Garden is (almost) DONE!

I spent the last week getting my raised beds weeded, tilled, built up higher and planted. The peas and beans sprouted before I was even done with the other boxes. I decided to try an experiment this year. Last year, I noticed that all of my beds (especially the one with the lettuce, swiss chard and radishes) had lots of earwigs. The ONE box that didn't have ANY bugs was the box with the onions. Hrmmm. Not even a grasshopper bothered that box. So I took the onions that had survived the winter and planted six of them in each box. Bug repellant that won't hurt my bees.

   

   I have my beans, peas, cabbage, bok choy, lettuce, asparagus, swiss chard, radishes, peppers, tomatoes, onions, and garlic all planted. I still want to plant a few Roma tomatoes, some cucumbers, squashes and corn. But the beds are done. 

   I found all of these slimy little mushrooms growing in one of my beds. In the desert. Who knew? I am going to leave them alone and just watch them for a while, our climate isn't friendly to mushrooms and I am not worried about them spreading or becoming a problem.

   We also added four fruit trees this year (along with the cherry tree we planted last fall). We got a peach tree, apricot tree, apple tree and plum tree. The bees will be very happy next year when they blossom. On the meantime, my neighbor is more than happy to share the fruit from her overloaded trees. She is noticing a big difference since I got the first hive.

Spring fever

I am so totally over winter. Not that we have had much of a winter or anything, I am just ready for spring. Spring usually comes late to the desert, sometimes as late as June. At that point it usually just skips spring all together and snows one day and hits the 90's the next.

Yesterday was a mild day and the bees were out in force. I actually watched one of them bury herself in the chicken feed. She wandered around for a while in it and then just wiggled her way right down into it. Weird little bug. There is something in the feed that really attracts the bees. Every day that it is warm enough for them to be out, they are all over the scratch. The chickens don't seem to like that much and steer clear. I fed them yesterday and am watching close to make sure they don't starve. So far so good.

I have plans to split my hive this spring and am working (nagging) on Hubby to get me another hive built. So far he seems very hesitant. I think he is intimidated by building it. Not sure why, he built a nice big shed for the dogs complete with loft, windows and dog doors. He also built our nice chicken coop. A beehive should be a walk in the park.

I have also been looking through seed catalogs and planning this years garden. We learned a lot last year and are going to make a few changes this year just so things run smoother. We are going to plant the potatoes and onions first (like soon) and the lettuce and radishes last. I got over excited and planted all of the instant gratification plants first last year and had too short of a growing season for the plants with a longer maturity time.

I also put in an order for chicks already. I am going to get two more Black Australorps, and six light Brahmas. I had really wanted some blue laced red wyandottes but I had to order a minimum of 10 and they were over $4 a chick. *sigh* So no pretty hens for me this year. My hens have already started laying for the season and are keeping us stocked nicely.

HURRY UP SPRING!!