latest project: honey bees

I’ve wanted to keep bees for years, and was planning on doing it the year I became pregnant with twins. Needless to say, the bees got put on hold for a while. This spring the girls turned three, and I signed up for a beekeeping class at the local nature center. I have fallen deeply and madly in love with bees. They are fascinating creatures, and I have enjoyed reading about them as much as I’ve enjoyed watching them build their colonies.

gardening with my girls

The girls are great strawberry pickers, and we have enjoyed lots of strawberry treats this year.

We water (sometimes the path or our sister) and pick lots of flowers for the house.

And we always take time to watch the bumble bees and honey bees, and thank them for their hard work.

winter is over!

Above is a picture of our snowgirl (Maxine) who got buried in the unrelenting snow this winter. The girls would wave at Maxine from the house as she gradually got covered in new snow.

the demise of the hornworm

I have wanted to post a picture of these guys since I started the blog, and finally got some photos this year. I find it impossible to see these worms (they blend in with the plants perfectly) except when one of the wasps has laid its eggs on it. The first year or so that I grew tomatoes I had an awful problem with these worms eating them up and just devastating my crop. Luckily, their natural predators, the braconid wasp, came to the rescue. Since then we have not had any problem, as the wasps seem to find all of the hornworms and dispense with them (that is, by laying its eggs inside the worm, which then produce the cocoons you see in the picture).

broccoli: row cover results & recipe

Growing broccoli has given me some of my most challenging pest problems. If you are interested in a recap and pictures of some of the pests, here is a link to my summary from the 2007 season.