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Comment by Joan Denoo on March 20, 2013 at 7:59pm

Sentient, your bee hive looks wonderful. What is the roof? I am really curious about that hive and hope it feels like a palace to the bees. What a treat for you to come home to. I can see you now, sitting under the shade of one of your lovely trees, watching and listening to all those workers going about their business. With all the clover and wonderful blossoms coming they will feel like it is paradise. 

We are in the midst of furious wind, lightning and thunder storm with black black clouds with streaks of silver. A beautiful sight and sound. 

Comment by amer chohan on March 20, 2013 at 7:46pm

Sentinent nice bee box, last year one of my relative entered into patnership with some professional bee-keeper. Recently he was telling details of their growth, how their boxes dioubled, their diseases and bee-eaters etc. Whole of the story seemed very intresting to me. Hope your experience with the bees works well.

In the picture a multi-purpose activity of tree pruning and goat feeding is in the progress. It is usually done in the begning of the winters. Intresting thing is that woman doing it didn't compromised on her routine clothing outfit inspite of the hight of the tree which makes it very dangerious. Your question ignited my mind and here I came across a very intresting example of tree pruning.

Comment by Sentient Biped on March 20, 2013 at 5:35pm

Amer, what is happening in that photo?  Is it tree pruning?  Collecting wood?  Interesting picture.

I hope you will have photos of your grafted cacti.  They are very interesting.

Annie, the bamboo will make great beanpoles.  Once they start winding around, they will find their own way up the poles.  Tree sticks work too, if long enough.  Different pole beans grow different heights - you probably want them at least 6 feet tall.

 

Joan - no bees yet.  The place that orders them projected early April.  I hope I am out of the hospital then!  Surgery will be tuesday.  If it goes well they expect a week in the hospital, then roughly a month to recover.  I will obey the doctors and nurses so I recover as fast as I can.  So it might be close....  Installing the bees is not physically demanding at all, so as long as I'm on my feet that part will be OK.  Once in the hive, they need to be left alone for a week, so again not too much needed from me.

 

Went ahead and painted the beehive.  Here is is now in the yard.

 

And here it is open, with some top bars removed to show the internal structure.

This has been in my mind for 2 years, reading and planning.  Mostly the past 1 year.  Took 2 3-hour beekeeping classes.  Read several books.  Throughout history, bees have been kept in many cultures, primitive and advanced, and many places.  I think the insects will teach what to do.

Comment by Joan Denoo on March 20, 2013 at 4:53pm

I hope you share some photos of your garden Annie. And keep us informed on how you decided to manage vine crops. 

Comment by Annie Thomas on March 20, 2013 at 3:34pm

Thanks Joan!  I have access to all the bamboo I care to cut, so I think I will go with that.  My beans are already growing (in raised mounds in my garden) so I will devise supports to fit in. 

Comment by amer chohan on March 20, 2013 at 3:25pm

Sentinent, this winter's grafting was crazy. I had some unexpeted failures and successes. It was always at the back of my mind that I will discuss the results with you. I was waiting for the scions to grow a little(as catus grow very solw) to talk to you. Hope they are big enough when you are back.

Comment by Joan Denoo on March 20, 2013 at 1:02pm

Randall, That temperature difference " Forecast high today--28. Last year, 80. Ugh" doesn't give you any assurance of a certainty or stability of weather. Well, I guess we have to put on our "flexibility" hat and get on with it. 

We had very hard frost yesterday morning. 

Comment by Joan Denoo on March 20, 2013 at 12:57pm

S.B. good morning. Thinking of you. Have your bees arrived?  

Comment by Joan Denoo on March 20, 2013 at 12:55pm

Annie, I forgot to mention I make teepees out of bamboo and grow pole beans and peas on that. In the stack version, I grow bush plants. It increases my planting space and is pretty as well. 

Comment by Joan Denoo on March 20, 2013 at 12:52pm

Annie, I love bamboo in the garden and they make excellent vine supports. They last a long tie, are inexpensive, can be easily cut to desired lengths, and look natural. I use bamboo in a lot of different ways, but here are examples:

You can's see it in this view, but I stack pots filled with nice rich soil and saucers and plant beans or peas or whatever in each pot. The top pot is empty so I can place a hose in it and slowly drip water the whole stack. It worked far better than I hoped. 

In this one, a bird-bath, I stacked pots and saucers. This created an unstable stack so I used bamboo poles to stabilize it. A simple drip system keeps a drip dropping every few seconds, thus creating a nice sound that attracts birds. The birds swarm all over it. They often stand on the poles as they drink. It is easy to take apart to clean, which I do several times a year. 

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