Friday, May 15, 2015

Sun and Then Snow!

gardening in spring

Yesterday Stefan and I finished sowing the second lot of our two square foot gardens. 

We had removed the plastic cover as the temperatures rose to a wonderful 24°C. The seedlings in bed one (on the left in the above image) have all started to poke their heads through the soil, except for the radishes which are well on their way.

square foot gardening

We have covered the bigger plants that were being eaten by snails and slugs, with some PET bottles. I think that the snails got into the bed because we had a lot of plants growing up the sides of the raised beds - creating a highway to heaven! We have since removed all of those plants and hope that the covers will help them along the way.

Whilst we were planting in the second bed we noticed that the bees were acting rather strangely - we had a typical "swarm beard" on the front of the hive.

Sensing that this might actually be what they were planning on doing, we quickly reassembled the hive which I removed a couple of weeks ago (I still haven't had a chance to sand and repaint it as the weather has not been ideal ;( ), and they started to swarm inside of it!


A video posted by Natalie Buehler (@marigoldsloft) on

Today is the last day of the "Ice Saints" being Cold Sofia. The weather forecast predicted temperatures of 8°C today. I covered all my balcony plants but thought that the garden would be okay.
Shortly after lunch the girls called me to look out of the window. 

What did I see?
Snow!!!!

Within a couple of minutes the heavy snowfall had covered our beds completely and didn't look like it would ever stop!

The thermometer recorded a wonderfully chilly 1°C and the snow just kept on coming down!

snow in may

Now I am holding thumbs that the plants will survive it!

As I am writing this the snowfall has reduced drastically and the snow on the ground has almost all disappeared.

As soon as the sun is up tomorrow I will be out to inspect the poor things.

I will let you know how things look tomorrow.
x

P.S. I have just bought my first liter of organic cow milk - I know that sounds really weird, but we have always used UHT because of it's long shelf life. We bought it straight from the farmer, who got it from the cow, LOL! 

It doesn't get more fresh than that!

Do you buy local?
Do you buy organic?

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2 comments:

  1. Hi Natalie
    Guess what - it's snowing here too!!!!
    I've been buying organic unpasturised cow's milk for a few weeks now from a local farm and it tastes amazing - I'm not even really a milk drinker!
    Looking forward to all your 'bee' posts as I have just been given a hive - and I have no idea what to do next - I'm thinking of some kind of course....
    Have a great weekend.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Emma,
      Have you sowed your garden already too?
      My girls are having a problem with the after-taste of the "Real" milk, does your family have that too?
      I have just been outside to try and save the plants by covering them with fleece to see that there are some dead bees at the hive entrance on both hives :(
      It is still snowing quite heavily, so I am guessing they froze!
      I do hope it will stop soon!
      I would suggest a bee course as the best way to move forward, local beekeepers can also be of good assistance, do you have one close by?
      Thanks for visiting.
      x

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Natalie and Stefan

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