Vegetable garden

[ApidAdi]

Hi all!
I just got all my raised beds in over the weekend. (Sorry about the photo quality, late afternoon shade doesn't make for good photo conditions.) Four raised bed kits I ordered from The Home Depot, and a heap bed I laid down behind. I scavenged a bunch of cardboard from the recycling area at work to lay down underneath everything. (I've been telling my boyfriend that killing grass is my new favorite hobby.) The four beds in front will be tomatoes, tomatillos, and peppers. The heap bed will be sunflowers and native wildflowers.

Don't judge me, folks, but I filled all the beds with the cheapest top soil I could find at Home Depot. I'm betting on the large amount of wood in the mix composting eventually. The heap bed already has compost because I already spread the seeds for the flowers. I have some more compost cooking now, and once it starts cooling off I'll spread that on the boxes.

Here are some makeshift ollas I glued over the weekend. Four of the small 6" ones will go into each of the box beds to act as irrigation through drought season. Those two giant 16" ones are going into my front garden (which I haven't posted anything about yet. Once all my new babies go in, I'll put some photos up).

Just above all this in one of the trees, I hung an insect palace I bought on Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01A8HB78I/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_UQxVyb8VM8NAE
I'm all set to have pollinators galore and enough tomatoes to can. Any advice on timing (and anything else) would be much appreciated. I don't have anything in the ground besides wildflower and sunflower seeds (I assume they'll be fine considering they're native, if the birds will leave them alone.) The average last frost date in my area is March 20, but last year we had a sucker-punch frost right at the end of spring, so I'm a little anxious about planting.

Yay spring!!

 

[MaryMary]

First and foremost, good job and good luck!

Don't judge me, folks, but I filled all the beds with the cheapest top soil I could find at Home Depot.

No judgement here. I don't have raised beds, I started with the plain old dirt that came with the yard. Every year I amend my soil, and every year, it's a little better than it was last year.

Topsoil is just a base to start from, you have to bring the magic!!

Any advice on timing (and anything else) would be much appreciated.

The best advice I can give you for timing (and anything else) is to get a pocket thermometer something like this one*.

Here is a link that @Chuck posted in another thread, I've printed it to use this spring.
http://extension.oregonstate.edu/deschutes/sites/default/files/Horticulture/documents/soiltemps.pdf

The link has the soil temperature conditions for germination of various vegetable seeds, and how many days it will be to the appearance of seedlings at various temperatures. (Thanks, again, Chuck! )



*My temperature probe was a gift, so I don't really know what they run as far as price. My advice would be to price-check them in different parts of the hardware store. They are a necessity for people who work HVAC, but might be considered a luxury item for gardeners. I think that the pricing might vary.

I also use it to measure the temps of my compost, to see if it needs greens, browns, or just needs stirred.

 

[ApidAdi]

First and foremost, good job and good luck!


No judgement here. I don't have raised beds, I started with the plain old dirt that came with the yard. Every year I amend my soil, and every year, it's a little better than it was last year.

Topsoil is just a base to start from, you have to bring the magic!!


The best advice I can give you for timing (and anything else) is to get a pocket thermometer something like this one*.

Here is a link that @Chuck posted in another thread, I've printed it to use this spring.
http://extension.oregonstate.edu/deschutes/sites/default/files/Horticulture/documents/soiltemps.pdf

The link has the soil temperature conditions for germination of various vegetable seeds, and how many days it will be to the appearance of seedlings at various temperatures. (Thanks, again, Chuck! )



*My temperature probe was a gift, so I don't really know what they run as far as price. My advice would be to price-check them in different parts of the hardware store. They are a necessity for people who work HVAC, but might be considered a luxury item for gardeners. I think that the pricing might vary.

I also use it to measure the temps of my compost, to see if it needs greens, browns, or just needs stirred.

I happened to have two kitchen thermometers, and now the older one is for compost. Thanks for the tip!

 

[marlingardener]

Your ollas are handsome! For "drip" irrigation, I use two liter plastic soda bottles with the bottom cut off and the cap removed. Buried neck down, about half-way into the soil along a planting row, a few of these, filled with water, will water the roots of my tomatoes and peppers. It definitely isn't as aesthetically pleasing as your ollas, but it still works.

 

[MaryMary]

Just above all this in one of the trees, I hung an insect palace I bought on Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01A8HB78I/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_UQxVyb8VM8NAE
I'm all set to have pollinators galore

I have to say, I am very curious about your insect palace.

Did you hang it where you can look inside it? I'm wondering what insects you will get in each part, and how long it will take them to find it.

My neighbor has a tree stump in her yard that I have been thinking about drilling holes in to make a home for Mason bees, which is what I think will live in this part of the palace.

As I understand it, they will lay their eggs in there, and next spring, the eggs will hatch out to start the cycle all over again.



I hesitate to ask, it seems a bit...(demanding?...presumptuous?...rude?) ... but when you start seeing activity, would you be willing to start a thread and tell us (me! ) of the progress? I can watch all the YouTube videos and read everything I can find, but they won't tell me about a "real life" experience with it.

Please???

 

[marlingardener]

Great idea to have a "palace" near your really royal gardens! We did a project with children using plastic straws bound together with nylon rope--not terribly lovely, but the kids took them home and attracted Mason bees. I know because a couple of irate mothers phoned me.
We have two palaces, one on a fence post near the big gardens, and now a new one in back of the barn. Since we keep bees I'm not sure how much the pollination is affected, but hey, everybody needs a home!

 

[MaryMary]

We did a project with children using plastic straws bound together with nylon rope--not terribly lovely, but the kids took them home and attracted Mason bees. I know because a couple of irate mothers phoned me.

Irate mothers? Why? It's good for kids to learn about nature.
Were they upset because you encouraged their children to ... raise bugs?!



@ApidAdi, I do know that if there is not a mud source nearby, they won't stay. The female makes little "apartments" for each egg!

The female Orchard Mason Bee visits flowers to collect pollen for its young. She forms a small ball of pollen and nectar in the back of the nesting tube and lays an egg on the ball. She then collects mud to form a cell partition and repeats the pollen ball-egg laying process until she reaches the mouth of the tube where she caps the end with mud. Starting the life cycle in the spring, adult males emerge from tubes first, but must wait for the later appearance of the females in order to mate. This event often coincides with the redbud (Cercis) bloom. Females alone, begin founding new nests in holes to make a row of 5-10 cells in each nest. Females collect the pollen and nectar and lay eggs. Their short foraging range is about 100 yards from the nest. Activity continues 4-6 weeks and then adults die (....snip...)
These bees need mud to construct cell partitions, so adding a mud supply may be helpful if needed. This can be a trench or tub located nearby where muddy soil is maintained during the nesting period. The mud should not be highly organic or sandy. Clay soils work well. https://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/ent/notes/Other/note109/note109.html

Here's a video I found of the bees collecting mud!

 

[ApidAdi]

I have to say, I am very curious about your insect palace.

Did you hang it where you can look inside it? I'm wondering what insects you will get in each part, and how long it will take them to find it.

My neighbor has a tree stump in her yard that I have been thinking about drilling holes in to make a home for Mason bees, which is what I think will live in this part of the palace.

As I understand it, they will lay their eggs in there, and next spring, the eggs will hatch out to start the cycle all over again.



I hesitate to ask, it seems a bit...(demanding?...presumptuous?...rude?) ... but when you start seeing activity, would you be willing to start a thread and tell us (me! ) of the progress? I can watch all the YouTube videos and read everything I can find, but they won't tell me about a "real life" experience with it.

Please???

Absolutely! I'll probably be spamming everyone I know with photos and videos, so it won't be much trouble to add them here, too. The average last frost date is the 20th, so we should be seeing some insect activity here in the near future.

 

[ApidAdi]

Irate mothers? Why? It's good for kids to learn about nature.
Were they upset because you encouraged their children to ... raise bugs?!



@ApidAdi, I do know that if there is not a mud source nearby, they won't stay. The female makes little "apartments" for each egg!





Here's a video I found of the bees collecting mud!

That's a cool video! There's a stream a few doors down from my house. It's man made, but full of mud. So I'm fairly certain I'll have resident bees.

Lol in my experience people are indiscriminately afraid of flying insects. Roaches, wasps, beetles, it doesn't matter. Children are the easist to convince that not everything goes for the kill on sight.

Do you know if they reuse the same nests every year like paper wasps? Or will I have to replace the tubes annually?

 

[MaryMary]

Now, that's where I'm not sure. I'd have to say that depends on you. A lot of the videos say that you don't have to clean them. OTOH, there are a lot of the videos showing how to harvest the egg cells and keep them in the fridge over the winter to keep them safe from predators. Some people just put the whole nest in the shed or garage for the winter. How involved do you want to be with it?

You'll have to do some reading and decide for yourself. I've never done it, just read about it and watched videos.

To be on the safe side - if it were me - I'd probably buy a second set, but save the old ones, and clean them out to have them ready for the next year. (Maybe run it through with a pipe cleaner? Barbecue skewer?) Rotate sets every year to be able to have time to clean them. Mites and fungal disease seems to be a problem. (I've watched a lot of videos about Mason bees!)

Problem is, the males emerge before the females, so you'd have to wait until you were absolutely sure that everything had vacated the tubes. Wouldn't do any good to only have male bees! They mate the second the female emerges - the males hang by the tubes, waiting for her. That's why I'd want a second set. As soon as she shows up, she going to be looking for a place to put eggs!



More to read and one video:
http://www.buzzaboutbees.net/mason-bees.html

More to read and two more videos:
http://thehoneybeeconservancy.org/mason-bees/