Your trash is my treasure!

On my way to the farmer's market today, I spotted this down the block from where I live. My eye zoned in on it. Amongst the garbage cans was this beauty! I literally almost jumped for joy. I think I actually skipped a little. I have always, always wanted one of these. Squeal!

A wooden box case for wine! I have always wanted one of these but liquor stores around here don't give them out. So when I saw this one out for the garbage, I scooped it up and brought it home. I love it! I am going to use it to hold some gardening supplies. I am so excited about this awesome free score!

Winterizing the Hive

It's mid-november, and it's time. Time to close up the hives for the winter. To winterize the hives, we exchange the screen board for a wooden bottom board. We take off the honey super. And this year, we decided to do something a little different than last year. Last year, none of our hives survived the winter. I wrote about it here.

First we put a feeder box in, and put a 5 pound bag of granulated sugar in the box. They have lots of honey in the brood boxes, but it doesn't hurt to give them some reserve food in case they need it. Afterall, it's a long winter!

This year, we really want our bees to survive the winter. So we did some research, and found that some beekeepers put in "insulation" to help the bees stay warm. We read about putting an empty honey super above the brood boxes and filling the empty super with cedar chips.

The cedar chips not only helps with windy drafts, it also wicks away any moisture. It also smells really nice! We put this box over the top board, so that no bees can get up in it.

Finally, we put in an entrance reducer and a mouse guard at the front. Then we wrap tar paper around the entire hive, and we cut out holes at the entrance and top for the bees to come and go if it's warm enough to leave the hive. The tar paper will help with resisting moisture and keep the windy drafts out. We also put a large piece of plywood above the top lid of the hive, so that rain and snow slides off the hive box. We are super prepared this year, and hope they survive the winter.

Replanting Winter Blooms: Paperwhites Round 2

Last year, I bought some paperwhite bulbs at a local florist. They bloomed so beautifully, here is my original post about it. After the bulbs bloomed, I let the green stem die away and I dug up all the bulbs. All of the bulbs split to produce babies! I love that! Isn't that cool? So 1 bulb became 3 bulbs! Love free plants!  I decided to replant the bulbs without breaking the bulbs apart. I hope that is okay. I wasn't sure if I should break the bulb into 3. Do you split them, or do you plant as is?

Here the bulbs are all packed in. There are 3 packed into this pot. They are already starting to sprout, can't wait to see them bloom again! Round 2!

Abandoned Tree

The other day, I was coming home from work and I saw this huge plant on the sidewalk with a bunch of garbage bags. The plant was healthy and beautiful. I was sooo tempted to carry this home with me, because the thought of a live plant going to the garbage dump makes me sad. But the tree was heavy, and I was 8 blocks from home. Nor do I have room for a tree so large, I live in less that 600 square feet of space. So I walked away, hoping that someone else will save it.