Mountain Musings

Bloomin' Tuesday ~ Roses, Mint, Geraniums, & Verbena

Several folks have asked me lately how the Knockout Roses are doing that we planted last year for Granny's rose bed. I wrote about the roses here, here, and here.

Here's the one-year update photo for this week's Bloomin' Tuesday over at MsGreen Thumb Jean's blog:

Dozens of white butterflies flutter around the purple catmint all day, and they are so interesting to watch. You can see some of them in the picture.

I also wanted to show you the geraniums (below) that overwintered in our garage this past year. They were so pretty last summer that I wondered if they could be saved. Have you ever tried saving geraniums from year to year?

After keeping check on them and watering occasionally through the winter, now I know they will come back and bloom another year:

The small baker's rack that's in the background above was spotted recently at a yard sale for $3, and it made its way home with me--perfect for the front porch or for inside houseplants after the season.

Last year's yard sale purchase--an old mailbox for 50 cents--makes another comeback this year planted with red verbenas:

If you'd like to see what's blooming all across the country, check out other Bloomin' Tuesday participants here.

~ Deb

If We Twittered...

I'd tweet that I'm planting my annuals this afternoon:

Red and purple verbena are in the pots down the steps on the left, and begonias will be in the watering cans on the right. I still have geraniums and three red hot pokers (a Mother's Day gift) to plant tomorrow. 

Hopefully, my brain can get out of this blogging slump, and I can get back to posting...or some quick tweeting.

~Deb

Making a Beeline to Apiculture!

All right, so just to set the record straight, the girls haven't been the only busy bees here in the Girotti household. :)  I've been up to some interesting projects as well--namely beekeeping!  A good friend of mine, Matt, who has wanted to do beekeeping for several years suggested we take on the project as a joint venture.  So this past January we bought hive plans, pine boards, glass windows, screws, and 30,000 members of the species Apis mellifera!

After several furious weeks of cutting twice and measuring once....oh wait--scratch that, reverse it...we completed the hives, paint and all, and set them up in preparation for our new guests.  

We put two of our hives here at the Girotti house, including the one above in a nice gladed spot in our woods.  After all, we have to make our bees feel at home! :)  The third hive was placed at Matt's friends' house. 

Last week, we picked up our bees!  Bees come in 3-pound (10,000 bees!) packages, each with its own queen.  Now, the queen is sequestered in a small cage called, appropriately enough, the queen cage. The queen cage is plugged with a candy-like substance and a cork.  This will come into play later in the story.

 

Matt and I suited up with light-colored clothing and veils.  Then with packages in hand, and armed with a supply of sugar water, we trekked down the hill to the first hive, followed closely by the journalistic team.

With trepidation we set the package on the ground next to the hive and planned our next step.  First, calm the bees.  Solution: spray them with sugar water.  Matt and I are planning on a little more natural, wholesome approach to beekeeping, including not overloading the bees on processed sugar; however, scruples were overcome this first time.  With a fine mist of sweetness inside the box, the bees instantly calmed down and their buzzing was silenced. 

It was determined that I would take the metal feeder can out of the package box and Matt would grab the queen cage. 

On the count of three, we executed the plan with precision!  I replaced the feeder can to ensure no bees got out while Matt examined the queen cage.  DISASTER!  Much to our chagrin, instead of a perky queen bee ready and waiting to lay thousands of eggs into honeycomb, we saw a lone, shriveled, very dead-looking queen. This was not, one might say, the bees' knees.

Consolation came, however, when we called up the bee supply store and were informed that they would replace the queen, free-of-charge.  Whew!  It was decided that we would install the other two packages, then head back over to the bee store and use the replacement queen on the third hive at Matt's friends' house.

Take number two: now with our movements honed with practice, combined with our latent beekeeping skill, the second hive went a lot smoother!  This time the queen was alive!  Remember that candy plug and cork I mentioned awhile back?  We removed the cork so the candy plug was exposed.  This allows the bees to access the plug and eat through it to reach the queen.  In the process of eating the plug, they familiarize themselves with the queen's pheromones and accept her as the leader of the hive.

So we hung the queen cage on the top bars and readied for the big event. Again, I took the feeder container out to expose the swarming, buzzing colony inside.  Matt took the box and gave several vigorous shakes.  Quicker than you can say, "Raw local additive-free honey!" the bees poured out of the package and into our hive!

It was amazing to see the bees' natural, created instincts take over. Immediately, they must have sensed they were in their new home, because several bees climbed out of the entrance and started fanning.

This is when they turn their bodies around and use their wings in order to circulate the pheromone that says, "Hey everybody, come on in!"

And come in they did.  We checked back about 15 minutes later, and nearly all the bees that had been left in the box had flown out and joined their comrades inside the hive.

We finished the evening out with the next two hives, everything going very smoothly, and only one sting between the two of us! 

We look forward to this new adventure and pray that God will bless our...that is, to say, the BEES...efforts. This will be a great way to learn more about His creation as well as help out Virginia pollinator population and have a lot of great-tasting honey!!  Stay tuned this spring and summer as the hives and honey grow!

-Jonathan

Bloomin' Tuesday ~ 2012

It's the first Bloomin' Tuesday of the season over at MsGreen Thumb Jean's place! There's lots of blooming going on all across the country with this warmer weather we've had this year!

First flowers for this year: Grape Hyacinths! I love the tiny dainty grape hyacinths that pop up throughout the flower beds.

Hannah took this photo and got up close and personal lying down on the ground to get this bee among the flowers:

Some of our blooms have come and gone already...including these hyacinths blooming last week by the front sidewalk:

The weeping cherry was a Mother's Day gift a few years ago, and I've loved seeing it bloom each year. This picture was taken last week, and the lovely blooms lasted only five days:

The Yellow Rose of Texas is blooming again this spring! I love it...but it does send out lots of runners with little yellow rose babies all around the flower bed. You can also see the redbud blooming in the background:

Yellow roses were the first flowers that Tom ever sent to me, so they have a very special place in my heart. Here's a closeup of a branch from last year's Bloomin' Tuesday post:

Join MsGreen Thumb Jean each week for more Bloomin' Tuesday posts. I hope you've enjoyed the spring tour!

~Deb

It Takes a Lot of Work...

...to go from a Winter Garden that looks like this right now:

...to a garden that's blooming (photo from last year):

This week we've had some wonderfully warm temps in the Valley, so I've started the big chore of cleaning out the flower beds. Here's my morning's assignment below: cleaning the first of six fence flower beds. The variegated ribbon grass is tough to cut down!

And hopefully before too long it will look like this:

Our huge spring chore this year is painting the fence before the beds get mulched and the flowers start growing.

As beautiful as it is today, it's hard to work outside when some new Flower Sugar fabric just arrived in the mail. I haven't told you what I'm working on? Maybe you'll see it in one of the girls' Farmer's Market updates. :)

Okay, I've rested enough...gotta get back outside and do some gardening!

~Deb

How to Build a Cold Frame

A cold frame is a tried-and-true historical gardening device which allows a gardener to extend the vegetable growing season by providing what is termed a "microclimate."  This microclimate is created by the cold frame's greenhouse effect; it captures the sun, heats the plants inside and insulates it from wind.  Here's how I built a cold frame:

First, I built the basic box frame.  The dimensions were dictated by the size of the glass window I had purchased, in this case an 18 1/16" x 32 3/16" basement storm window.  But, I had to take into account that the glass will be at angle, preferably in the 30-45 degree range.  Due to my window size, I had mine at about 23 degrees, because at 30 or 45 degrees, the frame would be prohibitively narrow.  The final dimensions were 16 9/16" x 32 3/16".  I used 1 1/4" wood screws at the corner joints, which made a much sturdier frame than the nails I used in my first attempt.

Summer's End

October's frost means bringing in the last of the tender harvest from the garden. We are still enjoying summer's tomatoes that Granny brought with her from SC, the green ones ripening daily. I picked a whole grocery bag or two brimming with crisp green bell peppers, so yesterday for lunch I made Elise's recipe for Stuffed Peppers. They turned out delicious.

I didn't do nearly as much canning/freezing this season as I had anticipated, but here's the tally of produce that we did put up:

• 8 quarts of green beans, frenched and frozen (these won't last long!)
• 6 quarts black-eyed peas, frozen
• 13 pints pizza sauce, canned
• 3 pints tomato sauce, frozen
• 2 pints dill cucumber pickles, canned
• 14 pints cinnamon cucumber pickles, canned (Granny loves these)
• 6 1/2 quarts sweet cucumber pickle, jarred
• 7 pints zucchini relish, canned
• 25 quarts strawberries, picked locally and frozen
• 3 gallons blueberries, picked locally and frozen
• 1 gallon cantaloupe, chunked and frozen

It will be nice to have these fruits and vegetables preserved over the next months.

...He did not leave Himself without a witness, in that He did good and gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness. ~Acts 14:17

~Hannah

Barn Quilts and UFOs

Today is UFO Progress Report Day over at Blackberry Creek...unfortunately, I don't have a picture to post of an update for you this week although progress is on the horizon...I can almost see it. :)

We've been away for a few days on a fall get-away which always puts sewing on the back burner...and also why you may not have gotten a response from me to an email or a comment on the blog...that's coming, too.

But one positive quilting highlight! My barn quilt just arrived that I ordered over two months ago!

The kids went in together to buy it for my birthday back in July, and it took me awhile to figure out the colors and pattern I wanted (so many good ones from which to choose!). Then it took quite a long time for the barn quilt folks to paint it and get it to me. Here it is just out of the box:

 
The pattern I selected is called Summer Star Flower (see chart), and I went with the colors they had already selected even though I could have chosen my own. I like these bright colors paired with the white background.

My second choice was Weathervane Pinwheel since I like pinwheels so much. But I'm very happy with this one.

Next step: the barn quilt came in two pieces (you can see the joint there in the photo), so Tom has to securely join the pieces together and then mount the quilt on two 4x4 posts before we put it in place...down by the garden shed.

Completed barn quilt photo coming...whenever Tom gets to it on the honey-do list!

Note to self: Must fix his favorite meal soon! :)

~Deb

Birdhouse Gourds

New in our garden this year: gourds. Here's a link that tells how to make a gourd birdhouse that will last for years. Have you ever made one?

What's happening in your neck of the woods on this windy fall weekend? I hope it's all good!

~Deb

Bloomin' Tuesday ~ Completed Knockout Rose Bed

I'm joining in for this week's MsGreen Thumb Jean's Bloomin' Tuesday, although there aren't many blooms left in our October flower gardens. I wanted to follow through and post a photo of the completed Knockout Rose bed that I wrote about earlier this summer here and here.

While my mom was in South Carolina with my sister recently for a couple of months, we worked hard to get the Green Velvet Boxwoods and Walker's Low Catmint in place before she returned.

The design is slightly different from the P.Allen Smith proposed garden plan, but that's because the nursery had six five-gallon boxwoods in stock instead of nine three-gallon ones needed. So we went with two on the left, two in the middle and two on the right instead of three in each of those spots.

The roses actually have looked better in previous weeks than in today's photo...I'm not sure if I over-fertilized or if pests are eating them. The bush closest to her left is completely void of blooms and most of its leaves and looks to be dying, as do two others. I thought Knockout Roses were supposed to be free of any diseases!

I'll definitely have to check into this in order to protect my (free) investment. Any gardeners out there have any experiences with Knockouts and/or rose problems? What should I do?

The new grass that Tom planted has mostly come up, and all that needs doing is another round of stones to make a higher edging.

I think Granny is pleased with her "Welcome Home" Knockout Rose bed.

To see other participants' gardens all over the country, check in over at MsGreen Thumb Jean's place.

~Deb