Author Topic: Mike M's Urban Homestead and Garden 2012 Extravaganza (Read 1959 times)

mikem · « **on:** May 24, 2012, 11:34:05 AM »

Aww yeaa - we doubled out plantable space this year - pics of that to come soon.

In the meantime however, check out our BEES! We Unleashed them over the weekend! Was fun, except the queen cage must have fallen into the bee ball when shipped so I had to reach into a basketball sized mass of pissed off bees to retrieve it and ended up getting stung (a lot).

bee crate:

uncrating:

The wife spraying the mass down with sugar water to distract them:

retrieving the queen:

fist fulla bees:

bee hole:

dumping the bees after installing queen (decided to suit up after the first 5+ stings):

inspecting the hive after bee installation:

BEAT (but successful)!

Hive observation window:

oh, and here's some chickens!:

mikem · « **Reply #1 on:** May 25, 2012, 10:02:40 AM »

First Seed starts (besides potatoes) went into our feed trough planters last night!

Some earlier pics of the flats and starts for this year's garden:

[t]http://distilleryimage11.s3.amazonaws.com/570ef78a9d5b11e1a9f71231382044a1_7.jpg[/t]

[t]http://distilleryimage3.s3.amazonaws.com/1f499c9a92e011e180d51231380fcd7e_7.jpg[/t]

[t]http://distilleryimage4.s3.amazonaws.com/3e2725f68cb411e181bd12313817987b_7.jpg[/t]
^ tried some in egg shell halves, but think I fried them due to a neglected weekend.. It's supposedly a pretty good way to start seeds as eggshell releases nitrogen into the soil, so it gives it a little nutrient kickstart when it starts to break down - Will have to try it again with the next batch of starts.

endurance · « **Reply #2 on:** May 25, 2012, 10:42:42 AM »

Wow, very cool. I have an irrational fear of bees, but certainly appreciate their vomit.

cohutt · « **Reply #3 on:** May 26, 2012, 08:16:58 AM »

"All Units, we have a 10-00, repeat 10-00, officer down! officer down!"

srsly Very cool thanks for posting

mikem · « **Reply #4 on:** June 01, 2012, 01:00:51 PM »

Expanded our 'raised bed' gardening into the back this year with 4 big feed troughs:

Also consolidated all of the blueberry bushes into a row by the patio:

Mixed herbs, flowering evergreen perennials and ground cover:

The biggest thing we've done recently is lay an inch of compost down on the entire back/sideyard space and seed it up with an awesome clover mix. This was a huge pain as we had to bring it up bucket by bucket, but we'll finally have a nice looking (and very fertile) yard where the dirt pit was:

Harvested the over-wintered beets! The fruit size was a little disappointing (ended up w/ about 5lbs of beets), but the greens were prolific (good for juicing and for chickens):

Adam B. · « **Reply #5 on:** June 01, 2012, 01:18:37 PM »

Pretty sweet man! I hope Monsanto doesn't come kill all your bees while you are asleep! Or maybe they will just start suing beekeepers like they do with farmers who try and save their seeds now.

Nicodemus · « **Reply #6 on:** June 01, 2012, 01:49:29 PM »

Nice work, mikem!

It looks as though the neighbors are relatively close. Have their been any complaints about the bees?

mikem · « **Reply #7 on:** June 09, 2012, 03:31:30 PM »

No complaints, and surprisingly lots of interest and compliments - our house is popped up on a corner lot, so they are a good 15-20ft above sidewalk level, which keeps their flight path out of most pedestrians' way. We are right outside downtown Seattle so have a pretty eclectic group of neighbors - there's probably a good 10-20 guerilla/community gardens within a mile of our house and at least one urban chicken flock on every block, so for an urban environment, it's fairly progressive in terms of local/sustainable food culture (albeit a bit crunchy at times

).

mikem · « **Reply #8 on:** June 24, 2012, 06:13:09 PM »

Starting to get some veggies out of the garden and putting them into action! Chard, radish, avocado and brie sammy with a horseradish mayo (the latter few ingredients not homegrown)..

In other news, I built my first small scale hugel culture bed this weekend, and planted it up with pumpkins, tomatoes and flat leaf parsley that we started from seed.

Dug out bed:

Wood laid in (mainly saved scrap from tree trimming):

Dirt/Compost added and planted:

straw mulch:

average_joe · « **Reply #9 on:** June 26, 2012, 08:36:44 PM »

Love it Mike! Keeping going my friend. Chickens and a Hive keep us informed on how things are going. I'm interested in both.

cohutt · « **Reply #10 on:** July 01, 2012, 06:01:30 AM »

Nice looking 'sammich Mike

Seriously

mikem · « **Reply #11 on:** July 30, 2012, 02:47:38 PM »

Container gardens have exploded in the last few weeks:

6'+ tomatoes

Been harvesting the butter lettuce for daily use and it's outgrowing our ability to eat it. The arugula is doing really well and Kale would be doing okay if it wasn't getting snacked on by some mystery pest that I can't seem to find.

endurance · « **Reply #12 on:** July 30, 2012, 03:04:08 PM »

Quote from: mikem on July 30, 2012, 02:47:38 PM

6'+ tomatoes

That's some tall'matos!

mikem · « **Reply #13 on:** October 06, 2012, 07:35:56 PM »

Been a decent year for the garden.. Here's a few random harvest photos:

Oil Lady · « **Reply #14 on:** October 06, 2012, 07:54:24 PM »

OMG! Yor camera is AMAZING! These are so professional! They're haunting to look at! I can taste those veggies!

Quote from: mikem on October 06, 2012, 07:35:56 PM

Been a decent year for the garden.. Here's a few random harvest photos:

Nicodemus · « **Reply #15 on:** October 06, 2012, 08:13:15 PM »

Nice work, MikeM!

Zuplex · « **Reply #16 on:** October 17, 2012, 10:12:20 AM »

MikeM, I am very impressed with your photography! Impressed with the containers, as well. What made you decide to use the feed troughs?

mikem · « **Reply #17 on:** October 17, 2012, 12:39:35 PM »

Hey Thanks everyone! A combination of Canon 5d and iPhonetography in there..

Henry - I decided on the feed troughs for the backyard mainly for the aesthetic sensibilities as that's our outdoor common space during the good weather seasons. They're deeper and more durable than wooden raised beds so besides looking nice, they have some additional functional benefits as well.

flippydidit · « **Reply #18 on:** October 17, 2012, 01:03:10 PM »

Quote from: mikem on May 24, 2012, 11:34:05 AM

In the meantime however, check out our BEES!

Your firearms are useless!!

Seriously though. MikeM, that's looking great! We're looking to get our bee hive going when I'm back from Afghanistan. It's not that the wife won't take care of them while I'm over here, but we need to jump in feet first together on the project. Really like what you're doing, and store bought can never compare to what you're doing for yourselves.

cohutt · « **Reply #19 on:** October 21, 2012, 08:13:51 PM »

Good work there MikeM

mikem · « **Reply #20 on:** November 11, 2012, 03:38:50 PM »

Got around to harvesting the honey that was left in the hive before the bees disappeared..

Got close to a full quart. Not a lot for a healthy hive, but glad we were able to get something from them before the bees disappeared into the ether.

Also, I'm a sticky mess.. Manual extraction is a dirty job.

Saber19 · « **Reply #21 on:** January 05, 2013, 11:10:11 PM »

Looks awesome, I can't wait to get back out in the spring and get ours going. We moved halfway through the season last year so I missed out on all of what we had planted x.x

News:

Author Topic: Mike M's Urban Homestead and Garden 2012 Extravaganza (Read 1959 times)