We did our very first honey harvest here today. Phew that was some kind of hectic!A couple of hours of work and we have a whopping 15kg(edited) of honey from 6 of my 16 frames! And only 1 sting, somehow right at the end one little baby managed to get inside my suit, copped one on the back of my neck. I'm all good, so dont worry xI dont plan on selling any at this stage but if that changes you will be the first to know 
;)
Who else out there is getting ready for a honey harvest?
The beauties that lie beneath! After clearing out the nasturtium/sweet potato/pumpkin gone wild up the side of my patch I dug around a little in the rock hard ground to find a few purple skinned beauties. I'm surprised they grew here as the ground is hard and clay'ish'. This one weighed in at just over a kg! I should dig around a bit more, I'm sure I will find more.Have you found any nice surprises in your garden lately?
Back out in my patch getting my garden organised today....planted a few continental cucumbers right next to my beehive thinking they'll be pollinated beautifully here. Pop them in, set up my tee-pee trellis and watered in with a soaking of seaweed solution then BAM!!!....the bee's go nuts. I'm thinking they seriously dont like the smell. I am running like the wind with no luck. Copped a nice sting on my back and a good whammy on my nose. Mental note to self, dont water with any smelly goodness near the hive in peak hours!
A little bit later when I think its safe, tried to drag the nasturtium and sweet potato vines that I pulled out earlier up to the chook house and WACK, they are still coming for me. I need to hide!
So onto sowing some more seeds (inside!) ....german pickling cucumber, more zucchini, jack-be-little pumpkin, bolero melon, okra, spaghetti squash and long red chilli (all from my collection of self saved seeds).
Moved the nicely sprouted seedlings from my kitchen bench back outside to make room for the new ones.
And that's about it, the adrenaline is still running through my body, so I think I just need to sit and calm down.
Has anything crazy happened to you today?
From the garden to the plate.....Today I got in a cleared out as much sweet potato from its patch as I could to prep it for some spring bounty. I wish I asked someone to take a photo as this patch is right beside my beehive and the bee's weren't overly impressed with the flurry of activity that I had to don my smock to protect me from the guard bee's that were trying to tell me to back off. A hot and sweaty look.So after all my hard digging, tonight we had lots of yummy simple roasted sweet potato with a salad of greens from the garden, tossed through some parsley, my sweet cherry tomatoes and feta cheese (dressed with a simple mix of olive oil, balsamic and honey) with hubby's homemade rissoles.Simple and yum.Are you eating from your patch this weekend?
What an absolutley glorious day it is here today. 1st day of the last month of Winter, but is sure feels like spring is here. I did plan to do the housework, but the sun beckoned me and I was drawn to the garden of course.So I got in and cleaned out my banana patch, pulled a few extra suckers to keep the goodness for a select few, snipped away the roaming boysenberry tendrils, tied up the ever growing tomatoes and planted out some seeds.In no particular preference other than what I picked up first from my spring collection I have sowed chickpea, black cumin, snow pea, heirloom pea mix, honeydew, heirloom watermelon mix, Jack'o'lantern pumpkin, black zucchini, eggplant, corn, heirloom beetroot mix, heirloom basil mix, kohlrabi, tatsoi,bok choy, agertum blue, paper daisy.
These babies will stay inside on my kitchen bench where they will get all the warmth they need to germinate and be out in the garden in not time. Each week I hope to sow out new seeds and just hope I have room in the garden somewhere for them all.
Have you started planning your warm season garden yet?
