Archive A Bee Garden - photo edition -

[Erin 1,290]

Broad beans can be really nice, but you have to pick them while they are small and tender .

[Janice 3,991]

[quote name='Erin']Broad beans can be really nice, but you have to pick them while they are small and tender .[/quote]If they get too big, you can peel off the greyish skin from each bean - that's the horrible bit. But I just stick them in a spicy curry with some pumpkin and stuff, and the taste gets lost. The texture is good for currying.

[Rashika 644]

[quote="kevin moore, post: 29801, member: 268"]well done Rashika, you must have a big garden, we have alot of the little wild straw berries at work, i have never tried them.[/quote] Its slowly getting there, i could easily expand it by half... Dunno what my other half would think of that though! Advantage of having a totally new section of 1 hectare, could leave a BIG space for vege garden ;-)

[Rashika 644]

[quote name='Janice']If they get too big, you can peel off the greyish skin from each bean - that's the horrible bit. But I just stick them in a spicy curry with some pumpkin and stuff, and the taste gets lost. The texture is good for currying.[/quote] Mum is quite impressed with the b beans, they are even flowering for the 2nd time so might get another bunch of this lot. She said the same about picking them young... I dunno i still dont like em much but i dont mind growing them, they have cool looking flowers

[Rashika 644]

[quote name='Bron']I used to have a garden:( now I have millions of bees:p[/quote] I am so lucky i have room for both ;-)

[Erin 1,290]

I suspect it is more the time thing than the space thing. I have both in a city section. :D Although I only have thousands of bees, not millions, I think.

[Rashika 644]

yeah true, time is a bit of an issue, and its prob only 1000's of bees here too!

[Daley 4,341]

Yeah brons got... 56? Hives I think hehe :D bye bye weekends. My garden looks pretty unloved at the moment too... As I look after MB's baybees :D And then my own baybees, and then too tired to garden! I did get a big haul of tomatoes, but they were only small as all I did was plant them and leave them.. No water. And I keep getting marrows coz I don't check the courgettes often enough. Also, a giant sunflower popped up... I didn't plant it, I don't know where it came from, and one day all of a sudden! What's that! It's a giant blimin sunflower :lol Hoping to begin to pay some more attention, and plant more things! I want to get a berry patch going, blueberries and raspberries om nom nom

[deejaycee 2,451]

dead jealous of all you gardeners. [quote name='Bron']I used to have a garden:( now I have millions of bees:p[/quote] ditto. think I've posted this one before.. - under that steel sheeting is a pallet platform.. and under that... well. it used to be my vege garden [URL='https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/dSviq4baH41nsjgUif4wrmnO2O2T0H1at3P9Y3cucwE?feat=directlink']Picasa Web Albums - Deanna[/URL]

[Rashika 644]

[quote name='Daley']Y I want to get a berry patch going, blueberries and raspberries om nom nom[/quote] ooo yeah got a few of them going (boysenberries, raspberries, gooseberries, currants) but will be a year or 2 till i get something decent off them. OMFG 56 hives bron??!!

[Rashika 644]

[quote name='deejaycee']dead jealous of all you gardeners. ditto. think I've posted this one before.. - under that steel sheeting is a pallet platform.. and under that... well. it used to be my vege garden [URL='https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/dSviq4baH41nsjgUif4wrmnO2O2T0H1at3P9Y3cucwE?feat=directlink']Picasa Web Albums - Deanna[/URL][/quote] you know you can grow veges in a regular flower garden... I used to do it lots, especially garlic near roses, keeps a lot of the pesty insects away then too. and garlic is so EASY to grow and expensive to buy (if you buy the nz stuff)

[deejaycee 2,451]

[quote name='Rashika']you know you can grow veges in a regular flower garden... I used to do it lots, especially garlic near roses, keeps a lot of the pesty insects away then too. and garlic is so EASY to grow and expensive to buy (if you buy the nz stuff)[/quote] oh I know, and I used to at my old place... but we don't really have garden beds here. :) And then there's the millions of bees things... We run 50 of our own and manage another 18. We both have full-time jobs Kev's at about 70 hours pw during summer/autumn, so I'm semi-solo mum and do all the bee work around his work. - like Daley said, there go the weekends!

[Rashika 644]

we do get to be really good jugglers eh? and live on next to no sleep

[Erin 1,290]

I do the bees and the vege garden, but I cheat. I have raised beds, and have a 'leaky hose' watering system on them (more than complies with the most strict water restrictions we get in Hamilton). Mulch with straw in spring, put the watering system on a timer. Garden waters itself and does not need weeding, just harvest and plant. When I want to clear the whole bed out I just let the self-propelling rotory hoes (aka chickens) into the bed and thats done automatically too. Flower beds are mostly herbs and are strictly left to fend for themselves, so no watering or weeding there either ;) I always called it lazy-ar*e gardening, but apparently it looks a lot like permaculture.

[Bron 2,703]

Yep, Daley's a bit off with the number, but yeah, what with full time work and weekend bee keeping as well as after school work when it is busy, the garden is on the back burner till one of us - not me goes part time work part time beekeeping. We have watermelons, potatoes and kumara in a patch at one of our hive sites, but other than lettuce, marrows, yep I got the same problem the courgettes turn into Melanie Marrows, asparagus, cucumbers and the odd tomato, the rest is gone due to not enough time and too much passion for the bees. I love the bees thou, and we have really good vege van on the side of the road, so veges plentiful and cheap most of the time, can buy your bees on the side of the road:eek:

[Daley 4,341]

[quote name='Bron']Yep, Daley's a bit off with the number, but yeah, what with full time work and weekend bee keeping as well as after school work when it is busy, the garden is on the back burner till one of us - not me goes part time work part time beekeeping. We have watermelons, potatoes and kumara in a patch at one of our hive sites, but other than lettuce, marrows, yep I got the same problem the courgettes turn into Melanie Marrows, asparagus, cucumbers and the odd tomato, the rest is gone due to not enough time and too much passion for the bees. I love the bees thou, and we have really good vege van on the side of the road, so veges plentiful and cheap most of the time, can buy your bees on the side of the road:eek:[/quote] :lol nah ya don't buy em, just get em hanging off trees on the side of the road for nothing :D

[Kiwi Bee 575]

Journalists .....

[Bron 2,703]

@ Kiwi Bee - some people just don't get it really....

[BeeBeauty 431]

Okay, so far we're put in - potatoes (Rocket for Christmas lunch, Agria and Nadine, one row of each), sweetcorn (seedlings and seeds - two rows), peas (seedlings one row and one row of seeds still to be planted), silverbeet (ditto), spring onions (two rows seedlings), onions (red and pukekohe - two rows each). Still to be planted, broccoli, cauli, cabbage, capsicum (seedlings & "heel", you know that bit you normally throw away with the seeds on it. I'm going to plant this whole and see what happens), tomatoes (about four varieties and sizes), zucchini, cucumber (apple & telegraph), aubergine - never planted this before so that should be interesting! And one chicken. Reckon we'll have enough food for the whanau for Christmas lunch!! God, I hope so.

[dansar 5,433]

Just make sure you keep the chicken well watered, You might get Aubergines If you are really lucky:D

[Janice 3,991]

[quote name='BeeBeauty']Okay, so far we're put in - potatoes (Rocket for Christmas lunch, Agria and Nadine, one row of each), sweetcorn (seedlings and seeds - two rows), peas (seedlings one row and one row of seeds still to be planted), silverbeet (ditto), spring onions (two rows seedlings), onions (red and pukekohe - two rows each). Still to be planted, broccoli, cauli, cabbage, capsicum (seedlings & "heel", you know that bit you normally throw away with the seeds on it. I'm going to plant this whole and see what happens), tomatoes (about four varieties and sizes), zucchini, cucumber (apple & telegraph), aubergine - never planted this before so that should be interesting! And one chicken. Reckon we'll have enough food for the whanau for Christmas lunch!! God, I hope so.[/quote] Don't worry. Things might happen but the supermarket has your back. I say this because kereru get almost all our blossom and fruit. Possums get the rest. Chooks always get the garden at some point, and escaped sheep eat whatever they can. We get a good spud crop if we have foiled the wire worms but the currants come ripe when we are away at Christmas so we don't get many

[Rashika 644]

hehe I like that bit about the supermarket janice!