And then they just flew away.....

Ingrates.

The beez from the green hive swarmed (split) yesterday. We were so excited to get 'free beez' and had a whole new hive all ready for the "new" beez.....

The swarm formed a ball like cluster - its that sock-like thing hanging off that little branch waaaaaaay up there.

...and then... and then.... they all just flew away. Not into their new home - our carefully prepared hive -they just flew away. Sheesh! And no, we couldn't get them because they were about 40 feet up into a tree. We ran thru all the options to try and capture the swarm. But we didn't have a hot air balloon and we couldn't find a trebuchet on such short notice. Bye beez.

Basil, lavender, and rosemary - started from seeds.

In other news... I did a lot of planting and seed starting this weekend. We finally had some dry, warm, sunny days - it was just like summer. I ended up buying some seedlings from a local nursery because everything is getting such a late start. It was barely dry enough to do some tilling but I just couldn't wait any longer.

* Red sweet peppers long fence line in 2nd hillside garden, one Red Oxhart tomato in corner.
* 8 Mountain Gold maters in the next row along walkway, with one more Red Oxhart at the end.
* One Thai pepper, then one Red Oxhart, then 3 Mountain Golds in last year's bean bed. They are next too the row of my-seed-started Romas in front of the Grimes Gold - which has a couple apples on it!
* One Mountain Gold and One Oxhart in the blueberry and herb garden. I know - a weird combination but it just worked out that way.
* Finally, the last couple Mountain Golds and the rest of the Red Oxharts along the fence line near the mailbox tool holder. I'm testing the Mountain Golds in several soil conditions - the hillside was improved with a ton of super-duper-cow-poop...and is still dark and rich. The bean bed was improved with beans and buckwheat last year, and the fence line has the extra rich compost from a friend earlier this spring. I'll be watching to see which grouping/soil condition does the best.
* I planted a package of "half price sale" asparagus roots next to the existing plants. Then I planted a row of the my-seed-started plants. I put up a picket fence panel to keep the dogs out... then realized that I could use it to support some peas on one side and then a row of gladiolas on the other.
* Tilling went pretty well. I mowed down the winter rye in the second bean bed, a new potato place, and then re-tilled a couple other spots.

The only thing I didn't get to was to till in some clover seeds near the fruit tree in the corner. I got done with the planting and then we got the chores finished and now here comes the storm. Wow! The wind is pretty strong - maybe we'll see if the pigz are gonna fly! Yikes!

Hope everyone had a great weekend!