dear diary: 24th September

OBSERVATIONS

NASTURTIUMS are everywhere in the backyard.

FRONT PICKET BED is going beserk and in a bad way; probably going to need to poison the mugwort and the red salvia is seriously worrying me with its tendency to sprout from just about anything... But the little bulb garden I put together is now flowering ANEMONES after the JONQUILS and PAPERWHITE (also jonquils) have finished. There appear to be some DAHLIA crowns coming through, but the only thing from the meadow mix that seems to be sticking is the ALYSSUM.

GALA apple is flowering, so is BRAEBURN.

CHOOKS

Hainan had to be put down back around the middle of the month. The peritonitis wasn't getting any better in spite of the draining and antibiotics, and in the end it was better to end her suffering. She's buried under the peach-nectarine tree in the triangle garden.

Goong is broody again, and somewhat grumpy at being left out right now.

PRUNING & PREPARING

Planning to take off a giant chunk of the four-apple two very productive branches. They're not going to fruit this year - I think the rats ate all the buds. Give the other two grafts a chance to shine, maybe...

Planning to put the chooks into the dining room VEGEPOD at some point to clear it out. Don't know how well it will go; they like a bit of shelter - not too exposed. Could maybe put a few sacks or green shadecloth over it to give them some protection.

Planning to plant the snapdragons out in the PICKET FENCE BED.

PLANTING

Planted out the CORN (country gentleman) in APPLE-CREPE

Planted out the BUSH BEANS (cherokee wax) in the APPLE-CREPE, and CREPE-APRICOT, and PLUM-STONE

White BEANS (might be blue mountain), ebisu PUMPKIN, popping CORN, and maybe one EGGPLANT and one CAPSICUM coming up?

Blue CHILLI from Margaret by way of Cecelia.

RIPENING

ASPARAGUS: purple in the polybox, green in the ASPIE BED

MUSTARDS in the CREPE-APRICOT

MUSTARD in the VEGEPOD

SILVERBEET in the garage MINIPOD

RADISHES/LETTUCES in the dining MINIPOD

HARVEST

RHUBARB stems: both the green in the APRICOT bed and the red in polybox.

BRASSICAS in lounge room window, CABBAGE in pot on VEGEPOD, FENNEL in bathtub bed, CORIANDER in bathtub bed

NOTES

FRUIT TREES in triangle garden got netted (TWO-STONE and DUAL-STONE)

GOLDEN DORSETT graft has flowered and is fruiting; have started covering it over but not very thoroughly. Going to need to evaluate how that branch is managed.

Things need to be in the ground before I go away on holiday - all of October, pretty much; that, or they need to be in something that has a water reservoir...

NATIVE BEEHIVE: Opened it up with Sue, found the structure there but just no bees. Looks like the colony simply didn't manage to re-queen, and just died. Now I have to trim out all the mouldy/pollen/honeysacs in the hive and prep it for probably an October/November split.

bees, natural beekeeping, convenience, and humanocentricism

Read assorted articles about The Flow Hive, mostly out of curiosity. And, more recently, Australian Story, which did a segment on the guys who came up with the Flow Hive. If I may borrow something from the world of body health, the Flow Hive vs. the Langstroth Hive (traditional beekeeping) is the difference between getting gastric surgery for health reason, and just living with your bodily situation.

I mean, Gastric band surgery to adjust eating habits and improve is better than just going on as you've done, but it's not as ideal as, say, losing that weight slowly, over a matter of weeks, months, years. Surgery may be a solution, but it doesn't have to change your lifestyle, and it's best for your body if you can eat healthy and live healthy, lose that weight gradually.

In part, this is because of the difference in mindset; there's a problem - but the problem isn't obesity. Obesity is the symptom. The problem is a raft of other factors that cause obesity: factors that include environment, social and financial limitations, and genetics.

The flow hive is gastric surgery - better than a langstroth hive. But it doesn't necessarily change the mindset of that kind of beekeeping, which is people-centric. The primary consideration is the convenience of the honey harvest, not the way that bees work and humans working with bees to encourage them and - secondarily - to get a bit of honey out of it.

That's the issue that's being argued about the flow hive; that it doesn't really make life better for the bees - we're just making it easier for people. Which, yes, is fair enough if you're keeping bees for honey; although not so much of a good thing if you're subscribing to, say, permaculture or growth abundance principles, where humans maximise output by working with nature, rather than forcing nature to do things in a way that's just simpler on humans, as both Langstroth and Flow hives do.

There are also native bees and their hives, which are a different thing entirely from the European bees...

It's a thought.