Sunday, April 03, 2011

garden, giddy up!

it's april so that means i can start getting really excited about gardening! this year i am in charge of the community garden so we'll see how that goes! so far we've had two clean up days and david and i have roped off the place into individual plots. the garden also has three raised beds which i'm specifying for child-use only. olive and augustine are both very excited about having their own space to grow whatever they wish.

Olive's plot:
edamame
strawberries
lettuce/spinach
broccoli
wild flowers


Augustine's plot:
strawberries
broccoli
beans - green and edamame
peas


David and I's plot:
broccoli
tomatoes
lettuce/spinach
kale
beans (various)
peppers
herbs
corn (popping and sweet)
flowers


hopefully we will start to see some fruit on last year's blackberry, blueberry, raspberry, and strawberries. though from the look of things the blackberry bushes are toast and some neighborhood punks uprooted the peach trees. *sad trombone* another lowlight, not one of the 15,000 bees survived. peak oil? not batting an eye over but the collapse of the bee population? I'M LOSING SLEEP! no bees = no food, people! there is no known way to replicate the pollination process between a bee and our crops! so new hives are going in and i'm praying they survive. i'm going to get another praying mantis oothica (which can hatch up to 400 mantids) and a few dozen ladybugs for natural pest control. and seriously, those two things maybe will cost me $20.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Your garden sounds great! Where do you order your praying mantids from? Nathan thinks that is so cool. And I hear ya about the bees. I hope your next ones survive!
aimee

Olive said...

there used to be a local store here that sold oothicas and lady bugs but it has gone out of business so if my local nursery doesn't have them i will probably find somewhere online. unsure where though.

Vicky said...

Sounds like a great garden plan.
Can't wait to get round to planting in mine.
Sorry about your bees. It is a worring thought.
We can get ladybird larva kits our here, but Praying Mantis... wow... that would be so cool.

Olive said...

@lisa YES they will eat potato bugs. They will eat almost any other insect as they are carnivorous. which is kind of creepy to me for some reason!

@vicky yes it is pretty cool. they hatch and are sooo tiny, almost undetectable to the naked eye. it's fun seeing them grow over the months though.

madelyn said...

I have bees :) My Dad is a beekeeper and two harvests ago we had oh I dunno, 30 GALLONS of honey.
Last harvest, after losing a hive or two, our boxes yielded I think 6 gallons, if I remember correctly :'(
Maybe it was 12 but I think it was 6.
But this coming harvest is looking really exciting so we are expecting more than the last!!
Hopefully God, you will provide thine sweetness!