Grubbing in the dirt

[Estrella]

We spent a lot of time clearing in the garden after three weekends where it’s been really wet. We discovered we have 72 palm trees (we knew we had loads but actually counted them) and that they shed like crazy so there was a dump run with loads of palm fronds.

Today may feature (garden related in that it’s in our garden) MrE attempting to harvest honey from the hive for the first time.

[baargain]

72! Can you compost the palm fronds? You'll be sorted for life if so.

Good luck with the beeeees. Did you inherit them?

[baargain]

OK, they're v hard to compost! That seems tedious.

[Estrella]

We thought about trying to turn the fronds into mulch by getting a chipper thing but apparently they’re not the easiest thing to dispose of.

We did inherit the bees (they’ve been dubbed the Beestie Girls by the kids). We need all the luck we can get, we are relatively clueless. It’s a flow hive though so is meant to be pretty easy.

[baargain]

Beestie girls a couple of my friends have bees, they put a lot of effort into them, but they tend to over think everything.

I read that palm fronds tend to fuck up chippers! And some tips don't take them, so fingers crossed you can get shot. I've learnt a lot about palm fronds in the last 5 mins

[Estrella]

Thankfully our dump takes them as it looks like we will have a lot of them in our future.

And look! We managed to harvest our honey!

[Derek Nimmo]

That's amazing! How does it taste, and was the process sting-free?

[Estrella]

Process was totally sting free and it tastes amazing. It’s darker than I expected. Hoping the tale about local honey being good for allergies is true as you can’t get more local that your back garden!

[Edith Bacon]

That’s amazing, Est!

[Estrella]

We’ve taken some round to the neighbours who were delighted. And I’m now googling “honey recipes” as I’ve gotten as far as honey soy chicken kebabs in my plan to use it up. This is where the girls live.

[Ella77]

That’s so cool. Did you leave them lots for the winter?

[Estrella]

It’s still super warm here. Won’t cool down until May-ish so we will make sure they have plenty.

[Ella77]

No, I mean just because they need it to survive rather than about it getting cold .

[Estrella]

Ah, yeah. Winter here starts in June so noted.

[Ella77]

I do worry about them, sorry for all the questions . If you’ve taken too much I think you can leave it outside and they’ll take it back in.

https://www.beekeeping-101.com/how-much-honey-to-leave/

[Estrella]

MrE told me there is heaps of honey still in the hive. He only emptied the flow section and the frames are still full. So they will be all good

[emma_p]

How amazing to have a bee hive!

That is a lot of honey. How about making granola or madeleines. Honey mustard dressing?

[Toast]

Homemade honey is very cool. And I love the name the name!

We've got a wooden gazebo outside our kitchen which has some kind of roofing baton on the top of it. It provides shade but ideally it would be covered so that it also keeps rain out. I did look at various options for putting a roof or some kind of retractable awning onto it but I think I'd rather just grow stuff up/over it. There is a already a reasonably well established jasmine near it but it will be a while before it's big enough to climb all over it and I would like something NOW so I'm wondering what to plant. Climbing roses? More jasmine? Honeysuckle? What do you think?

[Cerise]

Homemade honey!

[baargain]

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This slope goes to the house, and gets all slidey and muddy in wet weather.

So I dug it all up. We're going to try to build some steps.

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The weird trench on the right is where the pipe runs from our oil tank. It probably wouldn't be good if I stabbed a hole in it.

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I have more spare flint and bricks now

Toast. I think any of those plants could look nice! However my honeysuckle has made the fence go mouldy, I think because it's quite dense. Clematis could do the same.