Hi from New Zealand

[thistlebloom]

HE is not sure what happened. A combination of things. Maybe we did not leave them enough honey, They could not access the new feeding system, the prolonged cold spells. A big learning curve with bees. Yes EXPENSIVE. He is also hoping to catch some swarms. He did order TEN Queens and bees. $$$

Our next door neighbors are newish beeks and lost their hives last year to wasps. They did harvest a small amount and left most of the rest for the bees to winter on, and they gave us a jar. I felt so proud of that honey, knowing that the bees I saw collecting on my plants were probably our neighbors.
Last summer was extremely smoky and an epic wasp year.
I'm sure it was a combination of things.
I'm so happy for you getting to retire Carol Dee!

 

[pjn]

Sorry to hear you lost your hives.
Happy to hear of your upcoming retirement.

 

[canesisters]

 

[ninnymary]

Welcome Trish! I have a small preschool and one of my parents moved to New Zealand about 3 years ago. I don't remember what part. All I know is that their house is on a cliff overlooking the bay. It was interesting that their weather was very similar to mine. Cool summers and mild winters.

Let's see, I have a lime, lemon, avocado, fig, plum, apple, and persimmon trees all in my tiny yard. I keep that at about 8-10 ft. tall.

Looking forward to getting to know you and your garden.

Mary

 

[Trish Stretton]

What a great variety of fruit trees! Welcome to TEG, we love to grow things and talk about growing things and eating from our gardens. You will fit in here! We like lots of pictures, so feel free to post all you want.

We moved 4 years ago, we have 2 peach trees, just starting to bear, 1 apricot (nothing yet) 1 pear (it has a few tiny baby pears on it) and a loquat. We pick wild Elderberries and cherry sized wild plums.

What is your soil like? Sandy, clay? This may be the only place you will ever find where people admire pictures of dirt. LOL

Thank you.
I did recently get a new camara......but my computer keeps saying that it hasnt got any saved photos when they are staring at me.
My IT son is visiting later in May, so I will get him to sort this out for me. I'm more of a low tech sort of person.

My soil is ( I think) volcanic silt....very free draining. I have, over a number of years been trying to incorporate organic matter so it is quite black in places now.
I try to make sure something is growing, even if its a green cover crop or just my favourite weed- Herb Robert, or that its heavily mulched.

I spent an enjoyable morning reading your blog earlier today, amongst others.
Your cherry sized plums might be what I call Christmas plums which usually ripen mid summer here. Would that tie in with yours?

 

[Trish Stretton]

Welcome from north Idaho! You sure do have a lot of fruit trees! I second the picture requests, it's a treat to see other gardens on different continents.

Lets see, I'll list my fruit trees -
1. Apples
...
I know! Not exciting at all.
But of the 5 I planted on the driveway, Prairie Fire crabapples, all but one graft died and the rootstocks grew. They actually produce some pretty good fruit. All 4 are different, two are good fresh eating and two are good pie and sauce apples. And the remaining PF crab is very showy in the spring.

Oh yeah, we also have Serviceberries aka Saskatoons wild on the property.

I just remembered I also have blueberries! Haha.
Not firing on all my cylinders yet.

I tried Blueberries when I first moved in but they kept dying even though there is a Blueberry farm a few K down the highway!!!
er, yes I do have a crabapple, no idea what sort. I forgot about that cos it isnt really even a tree and hardly ever flowers let alone set fruit. Must be in the wrong spot too.

I got a camara!! ....I just got to figure out how to make it talk with my laptop- my IT son will help me with it when he gets here.
He and his wife are coming over from Colorado for a friends wedding later in May.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Blueberries require special conditions. They need really acidic soil, a pH somewhere in the lower 5's is good. But they also have a shallow root system, roots do not go deep looking for water. If they get too dry they can die. On the other hand if the roots stay too wet they can drown. I had some nice blueberries in Arkansas but they were high maintenance. I watered a lot in the heat of summer.

I understand about being low tech. I can download photos from my camera to the computer with an USB cord. You might find instructions online by googling the camera make/model and "download photos to computer". The instructions should be there if you can ask the right question.

The one I need help with is moving photos from my phone to the computer. The phone takes better photos than my camera. I've figured out a way to send one at a time by e-mail but it is a laborious process, many steps and involves renaming files. When I look for instructions on how to use a cord just figuring out what operating systems and browsers I have is a pain. When I match all that to my phone model and get instructions the screens that are supposed to show up don't so I'm stuck partway through the process of setting it up. My youngest son is close enough that he visits every couple of months. If I remember I'll get him to set it up and leave me step-by-step written instructions on how to transfer photos.

Enough of my griping this morning. But be assured some of us can sympathize about being low tech.

 

[flowerbug]

Hello @Trish Stretton . Anywhere but here is EXOTIC I grew up and still live in Iowa. About 10 miles inland from the Mississippi River. DH and I live in a small town but own 2 acres outside of town were we have many fruit trees, vegetable and flower gardens and the BEES. Sadly we went into last winter with 14 hives and NONE Survived so we are staring over. DH retired in Oct. I will in June So the hope is we will be able to maintain the gardens and bees better now.

the guy who sets hives along the edge of our property says he loses around half of his hives each winter, i don't have the number from this past winter but i would not be surprised to hear he lost between 1,000 - 2,000 hives.

i hope things get better for your efforts there!

i'm sure you'll find retirement enjoyable, but it can be a tough transition for some.

 

[flowerbug]

Blueberries require special conditions. They need really acidic soil, a pH somewhere in the lower 5's is good. But they also have a shallow root system, roots do not go deep looking for water. If they get too dry they can die. On the other hand if the roots stay too wet they can drown. I had some nice blueberries in Arkansas but they were high maintenance. I watered a lot in the heat of summer.

I understand about being low tech. I can download photos from my camera to the computer with an USB cord. You might find instructions online by googling the camera make/model and "download photos to computer". The instructions should be there if you can ask the right question.

The one I need help with is moving photos from my phone to the computer. The phone takes better photos than my camera. I've figured out a way to send one at a time by e-mail but it is a laborious process, many steps and involves renaming files. When I look for instructions on how to use a cord just figuring out what operating systems and browsers I have is a pain. When I match all that to my phone model and get instructions the screens that are supposed to show up don't so I'm stuck partway through the process of setting it up. My youngest son is close enough that he visits every couple of months. If I remember I'll get him to set it up and leave me step-by-step written instructions on how to transfer photos.

Enough of my griping this morning. But be assured some of us can sympathize about being low tech.

doing pictures is a manual process here, but at least it is not one-at-a-time to transfer them. what takes the time is the linking and editing for the website. people who just take a picture and post it to FB without editing that can be all automagic, but i cannot bring myself to post every picture i take. too many of them are just not worth it.

 

[Ridgerunner]

doing pictures is a manual process here, but at least it is not one-at-a-time to transfer them. what takes the time is the linking and editing for the website. people who just take a picture and post it to FB without editing that can be all automagic, but i cannot bring myself to post every picture i take. too many of them are just not worth it.

I'm not talking about Facebook or social media. I'm talking about moving them from the phone to storage on the computer. Nothing more than that.