Pics around the Littlest Farm

Forget me not

Strawberry flowers

A buggy visitor

Cineraria "Giovanna's Select"

Poppy

Strawberry

Miner Bees ( or Ode to the solitary bee )

We've discovered a new friend in the garden, a slightly reclusive yet diligent participant in taking care of our flowers. The females dig, the males dance and everyone pollinates - it's the miner bee ! Also known as a digger bee they are very different from honey bees and just as important.
Unlike honey bees they do not form long term colonies and don't have a queen therefore they are not at all aggressive and rarely sting. They also do not produce honey.

I have used other methods to attract solitary bees but none seems to work quite as well as having flowers and dirt.

The female bee digs a burrow to rear her own young. Their holes are approximately 1/4 inch in diameter and the burrow structure is often a vertical tunnel with smaller side tunnels ending at a single cell.

The female stocks each cell with nectar and pollen she has collected (from our beautiful flowers) and then deposits her egg on the food mass. 

nomina ludo

The benefits of the bees cannot be stressed enough. As we have pointed out they are great pollinators but they also aerate the soil and add an entertainment factor when you catch the male dancing outside the females burrow trying to get her to go out for a drink. There is also varieties of wasp that are diggers and ferocious cicada killers. Remember that in 2030 my East Coast friends. 

Chard Wars part 2

Happy Star Wars Day ! May the 4th be with you !

The Little Things

It's often overlooked in a lot of these blog posts how much little bits of work are put into the garden everyday. For us, Tuesdays and Saturdays are always jam packed with chores in and around the garden. There is ( of course ) weeding, watering, transplanting and contemplative squirrels to deal with  but there is also the little things.

Meg planting her Felicia Rose

(more to come on that rose later)

Refilling the slug traps.

(one for me... one for my sluggies)

I''m really starting to appreciate the maintenance for the first time. Getting out there, getting dirty, and tossing slugs & beer off this slimy mortal coil while Meghan waters with sniper like precision.  

Weeding the soon to be epic herb and flower garden.

Chewing on a bit of early harvest celery

The best of the little things happens tomorrow morning when we harvest the bulk of the radishes before work and get to share them with friends and family. 

And that squirrel thing that you have been wondering about since you read the first paragraph...

Contemplative Squirrel

Attracting birds and bugs.

Some parts of gardening can be unintentionally rewarding. Here at the +The Littlest Farm we are finding that our garden is turning us into amateur birders. It has motivated us to make space in our garden for birds, bugs and all sorts of needed critters.

Some of you might remember my Insect Hotel from a few months ago.

We have also placed multiple bird feeders and a bath

Today my lovely wife designed and built something for the more adventurous birds ( and likely squirrels ).

It is another adventure in re-purposing.

Using two old wire coat hangers ( hook portion cut off ) Meg took needle nose pliers and bent
them into a selection of shapes.

Add a couple apples on the ends...

... and you have a lovely decoration for the garden that feeds a bunch of critters. 

Getting Our Herbs and Flowers Started

It's a lovely day here in the East Bay. We hit around 70 degrees in the hills and with the sun beating down on us we were highly motivated to get some seeds going.

The focus was on herbs and flowers today. Somewhere between 150-200 of them as a matter of fact. We aren't growing 200 different herbs and flowers we are starting that many seeds in hope of a 50% success rate.

Our bag of boxes

You remember how to make seed start boxes right ? 

Fill 'em with dirt

Water & Wait 

* A couple notes that apply to our ever increasing effort to reuse as much as possible. 

The boxes are made from grocery bags and the plant identifiers are made from a cut up milk jug. 

Spring is coming

With spring just around the corner ( some of us closer to the corner than others ) some preparations need to be made. For us, the chief among them is getting our sees started. In a previous post we talked about the mini-greenhouses that we germinate in and briefly mentioned the origami boxes we make for each future plant to start in. Here is how to make those boxes.

We start by cutting up a paper bag into 7 x 7 inch squares ( giving us about 10 squares per bag ). 

Then the folding begins. 

Fold the square twice into a triangle.

Unfold your creased triangle

and turn the corners in.

Fold into thirds lengthwise

Crease and again unfold.

Fold in the corners

Fold up the two sides of the 1/3 fold and 

tuck in the ends.

Tuck in the other end.

There you go !

A 1 3/4 square box perfect for starting seeds indoor or outdoor.

Insect Hotels

I was recently informed about insect hotels by +Tessa Neill. A very cool way to attract much needed insects to your garden.

If you are as new to this concept as I am a Insect Hotel is a very simple structure made from man made or natural materials made to attract insects to hibernate, settle in, or just visit.

What we will be focusing on at +The Littlest Farm will be solitary bees. Solitary bees are important pollinators, and pollen is gathered for provisioning the nest with food for their brood. Often it is mixed with nectar to form a paste-like consistency. Some solitary bees have very advanced types of pollen-carrying structures on their bodies. A very few species of solitary bees are being increasingly cultured for commercial pollination.

We will start with a very simple design to get things started and pass the time while I build something more elaborate.

Our started design will be similar to this photograph of bamboo poles packed together.

My plan is to stuff a painted piece of 4 inch PVC with bamboo poles and hang it horizontally near our flower garden. Bamboo, I am reading is an ideal material since it is smooth on the inside and bees have rather fragile bodies and prefer not to reside on rough surfaces. 

Down the road I will be building something more like this ( but appropriately sized for our area ). 

I think this is going to be a fun side project. Any one with experience in insect hotels or attracting solitary bees have any advice ?

In the beginning there was dirt & seeds.

Welcome to The Littlest Farm blog. We are Meghan and Lucas, urban farmers in the making.

Working with a roughly 45 square foot growing area ( plus some other creative solutions ) we hope to be celebrating a bountiful harvest at this time next year.

Our initial growing area

We also have plans for a 63 square foot chicken run, a rabbit, some bees ( we hope ) and a separate garden for growing both medicinal and culinary herbs. 

Proposed chicken run

The flower and herb garden

As you can see we have a lot of work ahead of us but it should be fun and eventually very delicious. Be sure to join us on Google+ for lots of pictures and bonus projects.