Very exciting...the first hummingbird sighting at our new house! As I was peeking out the front window this morning at about 7am, a femail ruby throated hummingbird took a few zips through the front garden bed.


The sprinklers were going off and it looked to me like she might be more interested in taking a quick shower than she was the flowers. She was also probably staking out some good territory. Guess I'd better get some feeders up on the front of the house...Anyone else spot hummingbirds in DFW yet?

Help North Haven Gardens raise money for breast cancer research and the Dallas County Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure® by joining us for a special after hours garden gathering! Come by NHG between 6:30pm and 9pm June 4th to shop, enjoy live music, local wine, food , live music, local arts & crafts, free 15 minute Garden Coach sessions more!

A $10 per person cash donation at the door gets you access to the event and benefits Komen Dallas. NHG will also donate 5% of all sales from the event. You’ll also get a raffle ticket to win some great door prizes. The first 50 people through the door will receive goodie bags filled with savings and products from NHG and other local businesses. Plus, you’ll have the opportunity to purchase limited quantities of pink-themed plants, mixed containers and the Breast Cancer Rose ‘Pink Promise’. Quantities are limited. Come have some fun and help us support a great cause!

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  • 6:30pm-8:45pm Sign up for your FREE Garden Coach
    consultation! Bring photos of your garden.
  • 6:30-8:30 Enjoy wine and treats by local businesses
  • 6:45 -7pm Container Garden Demo
  • 7:15-8pm Music by Spyche
  • 7-7:15 Tour the NHG Chicken Coop & Market Garden
    
  • 6:30pm-8:00pm Bulb Pre-order! I will be personally be taking special pre-orders for bulbs and answering bulb gardening questions one-on-one. Don't miss this excellent opportunity to purchase tulips, iris, daffodils, and more from a list of available blooms. You'll be able to choose colors and varieties you want...hassle free. Plan now for your spring garden. When they arrive in Fall, we'll let you know when to pick them up. Purchase $100 or more in bulbs and we'll store your tulip bulbs in our one-of-a-kind cooler until planting time mid-December.

Interested in keeping backyard chickens in the city? Lots going on this weekend! I'll be teaching a Backyard Chickens 101 class this coming Friday 5/20 at North Haven Gardens from Noon-1pm. Then, don't miss their hen sale Saturday 5/21 from 11am- till sold out plus a tour and Q&A at the NHG coop from 10am-11am. Then you can hit the Dallas Peep at the Coops tour on Sunday 5/22! Maps and t-shirts for the tour available at NHG as well as basic backyard chicken keeping supplies.

Interested in growing Heirloom Vegetables? I'll be giving a class at the City of Allen Sustainable Landscape Series this coming Saturday 5/21 from 10am - Noon.

The class will be held in the Council Chambers at City Hall at 305 Century Parkway, Allen Texas. Follow this LINK to an online PDF description of the series and contact info.

Here is a short video of me inspecting a hive up at the garden center.

So this chicken naming thing can really consume a lot of one's mental energy. As I so often do with pets that I have to name, I picked a theme for these gals. I figured why not go with some rock n' roll chicks I like? Sooo...Please meet:

Stevie Nicks (because she has pretty hair, and she's a softy)

Kim Deal (because her colors totally ROCK and she's a bit of a heavy drinker)

Joan Jett (Cuz she's the leader of the pack and well, she wears all black)

PJ Harvey (She wears all black too, but she's HELLA CRAZY. Seriously. Fitting for the Cuckoo Maran, eh?)


And and older photo of Rickie Lee Jones. She was too off doin' her own thang for me to get a good photo of her today.

This one here? Well folks, I'm afraid this one is a boy (black chest feathers on faverolles). So for now, we shall just call him Francois. Francois the Faverolle.

Last night we transported our beehives home from Josephine,TX, about an hour outside of Dallas. I also set up two hives at North Haven Gardens in the large vegetable production garden.

Here are a couple of shots of our home hives. They've expanded so much that they'll be getting honey supers put on them today. I'll also put their sugar feeders on. I'll post more shots later as I inspect the hives so you can see what goes on inside them. So exciting!

Went out to the bee farm this past weekend to check on the status of my hives. Here are a couple of shots of me going through my brood boxes (I have 4) to look for my queens.

Here is a shot of one of the brood boxes. After about 2 months, they've managed to build comb and lay brood on about 4 frames. It shouldn't take them much longer to get to teh 8th or 9th frame, at which time I'll put on a honey super.

Here's me opening up another of the brood boxes. While the hat and netting are a must, I think I'll be losing the gloves pretty soon. They are just too cumbersome, especially when trying to pick up the heavy brood frames gently so you don't drop them.

Now I'm checking each frame to look for the queen. At this stage you want to make sure the queen is healthy and laying brood properly. Unfortunately, one of my hives was missing their queen. Something either happened to her due to weather or health, or the hive killed her. They were already raising multiple new queen cells, which is bad news. So all the new queen cells will have to be killed and a new queen introduced to the hive this week.

I will be transporting all my hives home this coming Saturday. So exciting! Two will be placed at my house and two will go up to our produce garden at North Haven Gardens.

Much more to come on the bees!