It's mid- May- a super important time for bee colonies and bee health. I've checked out all my hives- of what's left after a devastating winter (50% loss I think-but that includes some nuc losses)- and they all seem (minus a drone laying queen), to be poised to survive into Summer. On a bell curve of course- is there anything in life not on one?
So down to 12 living hives, with 12 lost, all due to mites (or size maybe), and looking at it all with 28 years of experience and a bazillion hours trying to make it work- I feel like it must be the end of an era. Time to think about new things, new ways to engage in the things I love to do. That's not a final word- 12 hives to care for is still a commitment- but unless something turns around, next year there will be 5, then 2... then none, then a bonfire.
So, part of my plan this coming summer is to branch out my interests to mediate the loss. I've had a few I've tried in the past few years, but also a few "old person" health ailments to contend with recently,so as a diversion, I am cooking (also memorizing the first part of Beowulf in Anglo Saxon (Bee- wolf if you did not know)), and want to get a lot of cooking herbs going. In particular, basil and Nira, (Japanese chives). So that means getting seeds going early- and that means a greenhouse or cold frame, and in either case, that means I needed to draw it up first.
On the net, there are easily a few hundred designs. But being an architect, there is no way in heck I am going to follow someone else's plans for a simple box! And below is my own cold frame contribution, based on using what I had on hand, and what I could get at Lowe's that didn't cost an arm and a leg. Should anyone want a drawing, I could easily make it (Just Ask). Its 33x44 plex a the top, with a 2x2 frame and solar hinge, and everything else is made out of uber-cheap cedar fence boards. Best deal for wood at Lowe's!
The green is a super hard green to find by accident. I go through a lot of green- and always on the lookout for ones I like. This one's off the shelf- sort of a olive, army green, but more intense in real life. I have an old friend that painted their house a pretty good dark green, but that's hard to do in stain- and hard to get right.
Below, as built and installed today, it ended up without wood legs, but instead set on left over CMU I built my house with 30 years ago, and some red painted boards from my neighbor who is replacing his deck (boards, and powder post beetles, circa 1912). The bottom of the box is loose boards, so in the winter I can set it on some bricks on the ground and grow a winter crop.
Below,inside, not yet planted, a bunch of peat cups from Lowes. They are peat- a so much a happier thing than buying plastic racks with a lid and base and a ton of plastic that gets thrown out. Plus,I bought peat rounds, as my two pro Basil advisers (Jim Pierce and Meg Cochran, both experts), plant theirs 20 at a time, then when at the second leaf, sort them out and plant them in their own containers.
Also- forthcoming tomorrow- is a solar hinge, which lifts the top up in hot winter. I designed a greenhouse in to town for the local hardware store, and they used them there (I did not know about them before), They use bees wax to somehow push a piston out. I've stared at it (have it in my shop), but still don't quite get it.
From behind- showing the awesome new vegetable soil from Cedar Grove that my great friend Monroe brought by (my old truck having poor tires- and tires costing easily $1000 these days to replace, he volunteered to bring the soil). This soil is supposed to be AMAZING- another expert gardener and long time valley person, Sally Hosko in Carnation, credits this soil doubled her crop in a small garden last year
In the center my essential Rosemary plant, with a Chive and Thyme plant as well. I use the Rosemary every other night or three for something or other, as does my meat-eating neighbor. Today was Foccacia day for the neighbors, and I used it for that. I deliver it randomly when it is done (these I cook two at a time), so one went to a neighbor who is expecting a baby in October (and who told me she will reject no bread and never say no to it), and another to a neighbor's teenage son who is a gamer all through the post-midnight hours and likes it for a snack. Its easy to find a place for it with my neighbors!
(a few days later- a big wind came through today, and flipped the cover up and tore it off and destroyed the hinges- and busted the plex (which I can fix). So- a little rethinking is now in order, how to secure it, but still be able to open it. Plus- the plex is screwed down with roofing screws, but warps between screws,likely the heat causes this. So- design problem there too-probably needs some oversized holes. Even simple things, in my experience, can be complicated!)
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