Bee swarm!

Yesterday the most amazing thing happened. We were sitting in the living room and K said, "Mama, what's going on with the bees?"

I looked outside and right around the hives was chaos! Armed with my camera, we went out to investigate:



The bees swarmed! This is good news, because it means the hive is healthy enough to split in two. YES! So I called a local beekeeper who is also a swarm catcher, and he came and helped me get the swarm. He is taking it elsewhere and will return with another swarm for me when I have the second hive ready. The reason for this is because when the bees have made up their minds they're leaving, they might tend to swarm if put into a hive too close to where they were originally. So we trade, and the bees are more likely to stay put. So so cool - this means I will have a second hive this year! AND a new beekeeping mentor!

You have no idea how great it is to have other beekeepers to talk bees with - nothing like just geeking out on bees with others who actually WANT to talk about nothing but bees for hours on end. I am so excited - this is the beginning of my little apiary. Swoon.

How does your garden grow?

This year, as we are still renting at planting time, I have decided to grow my garden in pots. I have a NEED to garden! I was lamenting how I wouldn't be able to have my garden this year because we've not found our property just yet...and then I realized that hey, I can garden in containers! And all was right with the world.

Planning a container garden seems to be a bit different than planning an in-ground garden - mostly in that I have more freedom to keep things indoors if I need/want to, and they can be moved about at will as well. I thought I might go ahead and document the process as I go.

Pinterest led me to his great little website that actually tells you when and what to plant, at exactly the time you need - and it can do it for free! It is called sproutbot.com. I am smitten - just put in your zipcode, and not only ill it tell you what to plant, there are also links for instructions on how to plant - and when you click that link, it gives you the container option or the in-ground option. I LOVE it!

Here is an image of my zip code this week:

 The info in the links there is good, and I wanted a little more information on exact soil preparation. So I found this site on vegetable garden growing, with a whole wealth of information on all the things!

In case anyone is as interested as I am, here is what I found about soil preparation for carrots in containers.

Of the list for me, I am growing carrots, possibly celery, broccoli, onions, chives, parsley, peas if I can figure out a pot trellis, and tomatoes.

Tipnut has a great page on vegetables to grow indoors - I bookmarked it for the onions, though.

Did you know you can regrow celery from the butt end? True story. I'm going to try this.

You can do it with romaine, too! Awesomesauce. More things to grow in containers, and easily!

Today I got out my seeds to do an inventory of what I have (everything. I have everything). I am also doing this to test my seeds, since they have been in the freezer and have been in other environments while we moved.

Tomorrow, I'll be likely going to the garden supply to get some of the things I need, like peat and soil. I believe I have vermiculite and soil food - kelp at the very least. For the carrots, it is advised to prepare the soil first, then plant 2 weeks later. So step 1: Soil preparation. Step 2: ( ... ) Step 3: profit! And then, the planting can begin! Muhahahahaha!

And lest you think you haven't got enough space to grow your own veggies yourself, I assure you it just isn't true. You could create a windowfarm with hydroponics, or do what I am doing right now and garden in containers, or find ways to do some other vertical gardening.

Or get inspired by this wonderful example of aquaponics and how 1 million pounds of food can be produced on three acres of land.

Or my favorite, the Urban Homestead. Over 6,000 pounds of food produced on a city plot of only 1/10 of an acre of land.

If that's not enough, here is a wonderful short TED talk on the value of growing your own food: