Pestilence, destruction with lost and found bees

To say things are busy at the Florida Bee Farm would be an understatement.  The tomato plants have been producing like mad and we canned 10 quarts of tomatoes in addition to using many of the tomatoes in recipes we like.

Washed tomatoes

canning tomatoes

But these tomato plants take a crazy amount of time every day.  I spend at least 2-3 hours a day re-staking, trimming browned leaves, looking for worms, and harvesting.  And I love doing it so don't get me wrong here.  It's relaxing.

But it's getting to the point where these tomato plants are at the end of their life.  They lost most of their leaves and I'm not sure why.  Possibly a fungus or ????  I'm pretty sure they have enough water and not too much since they are watered with a drip irrigation system.  Maybe the browning and losing of leaves is natural for tomatoes when they are fruiting.  I'm not sure.  But the latest problem has been an infestation of tomato worms which is a big problem since I'm doing this organically without pesticides.  These @#^*&^ worms burrow holes into a lot of tomatoes making them useless.  Yesterday I tossed dozens of tomatoes into the compost bin.  And I squashed a little more than a dozen worms too.  My purple cherokee tomatoes which were just starting to produce nice size fruit (which were not quite ripe) were hit hard.  Oh well, we'll just focus on the tomatoes we do harvest.  And next year we may rethink some things.

The bees are busy as ever doing what they do.  I caught a nice swarm in one of my traps but it looks like one of the hives on the stand is empty.  Maybe they're the ones in the swarm trap, not sure.

The pollinator garden in memory of Paul is doing great and loaded with flowers and milkweed.  The Monarch butterflies and honey bees are all over it. 

I think this blog may be winding down some as I just don't have the time to keep it active.  Too many things to do lately.

Protector of the Blueberries

As the blueberries ripen a big concern around the garden is losing them to birds.  Someone told us that they heard birds can wipe out a blueberry patch in a short period of time.  Besides running fishing line above the plants which would be very time consuming, we came up with the idea of putting a fake owl overlooking the blueberries to discourage curious birds.  I just hope it doesn't deter the band of little birds that are always hopping around between my plants munching on the bugs.  These little birds really do a nice job and are a joy to watch as they go about their business.

See if you can spot the Owl scarecrow in this picture

The Florida Bee Farm's irrigation system has completely failed as the water pump needs to be replaced.  This water pump has been nothing but trouble and recently is overheating and stopping.  When your goal is consistent reliable water to the plants, a pump that randomly shuts down is not an option.  

Blueberries and Bees

Lately there's plenty of activity at The Florida Bee Farm around the blueberry plants.  And there's many different types of bees buzzing around the blueberry flowers.  Bumble bees, carpenter bees, honey bees from our apiary and a couple bee types I wasn't sure of.  While watching a large Carpenter bee on a bud I noticed a couple smaller bees buzzing the Carpenter bee and even bumping into it a few times.  There was plenty of blueberries to go around so not sure what the bee anger was all about. 

Some of the smaller blueberry plants even have unripe blueberries already.  It looks like we'll have a nice harvest of blueberries this year with over 20 mature plants.

Carpenter bee enjoying the blueberry buds

Blueberries formation

Morning pictures

Since it's been much too busy to post a blog post lately I snapped several pictures around the Florida Bee Farm gardens this morning. 

Tomatoes

pineapples and blueberries

Newest growing area

The nursery with all the baby plants

Moringa, Fennel, strawberries, bananas, and sugar cane

Honey Bee Garden

Honey Bee Garden

Spoiled honey bees with shaded luxury suites in the apiary

Banyan tree

Everything's growing like crazy

Florida Green house

Irrigation barrels and compost tea

Bernard the watch lion

Retired battle droid contemplating life after the clone wars

eggplant

broccoli

Honey Bee and Gardening Talk with the Boy Scouts

My nephew Joey who is also a passionate gardener, arranged an event with his Boy Scout troop to visit the Florida Bee Farm for an educational tour and talk about Honey Bees and Gardening.  Joey and I planned the presentation so we would both talk about different aspects of Honey Bees and Gardening.  Joey was pretty knowledgeable about gardening and already knew quite a bit about Honey Bees from coming out to the Bee Farm with me.  I gave him a few "homework assignments" on topics he wasn't familiar with so he could also learn something and also pass it along and teach the other scouts.  Joey is a good teacher and mentor to the younger scouts. 

Visitors to the Florida Bee Farm

Talking about Honey Bees and langstrom Hives

While touring the gardens, one of the scouts was excited when he saw large eggplants hanging from the eggplant plant.  He said how it was one of his favorite things and how he loved eggplant so I broke a large one off and gave it to him.  He said he was going to ask his mom to fry it up as soon as he got home.

The morning was pretty overcast and cool so when we got around to seeing the bees, there were only a few brave bees out flying in the cool weather.  And a couple of shivering guard bees hanging out by the entrances.  The kids and adults were looking forward to seeing the bees so I was disappointed that the weather wasn't warmer so they could experience seeing zillions of bees zipping in and out of their hives along the bee superhighways in our yard.

A great group of scouts showed up

Honey tasting time

In charge of honey tasting

Just around this time it started sprinkling and then turned into a steady rain.  Between the shed overhang areas and the covered greenhouse there was plenty of space for everyone to hang out and stay dry.  The highlight of the day however was the honey tasting.  Several of the scouts were given a container of honey and a bag of plastic spoons to distribute to everyone for tasting.  They were able to taste all the honey they wanted and it was quite obvious that the honey was quite popular.   

All in all it was a very pleasant experience meeting some nice kids and parents and sharing the Florida Bee Farm. 

The good Sun

One of the keys to making plants happy is to put them in a place that has plenty of sunshine.  As the planting continues, good sunny spots at the Florida Bee Farm are becoming scarce.   While thinking about this and a few other upcoming projects I decided to remove all the plants in front of the rain barrels and turn that into a growing area.  It's probably one of the most consistent sun spots at the Florida Bee Farm.

The papaya trees and corn plants were moved to add to the green fence around the apiary which has been a recent project.  Several flowering bushes and plumaria flowers were then relocated to the Bee Garden which is another ongoing project.  And after moving all the plants, I was able to start modifying the rain barrel irrigation plumbing which will undergo some major upgrades very soon.   The irrigation system will be beyond amazing. 

New growing table

After clearing the area a good size growing table was built and the top was painted.  It's a nice solid table which will have a hardware cloth surface for drainage.  Mulch and weed cloth was added under the table to keep the weeds at bay.  This table will have it's own irrigation zone and should be prime real estate for growing stuff.

False Alarm

It was to be a glorious event.  Something we were looking forward to for some time now.  A treat to tantalize the taste buds .... yes, our first red ripe tomato after months of nurturing the seeds and plants. 

The holy grail of gardening

While working in the garden all day I kept glancing over at the red ripe tomato while it basked in the sun.  I figured that it could soak up the sun all day and continue to ripen while I worked.  And then just before I get in my truck to go home it will be plucked from the vine and become our first tasty home grown tomato.

But as every gardener knows ... victory can be elusive and deceptive.  There are many ways to foil success in a garden, especially in Florida.  And in this case I was once again foiled and the trophy quickly taken away after discovering a worm hole on the other side of the tomato.

foiled again

I guess it's time to mix up another batch of natural organic anti bug spray for the plants.  And manually search through the tomato vines for the fat tomato worm that caused this tragedy.

Pineapples, Peanuts and Paul

The projects are never ending at the Bee Farm which keeps me busy.  This weekend it was transplanting flowers and trees from the front of the shed area to the Bee Garden and the area around where the Honey Bees Live.  To make a green fence around them to define their space.  Kind of a separation between the garden and bee space.  Gives the apiary a more natural look.

Pineapple emerging

Yesterday while talking with a fellow gardener, she noticed that one of my pineapples was growing a baby pineapple.   Something I hadn't noticed.  After looking at all the pineapple plants I noticed several new pineapples. Also while looking at the pineapples I pulled what I thought was a weed from one of the pineapple plants.  Low and behold there was a peanut shell surrounding the root of what I thought was a weed.  These pineapple plants were in my front yard in an area where I would feed the squirrels and blue jays peanuts.  Apparently one of the squirrels hid one of his peanuts by the pineapple plant which was later dug up and brought out to the Bee Farm.

Today, the peanut plant was replanted into it's own pot and now we can try to grow peanuts on the bee farm.

Peanut plant buried several years ago by squirrels

The other major project that has taken so much time this weekend is the Honey Bee Garden.  It quickly gets overgrown and is difficult to maintain because I'm often not sure what is weed and what may be flowers coming up from seed.  Many hours were spent weeding and planting some daffodils and other flowers I purchased.  The goal is to spruce up the Bee Garden and make it a memorial in memory of our son Paul.  When I mentioned it to our other son, he thought it was a good idea and added "maybe we should throw a half dozen empty mountain dew cans in the garden for realism which was funny with our brand of humor .... and I'm pretty sure Paul thought it funny also.

Honey Bee Garden a work in progress

I posted in a local plant and seed swap facebook page that we would trade honey for flowers to build up the honey bee garden area.  And we already had someone come out with some passion fruit vines and had a couple other offers. 

Better than a scarecrow

Beautiful Hawk overlooking the garden area

Shortly after arriving at the Bee Farm yesterday I noticed a large bird overlooking the garden from a perch on the power line.  It was a large beautiful Hawk.  When the blueberries start to ripen, it will be convenient to have a Hawk around to keep birds away from the garden.  At least in theory.    Because after a few minutes of observing this Hawk a Blue Jay swooped down to engage the Hawk and they both flew off in a chaotic flight.  Obviously the Blue Jay was a little more agile in flight and able to provoke the Hawk somewhat.  

Our neighbor told a story that last year his wife saw a small Hawk take a baby Blue Jay from a nest.   The baby Blue Jay got away so perhaps this was the now grown up Blue Jay remembering that fateful day and taking it's vengeance out on the Hawk. 

Green Beans

Green Beans are growing like mad and we'll be harvesting some this weekend.  I tasted one yesterday and it was delicious. Eggplants are multiplying and growing fast.  Sugar cane has sprouted and a couple are about 8" already which surprised me.  Little tomatoes are on the vine and a few peppers are growing.  Strawberries doing poorly still and I don't hold much hope for them any longer.   I have enough papayas to supply an army.  What was I thinking?

Strawberry relocation and Bee Farm has everything including the kitchen sink

For the past couple weeks I've been keeping a close eye on my strawberry plants.  They were really stressed out AND were getting relentlessly chewed on by some hungry bugs.  Since I had no clue how guarantee the future health of these strawberry plants, it was time to switch up their environment.  Maybe it had something to do with the mounds I planted them in. Maybe the soaker hoses weren't delivering enough water, Maybe the plastic on top of the soil was annoying the plants.  I didn't know.

Relocated Strawberries

So digging all of them up and replanting was what I felt needed to be done.  Fortunately after only a few days they seem to be much healthier.  I also sprayed them with an organic insect control to keep the bugs at bay.  It was some work digging them up but better than just watching them perish. 

Plant Stand

With all the potted plants I've been producing plus all the seedlings in line for being potted, it was evident I needed a bigger area where all these potted plants can reside.  I used scrap lumber to produce a fairly good size table that was covered with 1/2" hardware cloth.  It also will be tied into the watering system to automatically water the plants on this table. 

Plants on their new table

And while working on this I decided to do something that has been on my mind for awhile now.  Install a sink.  It will dispense fresh tap water and add convenience when I want to wash my hands after digging in the garden.  Ever try washing your very dirty hands while holding a garden hose?  Try it.   Needless to say, I can't wait for this project to be completed.

Kitchen Sink

Blueberries for the Bee Farm

Craigslist has all sorts of interesting things for sale or for free.  This week we drove out to Lithia to get as many mature blueberry plants as we could fit in my truck and trailer.  They were in 25 gallon pots that weighed about 75 lbs each which meant we could only fit 18 in one trip.  And it's a good thing because the spot we had picked out for the blueberries exactly fit 18 plants.  Their Blueberry farm had several thousand plants at one time but they were ready for a change in life and were selling the property and getting out of the blueberry business.

Blueberry farm

Blueberry plants take several years before they produce optimum amounts of fruit.   The 3 small plants I purchased last year only produced a few berries last season so it will be nice to have a good harvest of blueberries this year.  We eat several cups of blueberries almost every day.   Blueberries also need bees for pollination which makes having these at The Bee Farm so convenient.   Another synergistic  benefit of having blueberry plants is the effect on the flavor of our honey.  Blueberry pollen makes absolutely delicious honey !

Ready to unload the Blueberry plants

Blueberry plants in their new home

The plants were placed on weed cloth in a corner of the yard where there's plenty of sun.  They were also added to the irrigation system to automatically be watered every day.  However it's important you don't over water them so a controlled drip system was employed.

Automatic irrigation of the blueberry plants

Making Plumeria plants

One of the easiest plants to grow is what I think of as a classical Hawaiian plant.  One that is used to make the lais that people wear.  The plant's name is Plumaria, also know as a Frangipani.  This plant thrives in subtropical climates and produces a delicious smelling flower.  Absolutely beautiful.  We have many of these plants around our home and they were getting too big so it was time to prune and turn the cuttings into new plants.  I ended up with about 50 cuttings which will soon become a full size Plumaria plants.   Some of the plants I had at home were well over 6 feet tall.

 

Florida Bee Farm ... AND Nursery

Last week a representative from The Florida Department of Agriculture inspected and certified the Florida Bee Farm which means we're officially a legal nursery that can grow plants and legally sell them.   

Not completely sure where this is going but the direction we're heading is interesting and might be fun.  My nephew is also interested in growing things ... especially peppers and he will be working with us too.  It's nice seeing young people passionate about gardening.  The new greenhouse setup seems to be working well which means we should have plenty of healthy seedlings growing into healthy plants soon.   At least that's the plan.

Last week I found an ad on Craigslist from a professional landscape company that was giving away a thousand plant pots of various sizes so I completely loaded the truck bed full of free pots.  It's amazing how many free resources are available.  Yesterday the Bee farm received about 4 yards of free mulch from the county which was loaded by them into my truck.  Unfortunately it wasn't very good quality mulch, especially not the type I would put around my plants.  However it did work well for using in the walkways around the planting areas.  

Pure bliss

The Bee Farm is like a full time job for me.  One that I get a great deal of satisfaction from.  The to do lists are never ending and a lot of triage goes into the mix to determine which tasks get priority.  And of course my attention deficit disorder (ADD) is always kicking in throughout the day to pick off other less important tasks.  Oh and this will be my official excuse why I haven't blogged much lately.  The ole too busy excuse.  Hopefully there will be more time in the future for blogging because it's enjoyable going back in time to see how things progressed.

So the other day when I went out in the late afternoon to get a few things done at the Bee Farm.  Then, I found a nice spot in the shade back by the butterfly and bee garden and just relaxed.  Taking in the butterflies and bees of all types enjoying the garden flowers.  Very relaxing, almost like meditation when your mind is calm and focused on the flowers, butterflies and bees.  And then the most delicious smell in the world started wafting my way.  The fragrance of wild honey / nectar from the hives.  It's my favorite fragrance of all and it's hard to describe.  It's heavenly.  With a slight breeze blowing every so often that wonderful fragrance would put a smile on my face.  So very grateful for all of it.  Living life in gratitude is one of the best ways to achieve happiness and internal peace.  It's so easy yet so many people struggle to find it.

Here are the views from where I took in the Bee Farm in this moment.

View in front of me

View to the left

View to my right

To top it all off, the morning was spent walking the beaches of the Gulf of Mexico and swimming with my beautiful wife.  Talk about a perfect day.  Just one of many reasons I often refer to myself as the "lucky guy".

A House for Bernard (our Lion) and Summer Gardening

With all the rain we've been experiencing plus the fact that lions are in the news lately, we decided that our lion Bernard (distant relative of Cecil) should have a covered shelter to get out of the rain if he wants.   Plus where he was previously hanging out got so overgrown with flowers and weeds that he was pretty much hidden.  A watch-lion needs to be seen, not hidden like a cowardly lion in the undergrowth. 

Bee farm watch-lion (Bernard)

Happy with his new home and his proud mama

Now that the sun is shining, it was fun working in the garden again.  We pulled weeds and transplanted a few potted plants and moved several others.  It's amazing how some of our plants grew so much in the last month.  Our Okra is doing well and is quite healthy. 

Okra

My two Moringa and numerous Papaya plants are also doing well.  Unfortunately in the heavy rains, I lost a dozen or so Papaya's that fell over in the water saturated soil.   But most of them are still doing well. 

Moringa and Papaya plants

A few months ago at a rally against Monsanto I was given some seeds that I mistakenly thought were Moringa plants.  When they sprouted, they didn't look at all like Moringa so I went to a gardening facebook page and asked what the plants were.  Turns out I received a handful of Tumeric seeds that are now quite healthy and ready to go into the ground.  Yvonne transplanted them into our new Tumeric garden.  Tumeric root and Moringa plants are loaded with excellent nutrients and are very good for you.

Tumeric garden

It really felt good getting out into the garden and working.  It's such good therapy getting your hands dirty while working with plants and the earth.  Our bees were very good and seem to have really calmed down now that they have good weather.  The Queenless hives are now back to normal with their new queens and gardening around the hives no longer brings out the guard bees.