A good crop so we will be well set with potatoes for quite a while. I do love our treasure hunts for onions and potatoes. If I don't get out and weed the beans again, picking beans will be a treasure hunt, too!

 

That looks like interesting stuff, Jane. I am not so bothered about the little amount of pain, or even the itching, but the swelling can sometimes get out-of-hand, so to speak. I also noticed that his stuff is also good for ant, hornet and wasp stings...but as I said, it isn't the pain that bothers me it is the itching and swelling that comes some 12 hours later and for a couple of days thereafter. Anyhow, I may investigate this because my Bride doesn't like to get stung. She tells me that the buzzing sound the bees make when tangled in her hair is what drives her round the bend. She doesn't help me with the bees very often any more.

 

Just finished planting the last of my annuals. Shady beds will sport red and white impatiens. Other sunnier spits will have wax begonias. Now, if the squirrels will leave them be.
We have a pair of Mallard ducks that have taken a shine to my back yard. It’s been fun watching them for the past couple of weeks. They don’t really mind me much when I’m out there with them.

 

You ought to post a couple of piccies, Kay.

 

I always knew the word baited breath, so I did the legwork and discovered bated is more common, but alternatively baited is also possible.

sunny morning, I harvested chard and strawberries and lettuces. I weeded strawberries and carrots and thinned the carrots. I planted a row of carrots at the end of October last year. Half of which I had in a polytunnel. Some bolted this spring, but the majority are doing well and I am harvesting carrots now already bigger than any that I grew last year. I had rubbish carrots last year. This year, I have twice planted carrots and so "what’s for dinner" will be carrot soup.

I also prepared a bed for beans. This afternoon we are having big rains again. Yesterday was dry, but the day before, we had 42mm.

 

My son and his wife came for a visit. So I sent some lettuce and kale home with them. I checked on everything, lots of blooms on the boysenberries, the raspberries have buds on them (both the red and the black) but they just got planted so I wasn't sure if they'd have any, the potatoes are growing by leaps and bounds, and the strawberries are loaded! The beans are getting bigger, as are the zucchini and cucumbers.

Attachments

• 
  IMG_20200606_172300489.jpg
  447.1 KBViews: 0
• 
  IMG_20200606_172337646.jpg
  311.4 KBViews: 0
• 
  IMG_20200606_172348891.jpg
  487.6 KBViews: 0

 

Today I harvested my first raspberries. I strimmed around the garden and for a client. I finished weeding and thinning the carrots. I transplanted 10 pumpkins and turned and made compost. Now it is raining so I can do nothing much.

 

Cayu -- You are a clever cloggs: it is indeed a Cosmea sort. It is the 'Cupcake'. I thought that I ought to tell you as you were becoming a bit cyanotic around the edges.
That Cosmea is supposed to grow to be much taller, so I have something to look forward to. It ought to get to be about tummy or chest-high.

 

Just had a tidy up after the wind, lots of leaves and catkins off next door's trees. Mowed both lawns. Tidied up the wisterias.

The grass is slowly recovering after the hot weather.

 

Here's my potatoes, they're getting huge!
Attachments

• 
  IMG_20200606_17222933

 

They look great Willow.

@Sjoerd cosmos!!! That's a great name for it too: cupcake because it does look like the paper that goes around a cupcake! A very pretty flower.

Today I went to the Community Garden early to de-bug the aparagus rows. The beetles fall off easily, so you put a container of soapy water under the bug, jostle the branch gently and the beetle drops into the soapy water. Took me awhile though.
Then I weeded the aparagus patch, and spread wood ash. Next I planted more carrots (this is the third time!!! Don't know what's happening with them). Planted another row of peas and another row of beans. I hilled up the potatoes and then called it a day.