Honeybees. 6.26.2020

It's been a few days since transferring the feral honeybee swarm to the top bar hive. They seem OK. One mistake I made with previous attempts, was I was too nervous about opening the hive. By not doing so, the honeybees built comb across the bars instead ofjust on the bars, and it became impossible to open the hive without making a big mess and ruining a lot of the comb.  This time, I want to do it right.  I opened the hive and examined most of the bars, with comb being built on about 6 bars now.  A couple have a fairly large comb although not yet filling the entire space..

Me at top bar hive, with newly made comb.  6.26.2020

Close up of comb with honeybees.  6.26.2020

Years ago when I was trying to support honeybees as well as native pollinators, I grew some milkweed from seeds.  It hasn't spread much, which is good, but grows nicely each year.  The honeybees like these fragrant flowers.  I also moved some milkweed to woodlot, which is too weedy for much growth of desired plants and is on my list to clean up.  Meanwhile there are these nice ones, which get no watering at all throughout the summer, and are under the fig trees.

Honeybee on Milkweed Flower.  6.26.2020

Honeybees also like alliums.  I have a lot of chives and garlic chive, which they like a lot.

Honeybee on garlic chive blossom.  6.26.2020

Honeybees also like linden flowers.  Again, when I was first thinking about bee keeping, I planted four European linden trees.  They are a nice size now, about 15 feet tall, maybe 20 (who knows) and just beginning to bloom.  This is nice timing.

Flowers on Greenspire European Linden.  6.226.2020

 Then there is the wildflower meadow.  This has devolved to mostly daisies and dandelions, with a handful of dianthus and California poppy.  Still, there is nectar and pollen to be had.  In other areas, coincidentally, we had decided only to mow the periphery.  In those areas there is a lot of white clover, as well as dandelions and daisies.  We also have some areas with lots of herbs, including a big patch of lavender, sage, and rosemary, and I grow a fair number of herbs.

Some of the neighbors are also using a minimal mowing philosophy, which may mean more forage for any bees in the area.

Wildflower meadow area.  6.26.2020

Honeybees. 6.23.2020

There was a swarm of honeybees on a bush in the yard. I cleaned up my old top bar beehive, put on the old beesuit, and transferred them to the hive.

I didn't know what to do.  First I made up a solution of sugar water to calm them down.

They were weighing down this bush, which was 6 feet tall but now touching the ground.

I trimmed off the top of the bush so it would be easier to handle.

Carried the swarm to the beehive.

Put them into the hive and close it.  Now I need to quickly read up on what I need to do. next.  I did give them a shallow pie-plate of water with rocks in it for them to drink, and the same with some sugar water.

Rufus. 6.22.2020

Summer Grafting a Peach Bud. 6.22.2020

I've been wanting to propagate the Peach Leaf Curl Resistant Peach that I grew from a seed of "Oregon Curl Free" peach a few years ago.  This year, once again, no leaf curl at all.   Unfortunately, this tree is in a bad spot in the chicken yard, becoming shaded between two fast growing shade trees. I would like to propagate it so that I can grow it in a better spot.  Also, I would like some to share.  It's a good peach and thrives, at least on it's own roots, in this area.  That's unusual if not unheard of.

Originally I called this Cowlitz Peach, for the neighboring Cowlitz County and in honor of the people who lived here.  However, I'm concerned about inappropriate use of a Native name, so I decided to rename it "Sunny Day Peach".  

In March I tried grafting scion from Sunny Day Peach onto Lovell rootstock, but they didn't take.  I don't have good results grafting peach.  Reading some hobbyist forum threads, maybe it was the cooler weather.  The Lovell rootstock stayed alive and continued to grow, just not the scion.

A few days ago I grafted a bud onto the stem one of those Lovell trees.  It continues to look green, so today I decided to try the other one.

Here is the rootstock tree.  I cut off the dead scion from the top.

Here is a growing stem from the Sunny Day peach tree.  I wanted a vigorous looking, fresh green stem with as stout a bud as I could find.  This wasn't very stout but it has to do.  I put the stem into a glass of water until the rootstock was ready.

Then I cut a patch from the rootstock.  This requires that the cambium layer be easily slipped from the stem, which this being June and these being well watered, it did.  I cut a patch that I hoped would exactly match the piece that I remove from the scion.  My cutting tool is a single edge razor.  This photo shows the beginning of the cut.  In the end, it was a vertical rectangle removed from the stem.

 Here is the patch that I cut from the scion stem. I made it as close to exactly the same as the rectangle that I cut from the rootstock stem.

 Then I eased the patch into the opening.  I had to trim slightly.  but it turned out to be a snug fit.  I wrapped with plastic tape strip, which is a strip cut from a Zipper freezer bag, tied that snugly, and decided it wasn't snug enough so I overwrapped with a rubber band.

Now to nurture and coddle this little tree.  The goal at this point is just healing the grafted patch and stem together.  When that is done, the top can be cut from the tree to encourage the bud to grow.

I really don't know if this will work.  I've done it with plums and cherries.  Peaches are more challenging for me.  My thought at this time is that if it needs warm to heal, well, it's warm now.  I will keep it in the shade and water diligently for a week or so, then maybe return it to a sunnier spot.

So, will there be another "Sunny Day" Peach tree?  I don't know.  Keeping my fingers crossed, and I will try to take good care of these grafts.

Garden Update. 6.21.2020

This update is kind of general, lots of areas of my garden. Being June, things are growing fast and there are fresh  fruits and vegetables now.  There has been a lot of rain, so not much chance to weed and cultivate, so there is some catch up to do.  I over-planted, so some areas are too crowded.

This year I've been feeding the hummingbirds a lot more.  They are coming back and emptying the feeder every day.

Most of the vegetables are growing very well.  If something doesn't grow, I replace it. 

Bush beans didn't grow or something was eating the seeds from underground, despite protecting them above ground.  However the later planted rows are ok and growing true leaves now.  Sweetcorn also germinated unevenly and I replanted one bloc.  The first bloc is uneven.  I suppose the slower ones will catch up. 

I planted too many snowpeas.  The seeds were about 6 years old, and I didn't know if they would grow.  The Taiwan Sugar variety is hard to find, and those were seeds I had saved myself.  As it turned out, most did grow, about half of the Taiwan Sugar and most of the Oregon Spring.  The Taiwan Sugar is a bit less vigorous, but much earlier. None yet from Oregon Spring, but they are blooming now, very pretty.

I also planted the squashes where they don't have room to ramble as much as they will.  I had planted potatoes in the fenced garden because the nonfenced area was not ready, which resulted in some room limitation.  I will plan next year better. Still, the potatoes will be done in July, a month from now.

It was not a problem moving raspberry floricane plants this Spring.  They are bearing nicely and sent up a bunch of sturdy primocanes for next year.  The berries are tasty.

I thought I might have planted the pickle cucumbers too early, but they are growing very nice now.  So are the other cucumbers.  Dill isn't growing well.  Maybe it will take off soon.  Cilantro is growing nice.  On the other hand, I got the Jalapenos in too late.  They seem to be growing faster now so might still get a crop later.

I really enjoy those sedum / sempervivum planters, and they should never or almost never need watering.  They are very nice to look at.

Brunswick fig is looking pretty good this year.  Some are within deer reach, so I should do something about that.

Hummingbirds are emptying their feeder every day. 6.20.2020

Sedum planters filled in so nice.  Some are about to bloom. 6.20.2020

I think I know what to plant outside the fence.  Deer don't touch most herbs.  6.20.2020

I think a lot of the bush beans didn't grow because I planted them too early.  The last batch is growing nicely.  6.20.2020

More bush beans.  6.20.2020

The thornless raspberries that I moved in May did very well.  There have been berries to taste and primocanes are growing larger than the floricanes.  6.21.2020

The bush cucumbers (I think "Bushmaster" maybe?) are filling in.  I thought I planted them too early but they are doing well.  The dill is not growing so fast.  Cilantro looks good.  The mini apple tree grafts are behind the raised bed to shade the containers.  They look very good.  6.20.2020

More herbs, on the other side of the fenced garden.  6.20.2020

The sweetcorn is quite variable.  I wonder how much we will get.  There is still plenty of time for it to fill in.  6.20.2020

More sweetcorn, planted later.  Something ate a lot of the first plants.  6.20.2020

Sarracenia.  So lovely.  6.20.2020

Brunswick fig.  Maybe it will bear this year.  Some figs are too low, within deer reach.  6.20.2020