Me... a beekeeper?

After moving from Atlanta, we finally have the opportunity to become beekeepers.  So, we are trying to do it the right way by getting involved in the Tennessee Valley Beekeepers Association.  They have an awesome mentor program and we just started by installing a package of bees in our first hive.

Check out the new blog "The Buzz from the Beeyard" where we share our mentor experiences.

More later.

Veggie Eating Squirrel Relocation Program

So, yes, they are cute and fuzzy as they hop around your yard, but when the entire squirrel tribes from a square mile decide to feast at the local "buffet" of your garden, they aren't so cute anymore! This year these little tomato sucking, corn picking varmints have about made me crazy.

They took off my very first Cherokee Purple tomato that was destined to be ripe in a couple of days. They've taken both ripe and green tomatoes and left the remnants in the yard to taunt me. They've climbed right up the few stalks of corn that we planted in our raised bed garden, peeled the husk back and sat right there and ate their little bellies full.

I tried my brother-in-law's remedy of using peppermint essential oil sprays, old CD's on fishing line (makes for some interesting flashes of light in full sun), coffee grounds sprinkled around (I think this might come the closest to working) and rubber snakes; all to no avail. They just keep coming back for more.

Tired of being scorned and laughed at for all my efforts to keep them away, I stopped in the little surplus store that I'd noticed sold small live-trap cages and using the freshly eaten corn cob and a couple dabs of peanut butter, I baited up.

Though they may be smart about finding food, they surely aren't smart about not getting caught! The guy at the store readily admitted that he'd sold a bunch of these traps but didn't know if they really worked.

Well let me tell you Bob, they surely work.

Chris: 3 - Squirrels: 0

So now we have a new game at our house, the Squirrel Relocation Program. When caught, they have a new home at the local park.

Game on!

Park Release Video

Chris

3GT

The Year of the Tomato

Have you ever noticed that when all the right variables come together at just the right time, under just the right conditions, incredible things can happen? Well I believe that this is going to be one of those times.

Here are the variables as I see them:

1. After a really dry year last year, I learned my lesson and put in a drip system.
2. We started trying to be more conscientiousness and sustainable and started composting and amending the soil.
3. We put up the greenhouse which allowed us to start our tomatoes before the last frost of the winter.
4. The Atlanta summer has come in like a roaring lion!
5. At just the right times, we've gotten nice thunderstorms to add that little extra "umph" to our garden.

With all these lining up just right, I'm believing that we're going to have bumper crop of veggies, especially tomatoes. Just a feeling? I don't think so.

We're still a week away from summer and the plants are loaded down with green, pinkish, green and red striped, and full out red tomatoes.

The Mr. Stripy heirloom (pic at left) is making some very interesting and delicious looking striped tomatoes.

Our Big Boy tomato plant is so tall now that it has grown out of the top of the greenhouse and I'm resorting to tying the cage down so that the wind and rain doesn't topple the whole thing.

When we were on vacation last week in Seattle, I have to admit that I had black "dirt" envy. My son's garden looks like what mine would if I were to just use compost in my raised beds. But I must say that the blazing heat of the south surely makes good tomatoes.

The one Cherokee Purple plant is definitely in the running for the largest and darkest green tomatoes in the garden.

But the prize so far goes to the smallest of the lot. In less than a week of harvesting, we've already taken around 30 small but wonderfully flavored cherry red's off of a single bush and it is loaded with clumps of green fruit from top to bottom that have already proven to be great additions to salads.

I think my granddaughters tried these out before I did and were impressed.

I even have a couple of plants that have popped up in a flower pot in the front of the house. I thing they hitch-hiked from some of the dirt that I brought from the woods at the back of our lot.

I truly think this will be the Year of the Tomato!

All I can say is "bring it on".

Chris

3GT