The Plight of the Honeybee

Even tho bees are numerous in my patch, especially through the warmer months of the year, bees worldwide have been on the decline for quite some time. many of us are aware that this is occuring, but some of us may not know why.

The following article is an excellent review of the bee decline and highlights some interest research that is occurring around the globe.


The Plight of the Honeybee

Gasland (2010)

This is a fascinating documentary on the move to natural gas in America and the impacts that fracking (is that how it is spelt?) especially on agriculture.

With Australia moving more and more towards natural gas, it poses many questions we should consider asking the regulators before permits are approved. Gaslands 2 is about to air in America so if you have not seen this here is the youtube version.

How low will the snow go?

Winter has well and truly arrived with an Antarctic blast currently hitting Tasmania. It is 5 degrees as I write this with squall after squall coming from the mountains out west. It is times like this that the wood fireplace works overtime and makes the house a cozy 20 degrees and those days of wood chopping in summer well worth it.

When I took the picture above, it was sunny with light winds, but as I type now, this front has arrived, is blowing winds up to 60 km/hr and driving horizontal rain. The forecasters are saying snow tonight will fall down to 300 metres, but some trusty weather people I know think it may dip to lower than 200. By tomorrow will shall find out. My place is situated around 100 to 120 metres above sea level. I am unlikely to see snow on the ground from this event, tho last year we did have some snow fall and melt on impact. The kids really want to see some snow on the ground at home, but it is only a short trip up towards the surrounding hills if we really want to see it.

Today I was planning on digging up the ground between two posts in preparation for my new berry area. I have 10 chilliwack Raspberries ready to go and a logan berry. I already have about 20 raspberries in the main patch but I did not plan their plantings the best when I was in the initial rush of setting. A friend has a neat set up which has inspired me to get at least one row in that I can be proud of. However in saying that, the berries produced well last year, the are just not set up ideally.

But alas, the weather is not conducive to me getting outside and my hands dirty. Hopefully the coming days I will find that motivation. Another task I must get to is

- planting Broccoli seed in punnets into the hothouse
- go through my seeds to check what I need for the coming Spring
- do a general weeding in the patch
- harvet (the best part)
- and prepare for the U14 Youth soccer game (I co-coach) and one of my boys 8th b'day party!!!

I also need to start considering the digging in of some green manure beds so the have time to compost in before the spring plantings.

With the wild weather fronts coming through, it was interesting watching the chooks and their antics. When the sun returned, they came out of the shed and searched for food amongst the pasture. When the front arrived, they rushed for cover and sat waiting for their return to the field. The only deviation from this was one stupid young rooster who would stay out and get soaked.

Two other projects I am aiming to keep up with over the next months is

1 - continue a list of all weed species I find popping up in the patch
2 - keep a list of all garden plants that my surrounding Pademelons (wallabies) will not eat.

I will post a blog on both of these in the future, but if you have any plants proven for success around pademelons, please leave me a comment.

Enjoy
Dave

May 2013 Weather Averages

I am a little late putting this up but below are the weather Averages for May and Autumn 2013. May was much warmer than the previous year, but the minimum were lower also. There were certainly many more sunny days (and less rain).

May	2013	2012
Max Avg	18.9	15.6
Min Avg	4.6	6.9
Highest Max	27.8	23.5
Lowest Min	-1.3	2.5
Rain	46mm	103.2mm
Avg Wind	2.3 km/h	3.1 km/hr
Autumn	2013	2012
Max Avg	20.7	19.2
Min Avg	7.4	8.1
Highest Max	38.8	31.8
Lowest Min	-1.3	1.2
Rain	186mm	186.9mm
Avg Wind	3.5 km/h	3.4 km/hr

The Broccoli is huge

Over the past few weeks the late Summer Broccoli plantings have really begun to head up big. I am hoping they can be picked weekly rather than all at once tho a couple will need picking soon. Today was also the last of the summer carrots picked. There are still a few rows of January plantings with most of the winter carrots about a month away from needed use. Summer Beetroot is also now fully picked, with those planted in February just as big and looking delicious.

Today was the first pickings of the Brussel Sprouts. I am the only one who will eat these so I do not go overboard with numbers in the patch (I planted three).

Note the carrot with many legs!!!

Kohl Rabi and 2 types of Broccoli (Marathon and Arcadia)

Winter has arrived (albeit later than usual)

The past two months has seen many sunny days and warmer than usual evenings for this time of year. Until the past week, we had only seen 1 decent frost and another very light one. However last week saw the rains return with over 70mm of rain and the past two days have dropped below zero Celsius and the return of heavy frosts or fog. In my patch the frost was not quite as severe as the fog settled in but the kids down the road played there 9am soccer games on a bed of crusty ice.

I have been a bit of a lazy gardener over the past month hence no posts. The soccer season kicks in at this time of year and I am usually busy getting the weekly newsletter for the Cygnet Sea Dragons out, coaching the U8 and U14 Youth team, maintaining the facebook page and generally helping out. https://www.facebook.com/CygnetSeaDragons.


What I have done lately in the patch is lay weed matting down over the paths and cover with sawdust. This will greatly assist my weeding chores come spring, tho there seems plenty of weeding to do at the moment.

So what has been or is being harvested at the moment as the winter solstice has arrived. Here is a summary:

- The Oca was recently harvested (Oxalis tuberosa) - If you do not know what this is (also called New Zealand Yam - but it is not native to NZ) it is a little tuber that mirrors I suppose sweet potato but I think much better in flavour. We roast it and love it

- Broccoli heads are being picked, Kale is plentful

- Winter carrots are growing well and we are getting down to the last of the summer planted carrots. same for beetroot.

- Brussel Sprouts are almost ready

- Cauliflower heads are forming

- Mizuna/Mibuna/lettuce/English Spinach

- Leeks

- Garlic is shooting up

- Potato Onions were plated last weekend. These are a little different to onion in that they are onions (Allium tribe) however you plant the onion and it forms about 8 to 14 onions at harvest. These type of onions also do not bolt to seed and are not as fussy as normal onions. Many in colder districts often find just as their onions are bulbing, they suddently go to flower which is a sign that something checked their growth along the way and set them into seed formation (common problem with celery also). Potato Onions do not have this problem and are fine planted in the cold moist winter soils. (I do still grow normal onions and have seeded them in the hothouse for planting out in August)

- Green manures are growing rapidly now

- Purple Sprouting Broccoli is large in preparation for covering our Broccoli needs in late Aug, Sept and Oct.

Recently I bought some Pink Eyes in preparation for planting out in August.

For the time being, I will continue to potter about and when the sun shines do a bit of weeding as well as harvesting, but this is the time of year I like to take as much of a break from veggie gardening as I can.

Till next time

Broccoli "Arcadia"

Jerusalem Artichoke - left in ground to pick as we eat

Kale "Borecole"

Mizuna and Mibuna

Turnip "Hakueri"

Parsley

Garlic

Leeks

Tic Beans as Green Manure

Brussel Sprouts

Kohl Rabi

Carrots "Merida"

Several Reasons Why Your Hens May Stop Laying Eggs - Poultry Articles from The Poultry Site

I have not yet introduced my chooks to this blog and I will do so soon, however came across this interesting article which may explain why i struggle to get a single egg at this time of year. The girls stopped laying about 4 to 5 weeks ago when the moulting kicked in. I have pure breeds (Wyandotte, Barnevelders and  two orphaned Buff Sussex) and I have noticed that they tend to not lay for a good 2 to 3 months at this time of year when the Isa Browns used to keep laying with minimal slow down. I have been told by local chook experts that this difference is why pure breeds have a much longer life span while the ISA Brown has been created for the egg industry to have a short life but to continue egg production.

Several Reasons Why Your Hens May Stop Laying Eggs - Poultry Articles from The Poultry Site

Silver laced Wyandotte