mid-winter hive check

I was wondering about my bees today and so I dropped an email to Tony at my local bee club and asked if I should be checking them in the winter. The answer was "Yes, I should". But not like a summer inspection. (... more)

at the northern edge of a giant snowstorm

We only got a couple windswept inches of snow yesterday, but Skippy watched it fall at the Sudbury River. Boston was way up at the northern end of the giant snowstorm that hit the coast south of us. I only have a little bit to snow blow this morning.

new app! --- flowers and herbs

Our new app is out! A planting calendar for Flowers and Herbs. $1.99 at the apple Store. 60 varieties with sowing times and methods. The calendar starts soon with winter sowing of varieties that need cold stratification.

Apple store link: Skippy's Flower & Herb App

bee hives in winter cold

My bee hives are dwarfed by the long winter shadows. I'm wondering how the bees are doing. We've had a couple weeks of temperatures in the 20's and below. (...more)

winter tunnel update

I've been looking for my bottle of castor oil for a week now. There are vole holes in my winter tunnel and wanted to give the soil another dose. I finally found it. Of all places - in my new garden shed! I forgot about that spot. There it was with the empty pots and garden sprays. I'll have to get used to having a shed.

Today I opened up the tunnel. I'm really pleased with how everything is doing. Fortunately, no more vole damage, except a small bite in a Daikon radish. And the plants are still fine after a week with low temps below 20F. In the afternoon, even at 28F, there's lot's of condensation on the plastic. Unlike the rest of my garden soil, the soil inside is not frozen.

So I mixed up some castor oil and applied it. I'm a bit concerned I may have used too high a concentration. I used 1/4 cup castor oil, 1/4 cup liquid soap in 2 gallons water. That's 1.5%. About 4 times what I find is recommended now that I look. We'll see.

I'm thinking my tunnel might soon be covered with snow and I might not open it again for a while. Just as good as the plants inside now are small for harvest. I think my layers of plastic and double frost fabric probably reduce the faint sun we have. So the plants won't do much growing until March probably. Wow, I wonder if they'll survive til March?

potato order

I've decided on my potato selection for this year. 4 types, all from Fedco Moose Tubers:

Natascha, v. early, yellow skin/yellow flesh, waxy, high yield, high scab res
AmaRosa, mid-late, red skin/red flesh, waxy, high yield, high scab res
German Butterball, late, yellow-russet skin/yellow flesh, med/dry texture, med/high yieid, exel storage
Russet Burbank, late, russet skin/white flesh, dry texture, high yield, high scab res., exel storage

Last year I restrained my self to one variety, spaced the eyes out nicely, and ended up with a very poor harvest. I'm looking forward to abundance this year!

Jan 18: I've just placed my order. Some things are already selling out at Moose Tubers. Fortunately they still had the four varieties I want, but conventional only - the organic ones were sold out. I was surprised at their shipping charge of $15 on my $21 order (10 lbs total), but I want these varieties and I suppose 10 lbs isn't like shipping little seed packets. (Thanks for the correction below.)

In placing the Burbank Russet order I see this note: "This dependable standard requires heavy feeding and regular moisture for exceptional performance." I'll have to remember that. I neglected both with the Russets I grew last year and had a very low harvest.

winter tilling

I read at LSUAg that winter tilling can reduce problem insects in the soil. Our soil is about to freeze up, so I turned a few beds that had problems last year. My sweet potatoes were badly damaged by wire worms and other unidentified things. My carrots had root maggots. (Now that I think again, the carrot problem is from flies - not a soil issue. I'll use row cover on them next year.) But the sweet potato bed had soil problems. I won't plant them in that same bed next year. Maybe they can go in the winter tilled carrot bed. I'll do what I can to build up good soil structure this spring. Beneficial nematodes, lots of compost, fish emulsion, biochar, etc.