So I wasn't sure how this was all going to work, I read about it, followed the instructions, but I didn't think it was going to work exactly how everything said it would work. But it has!
I was sitting out front in my flower bed weeding and moving a few perennials around when I heard them, BEES. More importantly, my bees. I was so excited to see them again, I was hoping I would but you never know they are solitary bees after all. The instructions did say that if I was lucky and all goes well I would see the females return to the bee house.
Well I saw at least three different bees return to the house, and one fat local. I'm pretty sure she wasn't one that I released. The other females all seemed to give each other their space except the fat local one, she was a little mean and went in after one of my bees, there was a short scuffle and then the big local bee left. My little bee seemed ok and flew off then came back shortly.
I hung my bee mud close by and hopefully things will continue to go well and I will have new bees for next year. The video to there release and where to get them is in the previous post. This is so exciting, I sat there for almost an hour watching them. They are the cutest little bees I've ever seen, I had them flying around my head and I was really close to the house. Such a gentle bee. I love it, this was definitely worth doing and I would recommend it to anyone with a garden!
Ooh, I also have a nesting pair of birds in my bird house.
So I'm writing my second post for today, wow I'm on a roll. Lol.
I released my bees today, it was so awesome! I've never seen this or have been lucky enough to be part of it even though I grew up on a farm. I decided to release them today because it was a beautiful day and things are slowly starting to get green, I've also seen other little critters around the yard.
I put out my petunias and a few other flowers to give them a little head start, I will put them out daily for the bees. I'm so excited I'm hoping that this year my fruit trees and shrubs will be pollinated a little better.
This is the video I made, hopefully it works :)
http://youtu.be/biFEJNtfWcE
Here is the website I got my bees from
http://www.westcoastseeds.com/product/Gardening-Supplies/Pollination/#sthash.jVOmh0KE.dpbs
Thank you West Coast seeds for an amazing experience!
Although I'm not a mother to any human variety children I do have some four legged ones. I just wanted to wish ALL women a happy Mother's Day, and whether you have human children or not I think all women should be appreciated on this day!
I for one stalked my greenhouse full of flowers this weekend and transplanted about 100 plants yesterday, now I know that doesn't sound like a lot especially when professionals do thousands in a day. However it was still a lot of work and I loved every second of it!
I did buy a few things, only because I only have so much space to start my own, I did transplant all my veggies the other day and yesterday I did all my flowers. Marigolds, morning glories, moon flowers, sweat peas and planted about 24 strawberry plants.
I'm very happy with my little greenhouse, I just bought a little 5x5 pop up plastic greenhouse and it's been great. I was very careful of what I put in there at first because we are still getting freezing temperatures at night. I did put a little heater in it for the evenings and that's been working out great so this weekend I moved everything I could fit in there.
So Happy Mother's Day to me and all of you!
So it's been just over a month and they are still in a beautiful bloom!
One of my other orchids is about to bloom as well, I will post a picture when it does. I don't remember what color it is, lol.
It's been so busy that I have completely forgotten to write. My house has exploded with plants and I'm finding I'm having a little trouble keeping up. I have a little plastic greenhouse set up outside but it's been pretty cold in the evenings so I have put a heater in it for at night. I still don't trust it completely so I only have bulbs out there right now, I would be devastated if I move all my petunias, snapdragons and marigolds out there and they froze one night.
I did start my veggies, tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, peppers, cauliflower and celeriac. But again they have grown so big in two weeks under my lights that I need to transplant again but am running out of room! I might just pop them in the green house because if I loose them I can start over, my flowers not so much.
Well have a fabulous Sunday everyone!
I'm not afraid to admit it, I don't like fish. However I'm always willing to try new things.
So I've been asking friends and co-workers what type of fish to eat that doesn't have that really fishy taste.
Halibut seemed to be the one that kept coming up, now I know what you're thinking, how could you not have tried Halibut yet! Well I was sure I've eaten it, but then when I thought long and hard on it I don't think I ever have. I love lobster and crab just not a fan of fish.
Well I decided to try it out, so I bought myself a nice little halibut steak and this is what I did.
Placed the halibut onto a piece of parchment paper and seasoned it with,
Salt
Pepper
Thyme
Lemon
Garlic
And butter
As you guys know I'm not a measurement kinda a gal so I sprinkled a bit of everything on it, and it was about a tablespoon of butter.
I closed the parchment paper over the fish and put it in the oven for about 20min at 400 or until it flakes under your fork.
I sautéd some spinach with butter and pepper and wa la, dinner. Now I have to say, I would definitely eat this again, so if you don't particularly like fish but want to eat it (because it's good for you) then halibut is a good choice.
Sorry I haven't been doing the step by step on my petunias this year, but they pretty much went the same as last year. With one exception of course, the light garden!!
So this year my petunias look fantastic. They are nice and full and not leggy at all, for me it was a great investment. And since they are selling plants my size for $3.99 at the local nursery I have about $150.00 dollars worth of petunias, all of which I collected the seeds from last year.
I also have about 30 snapdragon plants and I planted 40 marigolds today, so I figure I will get my money back out of it within 3 years. Maybe even sooner but to be perfectly honest, I don't care :) I love starting my own plants, it's my very happy place so to me it's worth every penny.
I forgot to mention the pansies, dahlias, herbs, eucalyptus, forget me nots, lavender, carrots, cucumber and tomatoe. Lol. Although my cucumber doesn't love it under the lights, it grows a couple of leaves then they dry up and fall off.
The carrots are doing well, I was trying to see if I could grow them through out the winter. Not sure if I want to do that, since there are plants I can start in January I might forgo veggie growing in the winter.
I might just do micro greens and herbs.
Yeah! They are both in full bloom, and I actually have one of my other phals sending out a bloom spike from an old spike.
I have had to move them back from the south facing window so they don't receive direct sunlight anymore. It was getting to much for them and the leaves were burning a bit.
Our days are getting longer now and the sun is starting to get its kick back for the upcoming spring. But still no artificial light for these guys, all natural sunlight!
I say upcoming spring because is was -20 this morning :( I'm really anxious for it to get warm outside.
