The Queen of Seaford: 2021

Wednesday, November 17, 2021

What's Your Angle?

During spring and fall our sun angles are really pronounced. It certainly makes for some striking photo opportunities. Fall, with its bold colors, can give you some incredible photos. Timing is really important to find that perfect time of day where you have sunlight streaming just right to your photo subjects. The first photo was taken at 9:40 AM. Great light, tree on the right side of the driveway glowing.

This second photo was taken 4:01 PM. We live on an almost straight North/South axis. We face South and East is to the left as you go up the driveway, West on the right. In this photo the woods to the right glow and there is no light on the driveway. I tried to be in the same spot to take both photos.

Timing really shows the changes of the angle of the sun and gives you such a different photo. If you have the luxury of watching your subject matter for a number of hours, you will know what time of day you want to get your perfect shot.

I conducted an experiment in my front yard. The tree to the left in the photo below is a Coral Bark maple, Acer palmatum 'Sango Kaku'. In the foreground is a Loropetalum 'Purple Pixie' with dark foliage, African Blue Basil on the left foreground and a white leafed lavendar, Lavandula stoechas 'Anouk White'. On the far side of the lawn are two Cypress, left is Cupressus arizonica var. glabra 'Blue Ice' and right is Cupressus arizonica var. glabra 'Carolina Sapphire'. The forest is beyond, filled with various hardwoods and a few pine. Each photo is time stamped to show how the sun passes over my front gardens.

I left the multiple photos smaller so you might see more than one on the screen as you scroll down. So if you were to choose what time to best get a photo of the front yard, what time would that be? What plants do you want to pop in your photo? Which driveway photo do you like better, morning or evening?

Angles are everything this time of year.

Tuesday, July 20, 2021

More Spring Chores

I have written and rewritten this post a number of times. Train of thought gets interrupted and the flow of my words seems to be stilted, so I put it down for a while...again and again. I started this in April, so much of the beginning text is mute- mostly comments about weather and chiggers and wanting to get this done before the really hot weather kicks in. So without further procrastination, here is my irrigation project.--

One of the items I wanted to have done this past winter was to get some irrigation up to the street for the garden. I had someone lined up and it fell through sadly. The method he was going to install the water was pretty straight forward. I Googled a bunch of YouTubes and decided it was something I could do myself.

After getting the mulch done (see last post) and having some sunny days ahead I went about ordering the needed items.

Disclaimer: I am going to show a specific product. I have not been compensated in any way for use of this item. My thoughts are my own, positive and negative.

Ordering online for pick-up at the store is a nice way to shop for irrigation parts and accessories. I ordered Mr. Landscaper Premium kit at Lowe's. The water source is to be my spigot at the well, about one hundred feet from the street. The kit came with 100 feet of tubing and after figuring out the distance involved, I ordered two more bundles of 100 feet of 1/2 inch tubing to carry the water from the well to the garden at the street. I also ordered more stakes to hold the tubing at ground level, more couplers to connect tubing, and an elbow connector. I went back to get more ground stakes and a Y-connector for the spigot and a few more sprinklers and sprayer heads. Seems like every task or homeowner improvement project needs multiple trips to the store. This project is no different.

The installation is pretty straight forward and I am writing / photographing this is to show others that it is almost foolproof. Follow the photos and the captions to a quick and easy project.

Tubing and details for installation on box, don't pitch the box right away!

Sprayer heads, timer, puncture tool and assorted pieces

Because the tubing was had been rolled in a bundle, I stretched it out along the driveway to relax the plastic.

Multiple sprinkler stakes with connector lines

The orange sprinkler head shoots almost a full circle of water, but also has a 180 degree capability. To change it you take off the orange head, turn it upside down and replace it.

Ground stakes

End crimper, feed the hose through the hole and back through again.

Basic timer that attaches to the spigot

Assembly to the spigot- timer, 50 PSI flow regulator, and hose coupler

Hole puncher

The hose and sprayer stake- ready to make my connection

To connect the sprayers you take the hole punch, make your hole and insert the tip from the sprayer stake into the hole. It is self sealing and if you make an error in placement of the hole- the kit comes with a hole plug! I placed my hose along the edge of the driveway and made note of the plants that I wanted. Placing the stake into the ground I then adjusted the connector line to the hose, made the hole and connected the sprayer.

Once I got to the top of the driveway I needed to get the hose line to the other side. There is a culvert under the driveway near the street, so I had a clear path to use! I have a brush and multiple 18 inch rods that screw together for cleaning the dryer vent. I used my flexible rods, pushed them through the culvert, tied a line to the rod, pulled it back through, and tied the hose to the line and pulled it under the driveway.

The hose is almost hidden through the rocks

The garden now has water!

After I was pleased with the placement of the stakes and the hose I covered exposed black hose with pine straw. Adjustments were easy, just pull up the ground stakes and the sprayers and move according to where you want the water.

Spray of water

The water spray is not far, maybe a five foot diameter, so more sprayers were needed in some areas. I think I can add two more sprayers to reach the capacity of sprayers per hose to spigot. The garden is filling in now that there is water. Much of what is planted up at the street, in full sun, is drought tolerant but the added water allows me to add some other plants.

Winterizing this is easy. Just take the hose off the end crimper (the black thing with the two holes) and drain the water. If there are issues after a cold winter I will update.

My assessment of this type of irrigation -- I like it, I might add another to the other side of the driveway to benefit some of my azaleas and dogwoods that are on the high side of the driveway. The water connection has to be figured out for this one. If I didn't have in ground irrigation for the rest of the yard, fed from the lake, I would think about adding something like this to specific spots that need the extra water.

Do you have projects that you are pleased with?

Tuesday, April 13, 2021

Sisyphean Struggle

Spring weeds and not using weed killer is killing me. I should have put down my mulch before the season was over last year....but did I? No. I did put in the dry creek bed through the garden, so I wasn't sitting on my laurels all winter.

This was the garden last May -

It was full and lush, visited by many pollinators. I resisted cutting back spent foliage over the winter as the stems and seed heads are beneficial to birds and insects for food and habitat.

Here is was blooming in June last year-

I was very happy with how the garden filled out, looking forward to this year's growth. We visited our each of our grandchildren since we have been vaccinated. With one visit in mid-March and the other in early April I tried to attack the winter weeds in between trips. Ha!

You can see in the photo below an abundance of winter Poa anna winter grass- all going to seed. I really thought I had knocked it back a good bit before we left for our second trip. Between the bird bath and the Magnolia you can see light green seed heads.

For the last few days I have been pulling weeds. In the center of this garden are seedlings of last years blooms, none of which I want to disturb. Yikes. In the photos below you see a sea of weeds. The first photo I marked the edge of the garden. Boy do I need to get busy. Seems like each night the weeds grow by leaps and bounds, my Sisyphean struggle, starting over again each day.

In the middle of this mess is a tiny Oakleaf hydrangea, Little Honey. Hydrangea quercifolia 'Little Honey'

My success yesterday was that I finished getting all the weeds (well mostly, am sure some will reappear this morning) out of the center of the garden where most of the blooming plants are. I had gone to a plant sale on Saturday and had some Salvia x superba 'Merleau', Echinacea purpurea 'Magnus Superior' and two different varieties of Asclepias tuberosa, the standard and 'Hello Yellow' to plant. I did have two Asclepias tuberosa in the garden but they have disappeared, late in emerging?

You can't see a small fence around this center area, it was put up to keep the dog from walking through the herbaceous plants and hopefully keep the rabbits out. The bamboo stakes in the photo above are marking some Amaryllis bulbs outside the fenced area. I stepped on them one time too many, so they needed to be marked.

Today's job? I think this area-

Oh, did I mention that the place I get the pine straw to mulch my garden doesn't have any? Crossing my fingers for it to be in by the end of the week. My resolution is to keep a good thick bed of pine straw to retard germination of the weeds for next winter. Wish me luck!

p.s.- tick bite yesterday, yay.

Sunday, March 28, 2021

All A'Buzz- pt. 4 Pest Management

Gardeners may know there is a PMG (Pest Management Guide) for many pests in the garden. Working with bees ones also needs to be aware of sound pest management. There are both pests and diseases that a beekeeper needs to manage to keep a healthy hive. This post will address a few of the pests.

One pest we have not had in our hives, for which I am quite thankful, is wax moths. Visual assessment of the hive boxes will let you know if you have these moths. Good hygiene is critical. As with any pest, letting it go for too long makes it that much more difficult to get rid of. If you have wax moths/larvae a good clean of all frames and boxes is needed.

Hive beetles are an ongoing pest in the hive. These beetles are small black beetles, a little larger than a Sesame seed. The bees do a good job of 'cornering' the beetles in the upper parts of the hive. To assist with the corralling of said beetles, we use beetle traps. It is a long narrow reservoir with a perforated top. You fill the reservoir with mineral oil and nestle it in between two frames, in an upper box and at the outside region of the frames.

These beetle traps remain in the hives year round, replaced when full of dead beetles. The bees don't mind these traps and from the looks of it, they move the beetles to the trap.

The next pest I want to tell you about are Varroa mites. These mites are tiny, about the size of a poppy seed, but flat. The mites lay their eggs in with the bee larvae and once the cell of the bee larvae is capped, the mites grow along with the bee. The mites continue laying eggs inside the capped cell. Once the bee emerges from its cell, there is a large brood of mites as well. The mites weaken the bees. To test for Varroa mites you need to sacrifice about 100 bees per hive. We have a special jar contraption. It is two jars, one on top of the other, that share a lid. This lid is mesh top with a threaded screw on top and bottom. One hundred bees are gathered into the jar and the other side is filled with rubbing alcohol. You close the jar and shake it so the alcohol is mixed with the bees. This kills both the bees and the mites. You then check the rubbing alcohol to count the number of mites per one hundred bees. You don't want more than three per hundred.

If you have more than three per hundred, treatment is needed. We first used Apivar strips for treatment. It is a chemically treated piece of plastic that the bees walk on. The bees pick up the chemical and spread it around the hive to each other. These strips remain in the hive for 42 days. While the claim is that there is no significant residue in the wax, honey, pollen or propolis, we chose to keep the honey supers off the hives during this time. Click on the link to learn more. https://www.dadant.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/2011/09/Apivar-leaflet-EDITED-010413.pdf

You are to place one strip per 6- 10 frames, so about one per box. They hang from the top of the frame. I think this delayed our honey for harvesting. We learned about another method for treating Varroa mites last year.

We are in the bee club in our area and one of the members shared how he treats the mites. We liked his method, so it is our method as well. It is a Vaporization of Oxalic Acid. We do three treatments, one week apart, twice a year. The Oxalic Acid is a natural element, doesn't harm the bees. We can remove the honey boxes (supers), treat the hives, then replace the honey supers.

The powdered oxalic acid gets measured out, into the heating element. Specific directions can be found here. The heating element has jumper cable type clamps on the other end. We remove the honey supers and replace the covers to the hive. Measure out the correct amount of powder, 1/4 tsp. per box. The wand end of the heating element goes in the front door of the hive and a cloth gets stuffed in around to block the hole.

Here's Charlie, suited up measuring out the powder, the jumper cable ends will get hooked to the riding lawn mower tractor battery.

Timing the application - hook the cables up for 2 1/2 minutes, disconnect the power and allow the heating element to remain in the hive for 2 more minutes. You should see smoke coming out through the seams at the top of the hive. After the allotted time, remove the heating element and seal the opening again for ten minutes to allow the smoke to permeate the entire hive. Place the heating element in a water bath to cool it before moving it on to the next hive. In the photo above you can see the honey super behind the hive.

After the ten minutes, remove the cloth at the front door of the hive. You can see the foragers want back in! When the front door is open you can remove the top lid and inner lid, replace the honey super and you are done with that hive. Like I said above, this is done three consecutive weeks, that way getting all foragers, all newly emerged brood and all the nurse maid bees exposed to the vapor of the oxalic acid. We do this in the spring and then again in the fall.

Will we have to continue to do Varroa mite treatments every year? I don't know, we will do the rubbing alcohol test and count the infestation. Some beekeepers don't treat for these mites, but you can risk losing a hive if they get overrun with the mites.

Thursday, January 28, 2021

Queen Bee

and the Honeylovers. Wait, is this a bee post? No, but it mentions bees in the band's name.

Let me back up a little bit. Last Saturday night after watching Austin City Limits debut performance of Ray Wylie Hubbard, a different show came on. Funny how that works, right? Anyhow, Charlie was asleep and the remote was on his side of the bed, so I just watched as I drifted off to sleep. It was a a show on PBS UNC called Echo Sessions. My interest was piqued by the performers for this week's show. Queen Bee and the Honeylovers. This band is from Asheville. For those who have read my blog for a while know I fell in love with Asheville when I went to my first Garden Blogger's Fling.

The first two points in their favor are

1. bees - we like bees- even if it is the name of a band.

2. Asheville- the name of the CD, I gave this band a listen.

They are billed as a Swing Jazz band. The songs performed on this CD are original, written by Whitney Moore, the lead singer, or Whitney and Michael Gamble, James Posedel, or Steve Karla. Subject matter for this set of songs were legends of Asheville, many from Whitney's grandparents' stories.

A few more points in their favor go to the songs themselves.

3. One song is about Cornelia Vanderbilt, as she comes of age at the Biltmore hosting a masquerade ball. I love the Biltmore. During the Fling we toured the gardens. Charlie and I went back to tour the house. What a remarkable place.

4. Zelda Fitzgerald- song title 'Legend of Zelda Fitzgerald' caught my ear as I listened to the show. Our neighborhood book club read a story of Zelda. Guests on Earth by Lee Smith, where it talked about her time in a hospital/sanitorium in Asheville.

5. I am The Queen, appreciate other royalty.

The next morning I Googled this band and found their website. I ordered their CD and it arrived Tuesday. This morning I did my curbside pick up for groceries, I grabbed the new CD and drove into town. What a fun CD, the music is light and jazzy- just what they advertised- Swing Jazz. Whitney's voice is reminiscent of music from the 20s and 30s, with fresh songs. I love the ties to Asheville as she is a 4th generation Asheville native.

Their website mentions new material coming out, shows on television, like Echo Sessions, and radio interviews. Our favorite radio station, WNCW had their 'Asheville' CD on the list of listener-voted poll of top 100 albums at #41 for 2019 (I think I am late to the party with this band!!).

Give a listen to the old standard 'Until the Real Thing Comes Along'

All comments and thoughts are my own, no compensation for this review. Hope you like them as much as I do.

Monday, January 25, 2021

Watching the Water Flow

Living in on a sloped lot often brings a lot of challenges. I have already diverted water flow in a few areas. The dry creek bed in the back yard was the first, you can read about it here. I did not do that one, bigger task than I knew I could handle.

The second was in our front yard, done with my daughter Rachel's help. You will see the change in the front yard in this post done July, 2019. Since then there was a mulch change from being hardwood mulch to pine straw. The pine straw has stayed put but needs to be refreshed. Unfortunately the dry creek bed that Rachel and I put in was in bad shape. Below photo is from the bottom of the hill, soil washed downhill into the rocks and there are winter weeds galore- no clear path for the water flow.

I hated how bad this looked and decided it was time to fix it. Doing work like this in the winter is good because it isn't so hot, but my lovely assistant isn't visiting now. I paced myself. I looked at the overall job and put it into many days of small tasks.

Task one- get the existing rocks out. I had some help from Liebling. She likes to sit in front of where ever you are wanting to work.

Working on the hillside with it wet under foot isn't for sissies. My plan was to put a blue tarp down along the side of the garden area and toss the rocks to it. I decided that the larger, bowling ball sized (and up) would stay in place to keep me on track that the trench didn't move off track.

After removing all the rocks the second task was to dig out the weeds, soil, and a few plants. Again I remind you that the yard was wet and the slope is steep. I lost count of how many wheelbarrow loads I did. I just dumped them into the edge of yard, under the blue cypresses. There is a sharp drop off from the grass to under the cypress. Wanting to finish, I over loaded a few times. I had one spill out of wet clay soil into the grass- what fun.

As you see below, wider and deeper.

As I was digging it looked like I was digging deeper in the top part of the creek and wanted to make sure the downhill slope was consistent through the course. From the top of the creek to the bottom of the creek was about three feet difference in a run of about fifteen feet. I got out the level, some string and a couple of bamboo stakes and kept myself true to the slope.

Once I was finally satisfied with the trench, it was time for the next step- landscape fabric. Thinking that I still had some in the garage from my flagstone patio installation I moved forward. You know what was next, right? Yes, an online order to Lowe's and a curbside pickup. I was working against a clock, there was rain in the forecast and I didn't want a bigger muddy mess than I already had.

Using the larger rocks to hold the fabric in place I got to work. Tossing the small rocks back into place wasn't going as smoothly as removing them. I got out my Gorilla Tub, a Fling swag staple in my garden. Filling the tub and bringing them six feet to the fabric doesn't seem like hard work, but after an hour or so of bending, loading, unloading, bending to place all took a toll on my back!!

Little by little, the rocks were placed in the trench, covering the fabric along the way.

Since the new trench was wider and deeper, the existing rocks did not cover all the fabric. I have more rocks, a good deal more. Where might these rocks be? Why, they are in the backyard, at the bottom of the hill, in the woods. Under the leaves, next to the tree, is a pile of rocks about five feet in diameter and almost a foot deep.

Long story short, I made eight trips over two days walking a tub half filled with rocks back up the hill. A little tweaking of the sides of the soil near the top of run made the slope a little less severe so the rocks could stack against the sides. Hand placing all the new rocks, filling in bare spots was another task that was harder as I progressed. Finally! All done!

View from the top-

View from the bottom, next task will be to get some more pine straw bales and spread them.

A side by side before and after. Boy, I am glad that is done. Well, done is relative- will wait for a big rain to see how it functions. Another tweak or two might be needed, but not hauling rocks uphill for a while!

Time to rest!

Stay tuned for more bee posts.

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