only the strong will survive...

I have heard and read about the need to "harden off" seedlings, gradually getting them used to their future homes out-of-doors. I've been attempting to do this with my pale-leggy-seedlings but today I didn't realize how blustery it with out there. When I looked out at the seedlings after a couple of hours almost all had been violently knocked over by the wind. My poor, soft, broken stemmed plants. I fear the worst. The tomatoes and cucumbers are looking poorly. I think only a few will survive.

Argh!

Here's a sunny picture of the view from the balcony to cheer us up...

Hold on. Lookee here... you're beautiful. That's why I come up here. Look at you... You don't even blink do you? Nature!! Goulet!! ... you always cheer me up... That's why I come up here... *

The farm may fail but I'm learning some things and that's the point right?

* (For those reading who didn't watch SNL in the Ferrell years, here's a link. The magic starts at 2 minutes and 30 seconds roughly...)

Weekend with Bees

I was a lucky girl this weekend. I took the Introductory Beekeeping Course at the Honey Bee Research Center at the University of Guelph!

(Sadly, I did not get to wear a bee beard like this fellow... I have no earthly idea why I'm obsessed with bee beards but there it is...)

I've been interested in bees and beekeeping since I took the U of G Apiculture course as an undergrad but never really pursued it; got busy with other things. The interest hung around in the back of my head though and now that I live in a town with a great bee resource, I'm rekindling the love.

I had hoped to start keeping bees this year at the husband's family's farm but having taken the course I now realize that I would need to be closer to the bees (the farm is over an hour away... my whole life is designed to avoid commuting so driving that far to my "hobby" seems like all kinds of crazy). Also, since we're still not sure where (if?) we will eventually settle down and bees are a long-term commitment, it just doesn't seem like the right time of life for having my own bees... if only I could put some on the roof of the building here... but that would be illegal.

I guess I will have to be a virtual beekeeper for now. I can watch these bees in Germany online while I work at home (I can even take a thermographic look) : HOBOS

Maybe there is something I can do at the Research Center... we'll see what happens...

Anyway, it was an interesting and exciting weekend!

Did you know there is a specific amount of room bees like to have around them? It's called "bee space" and it measures 9.5mm. A smaller space will get filled with sticky propolis, a larger space with honey comb.

(Side note: there is also a quantifiable "Lucks VanJeet space". It is 800 square feet and should only contain one person during the day and two people at night for optimum performance of the Lucks. A smaller space makes Lucks go bonkers and a bigger space gets filled with junk.)

This dude, Rev. Lorenzo Lorraine Langstroth, used the idea of bee space to invent the modern, movable-frame hive. For this he is considered the "father of modern beekeeping". Good on ya Triple-L! You're my new hero.

But the best part was getting to handle bees and bee stuff personally. Here are the pictures!!

For starters we all had to learn how to build the right kind of fire in a smoker. Putting smoke to the bees causes them to prepare to vacate their hive because of fire. They engorge themselves with honey, their abdomens get full/hard and they are less able to sting you.

Here are some workers with big ol' pollen baskets on their hind legs. The darker orange pollen is from dandelions, the yellow is from maple trees.

This is the Center's Apiculturist, Paul Kelly, opening up a hive. See all the bees flying around?

Wanna see a good bee beard? Click here to see Paul Kelly with one!!!

And here is Paul saving Leonard - who literally got a "bee in his bonnet".

We all got to take frames out of the hive and work with the bees a bit.

Here's the queen (sorry the picture is blurry). She is marked with green to make her easier to find. See how big her abdomen is? For holding all the sperms (she's a bit of a slut... bee reproduction is really crazy!! I could go on and on about it!!).

This is Dr. Ernesto Guzman, a prof from Guelph. He is teaching us about rearing queens here.

Paul uncapping a frame full of honey. Wayne, in the background, "won" the awesome privilege of wearing the bee cap. He was a good sport about it and wore it all afternoon. Julie, on the left, is an artist and is working on a cool piece involving bees.

Wayne taking a turn spinning the extractor, getting honey from the comb - serious business. (I love the expressions of the guys in the background in this one. Click to enlarge.)

Here's a larger scale extractor - where the work gets done at a much faster rate!

I'm somewhere in the picture below.

OK, well...that's a recap of my weekend.

As for the 4th Storey Farm, the seedlings are still doing their thing but they are pretty leggy and pale. I don't have proper grow lights. We'll see how they work out. I might have to resort to buying plants in the end...

The balcony is SO ready for plants. I can't wait until the last frost date!

The worms appear to be kicking ass and taking names! I can see baby worms in there now.

I think I'll sow another batch of greens later today.

April Showers Bring What?!

Buckets! That's what!

So, I've been showering with buckets and pails lately; exorcising them of the ghosts of their previous uses; making them ready for plant-bearing.

I planted Spearmint in the ketchup can, Basil in the coconut can. The print on the wall (sorry you can't see the whole thing) is one I've had and adored since university. It's by Meredith Carruthers. (Gosh, I should really find out what she's doing now... I'm sure it is awesome. She was already awesome back then...) I think the faucet plays nicely with the seedlings and watering-can no?

Went to a concert the other night featuring two of my favourite performers, Julie Doiron and Fred Squires, in Daniel, Fred, and Julie. They do covers of really old folk songs and their voices are amazing together. My current, spring theme song (a 100-year-old hobo song), "Hallelujah I'm a Bum", is one of the tunes on their album...

"When springtime has come oh won't we have fun.

We'll throw up our jobs and go out on the bum.

Hallelujah I'm a bum,

Hallelujah bum again.

Give a handout and revive us yet again..."

(here's an older version of it!)

And speaking of spring, it's really doing it's business out there!! This tree, seen from the balcony, was not green AT ALL on Wednesday. I took this picture on Thursday.

Sadly, it's now cold and rainy on Saturday as I write this... but that hasn't stopped the lettuce I sowed from germinating in 1.5 days and the peas are madly putting root down (oh! beastie boys' "root down" would be another good theme song for this blog!!).

P.S. The worms (and all their little mite friends) have been banished to the out-of-doors. I hope they will survive the still-chilly nights but we realized that if we have to baby them too much, they just won't work for our lifestyle. We can't have a houseful of mites and that's that. So far they seem OK out there. Still kickin'.

getting down (but not dirty) in the kitchen sink

It's been awhile since I planted anything but I managed to "do some pot" this morning.

I'm hoping our balcony will be a nice, warm microclimate and it won't matter that I'm a little late starting things... only time will tell.

Anyway, it was nice to get my hands dirty in the non-soil. I never knew until this year that "potting soil" is actually soilless! So I guess I wasn't really getting "dirty" then? Huh...

* * *

Apparently Violas are edible and when I saw these cool-looking, nearly black ones for only $0.79 (Hey! There is NO cent symbol on the keyboard - it's a morning of discoveries!) I thought, "What the heck!?!" and proceeded to plant them in toilet paper rolls - making these officially the most punk-rawk seeds (low-budget, DIY, dressed in black) in the garden so far.

Egg cartons, going to start some Peas in these...

Using all sorts of kitchen-stuff to kick-start my seedlings in style. Chives under the smaller dome:

Seedling-Porn-Time!!

Tomatoes!!!

A precious mini-pepper... sort of looks like a whale's tail:

Cute cucs:

* * *

Started this morning:

Cilatro

Chives

Violas

Grand Rapids Lettuce

Peas

containing the excitement

As the old adage goes, "If you want to have a container farm, you're gonna need containers."

OK, I just made up that adage but the truth remains the same.

I've been trying to avoid buying expensive planters from the home-outfitting-stores. They are pretty but I almost lost an eyeball in Home Depot the other day when I saw how much they cost!! So I'm embracing the idea of having an "Ugly Garden". I think Gayla of You Grow Girl mentioned this on her blog one time so I'm right on trend! Yay me!

On to the photo-show!

We found a discarded wash tub the other day while biking around. We were half way across town so it was a long ride home balancing the tub like this. I think it will probably be the future Stadium of the Peas.

As you see below, the barren balcony is filling up fast!

Living in near a university that has an agriculture program has many benefits, one of which is finding free pots in the dumpsters! Hopefully they weren't growing/researching anything too harmful in all these! (They would have put them in a biohazard bin if they were really bad right?!)

We also got the shelves from the university. The little tables holding them up are from Value Village - $5 total.

Look! The worm bin! It had to go outside because it was being bad (I'm exposing the mites to sunlight).

Look again! More containers! These are all collected from local garbages and dumpsters (plus a few old ones I already owned).

I'd really like to try to grow a coffee plant in that old, green coffee perk. I don't care if I actually get beans - I just want to have a coffee plant in honour of how much I love coffee. If anyone from Guelph is reading this, do you know where I can get green (unroasted) beans locally?

On the weekend Husband and I put up a curtain rod and hung some outdoor curtains. This is to avoid overheating in the apartment during the summer afternoons to come. The curtains are (hopefully) long enough to pull behind the plants so they can still have all the light.

The rod was a freebie from the building's Super. I had to get the mounting stuff from Home Depot for about $10. All the curtains are from Value Village for $22 (The yellow ones still had their Ikea tags on them! Brand new!).

I'm not sure why I'm mentioning how much everything cost today. Maybe just to prove how cheaply this can be done?

And lastly, the first (plant) casualty... (a lonely bugle plays somewhere in the distance...)

I knocked over this Pepper seedling this morning. So sad.

There Will Be Mites... There Might Be A Battle of Wills...

Ok...

We have Mites. Let me tell you about them.

Interesting that the Worm Composting/Vermiculture websites don't really mention the mite component of the composting equation until you go searching deeper in the back pages because you have seen them running around in there all uninvented to the party and stuff.

Turns out "Mite is Right". From what I gather, most mites are actually OK and a very normal/natural part of the composting system... guess they just aren't as cute as the worms; not as nearly as photogenic and much more able to crawl up on your skin and leave you feeling all personally infested.

So unless there are too many mites and they are stealing all the worm's food, they can and should be in there. There are several kinds and I'm not going to mention them all because the information is easy enough to find with The Google.

The one type of mite that seems to be problematic and controversial -the Paris Hilton of mites - is the Red Mite. It may or may not be parasitic on the worms. It likes to get out of the bin, run around your house naked and cause general panic and scandal.

We have 'em (apparently they are very common in the beginning when you are getting the bin established) and though I don't think we have a full-blown infestation yet I've begun taking some measures.

Here's the most common steps I have found for dealing with too-high-levels-of-mites in your worm bin:

1. Uncover the worm beds and expose them to sunlight for several hours. Reduce the amount of water and feed. Mites will not like this environment, and they may leave the worm beds.
   
2. Place pieces of watermelon, potato slices or bread on top of the worm beds. Mites are attracted to these materials and will accumulate on them. Within a day, you will be surprised to see the material almost 100% covered with the mites! The peels and bread can then be removed and dropped in water, buried or burned.
   
3. Place moistened newspapers or burlap bags on top of the beds, and remove the bags as mites accumulate on them. Repeat this procedure until mite populations are substantially reduced.

And here is a little video clip showing some photos of what an "infestation" looks like:

http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to-control-spider-mites-worm-bin-175875/

late breaking news!!

Some of the strawberry and pepper seedlings have finally emerged!

I know "plants want to live" (that's what Husband keeps telling me when I get all neurotic about accidentally killing them) and this is all just normal and natural... but it is so exciting to see those little sprouts that it seems extraordinary and supernatural!!

In other news I can't believe I wrote a whole post about worms with out making an "opening a can of worms" joke!! That's the kind of joke that's right up my ally! Alas!

i've got worms... let me tell you about it

First off, you have to listen to this soundbite. It's from WKRP in Cincinnati. After picking up our worms last Saturday we went to my sister's house. There, my bro-in-law started singing this jingle... it took awhile to find it but here it is:

Red Wigglers, The Cadillac of Worms

So that's the theme-song for this post!

* * * * *

Secondly, when I posted a link to this blog in Facebook yesterday I got this as my verification screen:

"were schlitz"!!!

Bahahaha!

OK. That might not be funny to you unless you know that me and my better-half go around referring to poop as "schlitz" (because we basically speak our own language in this house). You know how your nice, morning coffee helps "get things moving"? We call that a "Schlitzkreig" (like Blitzkrieg but with pooh - which doesn't seem so funny at the moment because there is a war memorial playing on CBC Radio as I type this... my timing is horrible).

Anyway, the whole point of having these worms is for them to eat our organic rubbish so that their poop becomes beautiful compost to feed our plants... so getting the "we're schlitz" verification screen while planning to write about worms was just really cool... to me and the husband anyway...

* * * * *

Third on the docket today, pictures of our new Vermicomposting System and some background info.

We got the worms in Bradford from Cathy last Saturday. She is neat and really excited about worms. If you want worms, I recommend going to her. (Look at that! All of the sudden I can say, "I have a worm lady." It's like I have a drug dealer or a good tailor... haha!).

We opted to make our own worm hotel by drilling holes in two rubbermaid containers following these instructions, then cutting up newsprint for bedding and wetting it (below):

Then we put the worms into their new digs:

And found a place in the apartment to store the thing (cat stands on guard). Once it's warm enough we'll out it outside but, if you're doing it right, it shouldn't smell and should be fine to have in the house.

6 days in I think they are doing OK but it is hard to tell. We had one casualty (below) and there are often a few worms around the rim of the container when we open it... but apparently that's pretty normal as long as they aren't vacating en masse.

I can't leave you on a sad-dead-worm-note so here's one of how the bin looks today. The food is supposed to be buried to prevent smells but I went rummaging around in there to check things out. The worms on top were the ones that I found "reconnoitering the rim" (that's a Deadwood Season 1 reference for any fans out there). I think they were also reconnoitering each other if you know what I mean (insert catchy porn tune). Worms are hermaphorditic - they all have everything, they all get it on, and they all have babies.

I will, of course, keep you updated on all developments in our vermiculture.

The Holy Book

Yesterday on FaceBook I posted a link to this blog and a friend said she was going to start reading it religiously (since she doesn't currently have a religion). This made me realize I should probably provide my fellowship of one with a Holy Book.

There is SO much information out there, especially on the internet. It is overwhelming. It makes me a little nervous when all I want is a single, simple answer and I get bombarded with several opinion-bombs.

Yesterday I read a positive review of this book, Grow Great Grub, and since I happen to follow the author's blog already, and I happened to have a Chapters' Gift Card burning a hole in my soul, and the author happens to do rooftop gardening in Toronto (how drastically different can that be from balcony gardening in Guelph? Probably quite different - but not as different as getting a book from Southern California or whatever!) I decided to run out and buy a copy. This will serve as my go-to guide for what I'm doing this season. One stop information shopping!

Now I realize that this Holy Book might not be as helpful to my congregant as to myself since she lives in Nova Scotia - a different climate... but really, in North America, unless you're a Mormon or a Scientologist, all Holy Books stem from drastically different cultures and climates soooooo... that settles that.

By the way, on the left side of that photo-mash-up above you can see a bookmark with a worm on it. That is from the lady I got worms from (Red Wigglers, not parasites!!)... which, as promised yesterday, I WILL do a post about soon! ("Worms are the Angels of the Earth"... woot woot!)

"Farm" Starting

The story behind "The 4th Storey Farm" is a short one.

It's not really a farm. It's a container-garden on the balcony of the fourth floor apartment I share with my husband. Calling it a "Farm" sounds more grand and ridiculously over-stated.

By the way, I may write as an "I" or a "we" interchangeably. I'm horribly inconsistent. To avoid confusion, the "we" refers to the husband and I (we are working together on this project) as opposed to me referring to myself royally.

We got a little punny with the name of our farm because "4th Storey" refers both to the fourth floor and the fact that this is the fourth place we've lived together. We attempted to grow things (and neglected some growing things) in each place so this is the "fourth story" in our growing-stuff-saga.

The farm's current livestock situation is a flock of black cats (2) and a herd of worms (about 500 - more on that in another post).

The balcony is about 6 x 11 feet so our "acreage" is 66 square feet. Not very big. BUT it's also 8 feet high so the acreage as a volume (I don't even think that's possible by definition but oh well) is much more impressive: 528 cubic feet!!!

We will be growing (or attempting to grow):

Roma Tomatoes

Tumbler Tomatoes

Mini Bell Peppers

Patio Temptation Strawberries

Spacemaster Cucumbers

Multiplier Green Onion - haven't started them yet

Green and Yellow Beans - haven't started them yet

Several Herbs - haven't started them yet

Here's a picture of how the balcony (or the "unworked land") looks right now, at the beginning of the season:

Here is our seedling shelf. Once the plants are out-of-doors I will claim the shelf for my office.

The first sprouts - just 2 days after planting! Cucumbers are little beasts!

Some tomato seedlings. Roma I think.

The cucumbers today - 5 days after planting. BEASTS!

Now for the part that all the environmentalists/anti-corporationists can hate and mock me for. Full disclosure: I got the seeds from Walmart and they aren't organic. I don't know anything about gardening and I'm quite cheap... sooooo... in this experimental, know-nothing, baby-gardener stage, I decided to start as "economically" as possible. Anyway, go ahead and ignore this whole blog if you can't stand my apoliticalness... maybe next year I'll be a better citizen.