Hi All,
We went to visit my daughters this past weekend!!! My youngest, Kyla, and her fiancee, Patrick are getting married this November and now that Kyla has her dress and my eldest, Ariel, has her Maid of honor gown we decided to go dress shopping for me…but no luck! We realized the Redding mall does not have as much to offer as a Bay Area mall but we were also able to toss around ideas which opened up a lot more for me to look at. The best part was getting to watch the two of them when we were driving around and walking the stores and how close they have grown together over the years. It was so heart filling to see!!! FYI, Tod did get a little birding in on our way up to see them and he found a pygmy owl for us! He also took off for a trip up to Lassen on Saturday morning before our son-in-law Ian arrived with Ariel so the 2 of them could hang out for the day and pick up Patrick from the airport. It was a full weekend and as I am writing this we are getting ready to head out on a small hike before we head to Chico to spend some extra time with Ariel and Ian before we head home…she has one more store in Chico she wants me to check out for a dress
Last week in the garden;
Kaleidoscope was out to help in the garden for 2 shifts and helped Kelly & Aditi to start prep and planted up a bed! They got in and planted 42 tomato plants in bed P10-36 Amana Orange and 6 Costoluto Genovese, then in bed G03 they planted 3 one off’s; a Juliet, an Anna’s Russian & a Rainbow Jazz Heart, yum! Beds B05 & M03 they got in to glean out onions in one bed and Brussel sprouts in another to help the Friday afternoon shift with getting a jumpstart on the amendment of the bed! All that and they were able to get the trees watered in the compost bunker that is currently holding them-they are destined for the new beds out back! Thank you Kaleidoscope!
The bees are looking good! The South Hive we were able to harvest 7 frames of capped honey! It looks like they are going through a Queen transition so we took off the top box since it was pretty empty-this way they do not have as much space to defend while transitioning. The North Hive is looking ok. We found the new Queen but she is laying eggs a bit off centered which is not normal. Not quite sure what could be causing that at the moment. Our new hive, the Middle hive, is growing! We placed another super box on this past week! They continue to need help with fortifying so they got more sugar water and I ordered up more pollen patties to help them out.
Woohoo, you all got 11 beds prepped last week!!! We have 7 more beds to prep! You also got another 6 beds planted! We’ll be busy the next couple of weeks getting the planting done as well as planting fillers. Aditi went through the inventory the other day and found radish, best & carrot seeds for us to use for that. She also found more Millionaire eggplant and got bed I01 refilled with the seeds since the gophers went through that bed and took out over half the plants that were planted back in the beginning of May! As beds are being prepped we are still switching out the irrigation lines and everyone is doing a great job of helping us to keep up with those switches!
Weeding out the bindweed was well under way last week. Thank you all for pitching in and helping us to catch up with the amount of blooms popping in the garden! EHWD was kind enough to nap in the shade while his dad helped to conquer the onslaught of bindweed blooms over by the Worm Bin;)
Squash was tied back to keep out of the paths, as well as cucumbers. A tomato plant was found without a cage and was taken care of. M15/M16 had the rest of the tunnel place over it as well as some fortification to ensure it does not droop down-and just in time because the bitter melon is climbing FAST!!!
More garlic was tied up and hung in the office. Still more to take care of. Tree spots were dug up in the S bed expansion. The P beds fencing was fixed up in hopes of keeping out the ground squirrels, which we found out climb trees! They were found climbing them in the Orchard…I may have mentioned this before but it is really irking us, lol!!!
You all harvested 301.81# of produce last week! 157.31# of it was held back in the Office for using for seed in the Fall!
Thank you all for helping us continue this work. Everyone who enters that garden steps up and helps out our community in so many different ways.
Take care
Lori