songbird wrote:
Terry Coombs wrote:
...
Care to share what that invsasive plant was ? You mentioned that
bees were all over it , and I have a lot of areas here at The 12
Acre Wood where I can plant it and not care how invasive it is ...

almost everything we grow here is full sun
tolerant plants, so i'm not sure how well it would
fare in a woodland setting.

in nosing around i can't find the tag (we kept
them for everything we planted, but for some reason
not this one), but it would say that it is some
variety of penny royal.

i'd not put it in any place that might be grazed
or used as fodder because it can be toxic. i've
chewed on a few leaves over the years and kept
thinking it was a wimpy oregano that somehow got
in, but Ma kept calling it mosquito weed.


songbird

Looks like it is pennyroyal , and yes Steve , it is a member of the mint
family . I'll be getting some seeds ...

--
Snag

Terry Coombs wrote:
....
Looks like it is pennyroyal , and yes Steve , it is a member of the mint
family . I'll be getting some seeds ...

wish you were more local, i could happily have
you come over and dig up what's left of it.

for next season i forgot to mention the venerable
sunflower as they are later season flowers.

babies breath and mums are two other garden plants
we have which bloom later.

for a little earlier blooms the wallflowers are bee
magnets (if you like orange). for a little later
the buttefly weed (orange, yellow or reddish) are
also nice to look at. the flower clusters are the
same type as the milkweed, but the orange is a nice
change. these have been blooming for a little
while here, but it's one of my favorite wildflowers.
the pods are like the milkweed too, fuzz all over
blowing seeds around (the key to harvesting these
seeds is to pick the pods a little before they fully
split open and then you can hold the fuzz together
while taking the seeds off (he says after doing
several other fun things with pods, seeds and fuzz...
))...


songbird

On Friday, August 7, 2015 at 8:39:47 PM UTC-4, Terry Coombs wrote:
songbird wrote:
Terry Coombs wrote:
...
Care to share what that invsasive plant was ? You mentioned that
bees were all over it , and I have a lot of areas here at The 12
Acre Wood where I can plant it and not care how invasive it is ...

almost everything we grow here is full sun
tolerant plants, so i'm not sure how well it would
fare in a woodland setting.

in nosing around i can't find the tag (we kept
them for everything we planted, but for some reason
not this one), but it would say that it is some
variety of penny royal.

i'd not put it in any place that might be grazed
or used as fodder because it can be toxic. i've
chewed on a few leaves over the years and kept
thinking it was a wimpy oregano that somehow got
in, but Ma kept calling it mosquito weed.


songbird

Looks like it is pennyroyal , and yes Steve , it is a member of the mint
family . I'll be getting some seeds ...

--
Snag

You might want to check with local beekeepers, most honey from mint plants is not palatable or saleable. It's alright if you can segregate the honey and leave it for the bees to eat. Buckwheat is pretty much the same. It's the darkest honey you ever saw with a medicinal aroma and taste. However it is popular with the modern "hippie" types who use it like medicine.

Not trying to be a know-it-all here, just trying to prevent some of the mistakes I made 40 or so years ago.

Steve

Steve Peek wrote:
....
You might want to check with local beekeepers, most honey from mint plants is not palatable or saleable. It's alright if you can segregate the honey and leave it for the bees to eat. Buckwheat is pretty much the same. It's the darkest honey you ever saw with a medicinal aroma and taste. However it is popular with the modern "hippie" types who use it like medicine.

Not trying to be a know-it-all here, just trying to prevent some of the mistakes I made 40 or so years ago.



i've never noticed anything medicinal about buckwheat
based honey, tastes could vary? i'm not sure it matters
anyways as what Snag asked about was feeding his bees
with flowers instead of having to feed them using sugar
water.

if you read back in my suggestions you may notice that
i suggested other plants in the mix, the buckwheat was
the gap filler for the rest of this season... the other
plants would help provide food for next year and years
after.

anyways, how is your blueberry season shaping up? are
your beans doing well this year?

i did not plant any of the greasy beans this season as
i was late and i knew they would not finish very well as
compared to the many other shorter season varieties i have
(which look to be doing great). also, i didn't have the
back trellis set up yet for more climbing beans so i did
not want to put anything back there. with the many
groundhogs around i wasn't sure i'd have much of anything
outside the fences actually surviving anyways...

today i went out and picked beans for making some three
bean salad tomorrow and there's plenty of cucumbers ready
to make some more pickles. we sampled the bread and
butter pickles (made a week ago) today to see if they were
edible before we started giving some away and they were
deemed good.


songbird

On Sunday, August 9, 2015 at 1:43:58 PM UTC-4, songbird wrote:
Steve Peek wrote:
...
You might want to check with local beekeepers, most honey from mint plants is not palatable or saleable. It's alright if you can segregate the honey and leave it for the bees to eat. Buckwheat is pretty much the same. It's the darkest honey you ever saw with a medicinal aroma and taste. However it is popular with the modern "hippie" types who use it like medicine.

Not trying to be a know-it-all here, just trying to prevent some of the mistakes I made 40 or so years ago.



i've never noticed anything medicinal about buckwheat
based honey, tastes could vary? i'm not sure it matters
anyways as what Snag asked about was feeding his bees
with flowers instead of having to feed them using sugar
water.

if you read back in my suggestions you may notice that
i suggested other plants in the mix, the buckwheat was
the gap filler for the rest of this season... the other
plants would help provide food for next year and years
after.

anyways, how is your blueberry season shaping up? are
your beans doing well this year?

i did not plant any of the greasy beans this season as
i was late and i knew they would not finish very well as
compared to the many other shorter season varieties i have
(which look to be doing great). also, i didn't have the
back trellis set up yet for more climbing beans so i did
not want to put anything back there. with the many
groundhogs around i wasn't sure i'd have much of anything
outside the fences actually surviving anyways...

today i went out and picked beans for making some three
bean salad tomorrow and there's plenty of cucumbers ready
to make some more pickles. we sampled the bread and
butter pickles (made a week ago) today to see if they were
edible before we started giving some away and they were
deemed good.


songbird

Apparently there are at least 2 types of buckwheat honey. The eastern variety is as black as can be with an aroma and flavor somewhere between old vitamins, cough syrup and strong blackstrap molasses. The local "tofu/granola" types think darker and stronger is healthy and good for you similar to dark greens being more healthy. I agree that buckwheat is great bee fodder especially at that time of year when little else is available.

Blueberries are pretty much a bust for this year. We've been hit with a fungal disease called "mummy berry". Spores are released at blossom time and are wind distributed to the blossoms. The affected berries grow to nearly normal pre-ripening size then begin to shrink and dry basically mummify. We have about a 90% crop loss this year. The county Ag agent has no organic means of control other than picking up and burning all the affected berries. With over an acre of berries this is not physically possible. I've found a source of elemental copper that I'll try next Spring at blossom time. If that doesn't work I guess I'll have to give up on the blueberries or loose my organic rating.

I've started picking the Maine yellow-eyed beans, looks like a bumper crop this year. A neighbor and I disposed of 4 ground hogs last fall and aarly spring so no damage this year. Cucumbers and squash have died and the second planting has started to bloom. Chili peppers are tall and loaded and tomatos are producing about a bushel per week so we have lots of preserving going on now. I grew a new (to me) crop this year called "West Indian Burr Gerkin". They have a tart cucumber flavor but are supposedly not related to cucumber. They look like watermelon plants with dozens of little spiky green balls on them. They don't appear to be susceptible to mildew or cucumber beetles, so they may become my new pickle plant.

I'm preparing ground for the fall crops this week. I'll be planting daikon, beets, spinach, turnips, mustard, and maybe some kale, collard and mustard..

Steve

Steve Peek wrote:
....
Apparently there are at least 2 types of buckwheat honey. The eastern variety is as black as can be with an aroma and flavor somewhere between old vitamins, cough syrup and strong blackstrap molasses. The local "tofu/granola" types think darker and stronger is healthy and good for you similar to dark greens being more healthy. I agree that buckwheat is great bee fodder especially at that time of year when little else is available.

i happen to like molasses so this description just makes
me think that someday i'll have to find some and give it
a try.


Blueberries are pretty much a bust for this year. We've been hit with a fungal disease called "mummy berry". Spores are released at blossom time and are wind distributed to the blossoms. The affected berries grow to nearly normal pre-ripening size then begin to shrink and dry basically mummify. We have about a 90% crop loss this year. The county Ag agent has no organic means of control other than picking up and burning all the affected berries. With over an acre of berries this is not physically possible. I've found a source of elemental copper that I'll try next Spring at blossom time. If that doesn't work I guess I'll have to give up on the blueberries or loose my organic rating.

wow! that's a tough hit on a major crop. i
hope it can be controlled, but i'm not familiar
at all with that disease. does it stay on the
plants or is it only on the fruits after they
drop?

considering what it takes to get an organic
certification i sure hope you can get this under
control without resorting to extreme measures.

i'm wondering if some kind of ground cover
planted to prevent splashing spores up from the
ground might help? a large hoover to suck up
things would be interesting, but burning the
hooverites would be a challenge.


I've started picking the Maine yellow-eyed beans, looks like a bumper crop this year. A neighbor and I disposed of 4 ground hogs last fall and aarly spring so no damage this year.

i plant some yellow-eyes each year because we both
like them but i don't have enough space to grow a lot
of them. i plant so many other bean varieties that
it's hard for me to get more than a few pounds of any
one variety other than the staples (pinto beans for
me and lima beans for Ma). this year i made the
exception to build up a stock of a cross-breed that
did well last season and looks to be doing good this
year too. finishes early enough, about the size of
a red bean but it is black and a nice blue/purple pod
when dried (and the flowers are purple).


Cucumbers and squash have died and the second planting has started to bloom. Chili peppers are tall and loaded and tomatos are producing about a bushel per week so we have lots of preserving going on now. I grew a new (to me) crop this year called "West Indian Burr Gerkin". They have a tart cucumber flavor but are supposedly not related to cucumber. They look like watermelon plants with dozens of little spiky green balls on them. They don't appear to be susceptible to mildew or cucumber beetles, so they may become my new pickle plant.

you must have a large area if you can plant more than
one round of cucumbers and squash. as much as i like
cucumbers i'm also glad that they can finish early.


I'm preparing ground for the fall crops this week. I'll be planting daikon, beets, spinach, turnips, mustard, and maybe some kale, collard and mustard.

all sounds great, i hope they do well. i think the
bunnies ate the diakons i planted last year -- or perhaps
it was me. i found out i really liked radish sprout
greens.


songbird

songbird wrote:
Steve Peek wrote:
...
Apparently there are at least 2 types of buckwheat honey. The
eastern variety is as black as can be with an aroma and flavor
somewhere between old vitamins, cough syrup and strong blackstrap
molasses. The local "tofu/granola" types think darker and stronger
is healthy and good for you similar to dark greens being more
healthy. I agree that buckwheat is great bee fodder especially at
that time of year when little else is available.

i happen to like molasses so this description just makes
me think that someday i'll have to find some and give it
a try.


songbird

If the buckwheat I just ordered actually sprouts , I'll let you know . Not
sure which variety I'm getting , but it doesn't matter much . This time of
year the focus is on getting the hives up to weight to winter well and have
the resources (bees + food/pollen) to build up in time to catch the spring
flows . Without swarming ... it's a fine line !

--
Snag
4 hives and growing ...

Once upon a time on usenet Steve Peek wrote:


[snipped]

we have lots of preserving going on now. I grew a new (to me) crop
this year called "West Indian Burr Gerkin". They have a tart cucumber
flavor but are supposedly not related to cucumber. They look like
watermelon plants with dozens of little spiky green balls on them.
They don't appear to be susceptible to mildew or cucumber beetles, so
they may become my new pickle plant.

Is this them?
http://www.worldcrops.org/crops/Maxixe.cfm

Because they *are* cucurbits, in the same family as cukes.

Cheers,
--
Shaun.

"Humans will have advanced a long, long way when religious belief has a cozy
little classification in the DSM*."
David Melville (in r.a.s.f1)
(*Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders)

On Wednesday, August 12, 2015 at 8:41:27 PM UTC-4, ~misfit~ wrote:
Once upon a time on usenet Steve Peek wrote:


[snipped]

we have lots of preserving going on now. I grew a new (to me) crop
this year called "West Indian Burr Gerkin". They have a tart cucumber
flavor but are supposedly not related to cucumber. They look like
watermelon plants with dozens of little spiky green balls on them.
They don't appear to be susceptible to mildew or cucumber beetles, so
they may become my new pickle plant.

Is this them?
http://www.worldcrops.org/crops/Maxixe.cfm

Because they *are* cucurbits, in the same family as cukes.

Cheers,
--
Shaun.

"Humans will have advanced a long, long way when religious belief has a cozy
little classification in the DSM*."
David Melville (in r.a.s.f1)
(*Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders)


that's them, same family, different genus. Mine don't seem to be that large without getting inedible seeds. They're very tasty similar to cucumber but more tart.

Once upon a time on usenet Steve Peek wrote:
On Wednesday, August 12, 2015 at 8:41:27 PM UTC-4, ~misfit~ wrote:
Once upon a time on usenet Steve Peek wrote:


[snipped]

we have lots of preserving going on now. I grew a new (to me) crop
this year called "West Indian Burr Gerkin". They have a tart
cucumber flavor but are supposedly not related to cucumber. They
look like watermelon plants with dozens of little spiky green balls
on them. They don't appear to be susceptible to mildew or cucumber
beetles, so they may become my new pickle plant.

Is this them?
http://www.worldcrops.org/crops/Maxixe.cfm

Because they *are* cucurbits, in the same family as cukes.

Cheers,

that's them, same family, different genus. Mine don't seem to be that
large without getting inedible seeds. They're very tasty similar to
cucumber but more tart.

I was just making a rhubarb tart last night (lidless pie - much easier than
lidding it and lower pastry to fruit ratio) and my mind wandered, as it
does... I came to the conclusion that I definitely need more tart in my
life.
--
Shaun.

"Humans will have advanced a long, long way when religious belief has a cozy
little classification in the DSM*."
David Melville (in r.a.s.f1)
(*Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders)