After only two weeks the babies had already started filling in their big girl feathers... (Photos taken March 26th-Apr. 2)

Silver Laced Wyandotte...Still the smallest of the bunch

Salmon Faverolle...they have the prettiest coloring.

Silver Cuckoo Maran...starting to look very similar to Barred Rock.

Ameraucauna

Barred Rock...So far, this little gal is not only the tallest, but most curious and friendly of the bunch.

Ok, I've been remiss in posting ANY photos of the new babies! But it is spring...and it's crazy. So I'll post a retrospective of them now that they are a month old. Boy do they grow fast. Here are a few shots from their first few days...(photos taken March 16th)

Silver Laced Wyandotte - this one is a total sweetheart

Salmon Faverolle - I have two of these babies...they are so cute with their feathered legs.

Silver Cuckoo Maran...This one might get named Cybill..she's the most skittish of the bunch!

Naptime is always hilarious with baby chicks...they run full steam ahead and then plop to a dead stop, face down...too cute.

First strawberries are ripening...super yummy!

and one lonely fig....

Just a highlight of a few blooms popping out in the new front bed. It's a work in progress...It's the only pre-existing bed at the new house- a crecent shaped bed that sits in front of a concrete circular drive. It's really the main feature of the front landscape. It was full of Bermuda grass, some dead zinnias, groundcover junipers in poor shape and a large row of 30-40 year-old yaupons with trunks the size of large trees! In January, I ripped out everything in the bed, amended with compost, expanded shale and some humus...and started planting. Here's what's pretty so far...

Right now the bed is planted with chard, spinach, cilantro, dill, strawberries, rosemary, rain lilies, roses, tomatoes, echinacea, daffodils, violas and more...even have baby tomatoes on the 'Sapho' plants already.


Daffodil 'Delnashaugh'

Another split corona daffodil...blanking on the cultivar at the moment

Rose 'Easy Does It'

Rose 'Pat Austin'

Even after the harsh freezes and ice in January, the strawberries are blooming and fruiting their heads off...

Welcome to Fruitopia!

Sunday was project day in the home garden...With help from some of my guys, I managed to get the side yard, officially re-named "Fruitopia", cleared. We also planted a number of fruit trees and blackberry plants. Fruitopia is where my two beehives will reside as of next month and it should be the perfect spot for them.

The before shot above: There was a very old Ligustrum hedge planted along the foundation. These plants had probably been established for a good 40 years. While they'd been cut number of times, the trunks were huge. It took about half the day to get them out. The owners that remodeled the house and sold it to us planted a ridiculous assortment of random shrubs and many Leyland Cypress around the house, without amending any foundation beds. We pulled all of them out. They are sitting in pots and up for grabs right now, lol.

We amended the foundation bed with compost and expanded shale, although I didn't use too much because I'm establishing blackberries down the entire bed. They usually don't require as much prep as ornamental plantings. There are about 14 blackberries between the varieties 'Navaho', 'Quachita', 'Brazos' and one other....can't remember off the top of my head. Blackberry heaven! I also planted a Pomegranate 'Wonderful' down at the end of the bed on the South side, although you can' really see it in the photo. That South corner is where the beehives will go. Eventually, I'll also build some pathways and plant a few more ornamental bloomers in there just to pretty it up. But it is a production space.

The fruit trees we planted are:

'Santa Rosa' Plum
'Ayers' Pear on dwarf root stock
'Holland' Apple
'Dwarf Redskin' Peach
'Dwarf Ranger' Peach
'Brown Turkey' Fig

I also have a dwarf fruiting Cherry called 'Dwarf North Star', but I'm going to put that one in a large container on the South side of the back yard. It will only get 8'-10' feet so I don't want it shaded out by the other fruit trees. I plan to prune all of the trees to keep them more compact, but still planted the larger varieties to the North side, staggered down the the shortest variety (the 10' fig) on the South side to avoid shading.

We also ripped up all the randomly planted shrubs around the front of the house. There was no rhyme or reason to what was planted and none of the soil was amended. There were volunteer junipers growing right in front of the windows...even a "pruned" red oak growing right under the roof line. It was basically a hot mess! So now it just looks a little sad and empty, but better than the mess that was there before. There was an original grape vine in the front...I left that to see what it does. Might trellis it over the window.

Eventually, I will build burm foundation beds all around the front of the house, property and the back yard...but the next project is to rework a ton of the irrigation first. We did some of that on Sunday, but things have to be moved, repaired and rezoned. Can't build new beds till that work is completed. So..sad and empty it is, lol. I did do some extra planting in the front sidewalk bed. The herbs, chard, spinach and Iceland poppies are looking pretty right now. There are baby strawberries coming as well. I added some 'Pat Austin' and 'Easy Does It' roses, some new Echinacea varieties and a few tomato plants. Pulled weeds...and mulched.

Lot's of work...little by little...

After I got back in town from beekeeping class today, I managed to quickly pot up a few patiently waiting empty containers on the front porch.

I love the new 'Black Velvet' petunias so I combined them with dusty miller for nice contrast, then 'Poetry White' Nemesia, 'Techno Heat Blue' Lobelia, Ageratum, and golden moneywort. I haven't yet been through a spring or summer yet in this house, but I have a feeling this front porch is going to stay too shady to support this combo for long. I may have to move them to the South facing patio in the backyard. We'll see as the sun angle changes.

Petunia 'Black Velvet' is a Petunia grandiflora hybrid, so it's best suited to cooler temps here in N. Texas. Plants will thrive February though early June. They won't appreciate July/August heat, but who does?? They can be coaxed through summer with some afternoon shade, or replanted in September. Fall planted petunias will often make it through mild winters. Lovely.

I also placed a number of fruit trees and berry plants today...tomorrow I'll be ripping out numerous poorly planted foundation shrubs and planting the orchard in the side-yard...henceforth known as the bee-yard. I'll also be planting a number of roses, tomatoes and some new Echinacea hybrids. More to come!

Made some progress on the beehives today. Finished getting the base coats of paint on the brood boxes, which I've painted bright green. I plan to paint the honey supers alternating colors of lighter greens and orange...with some additional decorative painting of flowers and bees. Each hive will look different so that the bees know which hive is theirs...I don't think any other beekeeper will mistake these for their hives either! lol

Finished building all of the honey supers and got them coated with linseed oil. They'll have to dry for 3 or 4 days before I can paint them.

We also got 40 brood frames assembled (only 56 more honey frames to go...lol) We still have to pop in the brood frame bases.

In order to get the frames put together more quickly, we built a jig...It takes forever putting these babies together one by one...so I definitely recommend the jig.

Next weekend we'll be dropping off our brood boxes so that they can each be seeded with a Nuc (a frame that containes a queen, workers and drones). Can't wait!

Alright, so I've started my backyard bee project. I will be setting up two hives in my own backyard and two hives up at North Haven Gardens in the large organic vegetable garden. My hives will be located in a fenced-in side yard where I'll be planting all my fruit trees and berry plants. Should be the perfect little Fruitopia for them!

So I have 4 full hives to build...

It's quite the project...especially since I don't own a nail gun..(WISHING I had a nail gun, lol). There are 4 large brood boxes for the base and two honey supers for each hive. So that's 12 boxes to be built. Here is one of the brood boxes...The brood box sits at the base of the hive and it's where the queen and her subjects hang out and raise babies...

Each brood box contains 8 frames each. Each honey super also contains 8 frames each...so for 4 hives I have 96 frames to build...

Each hive also contains a base, an inner lid and outer lid that must be built. To help preserve the wood in the most non-toxic manner, All wood surfaces are then rubbed down with boiled linseed oil. Inside and outside of all the boxes and lids. The only thing left completely untreated are the brood and honey frames. The wood on these frames is left completely natural.

By the time I got 4 brood boxes built and a few lids and frames, I required an adult beverage...Just be careful not to drop any linseed oil in your whiskey...lol. After you linseed all the boxes and lids, they have to dry for 3 to 4 days. Be careful with linseed oil, it can spontaneously combust. Make sure the cans are not left out in full sun. Make sure to lay flat any rags or clothing that comes in contact with the oil to completely dry out for 24 hours. It can then be washed.

After you linseed, you put two coats of exterior paint on all outside surfaces of wood, and the upper and lower edges. You DO NOT paint the interior surfaces of the boxes. I'll be painting the brood boxes this weekend to get them ready to introduce the NUCs in a couple of weeks. Then, I'll have to get to work on building all the rest of the honey supers and frames...

Then my bees will come home in April! Super excited...I'll have about 180,000 new babies...