Seeds to Harvest

09/07/2026

09/07/2026

Fall Garden:
Usually you want to start plants in July either direct sow or starters inside. This year I bought plant starts for cabbage, broccoli and brussels for convenience and space (its okay to do so). Due to the high heat and humidity here in Central Arkansas and too many 100F days, some plants I wont be sowing. But... the garden is mostly preped and ready!
I have also been collecting and storing seeds theough out the yr.

09/06/2026

My mini watermelon gifted to me earlier this yr had a very slow start. I got 2 watermelon from 1 plant and unfortunately loss the other watermelon to rot. Just split this litte single and boy oh boy is it so delicious and sweet. Great things come in small packages. This mini wasn't too near my other watermelon on other side of the garden, so i am hoping saving seeds for next yr will have pure variety and lots more!

09/06/2026

Honey Bee Update:
After Summer Solace, bees dont build out combo as much and focus on nectar, pollen and preparation for winter brood. So being our hives are late season swarms, we bought some drawn comb from another local bee keeper, awhite's honey bee rescue near Wooster, Ar.
The drawn comb is empty and been frozen and some old wax moth webbing removed, and added to the hives one frame at a time. Both hives have cleaned it out and have the start of some nectar in our smaller swarm catch and our other (OG) hive queen has started laying on one side. This will hopefully boost winter bee population.
Pests: we have had a total of 4 hive beetles on our OG hive -killed and none in the recent swarm catch. We did try Apivar 2.0 strips for varroa mites but this is what made our swarm leave and comeback a week later as soon as we removed it. It also started killing a good number of of bees in our OG hive from evening to that next morning so we removed. We now our using oxide vaporizer lite , and preformed first treatment yesterday evening and will repeat about every 7 days for 4 treatments. The OG hive had about 5 mites on the boad and the small swarm catch had ... still a lot. Hopefully this will prevent hive death and queen to be more productive in getting some brood going.

09/02/2026

Well its still a swelting 95F and fall garden season is under way. If you didnt get seeds start (indoor) end of July, many box stores are carrying brassicas starts for fall this yr! I have broccoli i put in and its already not to a great start with some broken leaves and possibly a cutworm 😤. Also seeing mole or gopher tracks in several beds ...
I need to rectify this before putting in my cabbages and brussels. I need to get carrort started but how to keep seeds moist with this heat 🥵

08/25/2026

Update: found home owner and unfortunately not theirs either or aware it was there but they are going to check on it. Still looking for the owners of the dog. If anyone recognizes.

This dog was up standing by the hwy this morning . I had a bit of time to go back and it ran down to the nearby house. Went to let them know, but no one home.
The dog is very skittish and scared and i think looking for food and eating trash by the rd. Dog is very lean, may have been lost awhile and taken up residencey there.
Clinton, Arkansas, in city limits. I did let AC know but they most likely dont have space unless people can foster for them or start adopting

08/25/2026

Welp! After a week, we recaught our swarm of bees!
Not in the pro nuc with the swarm commander they been checking out, or the new wooden nuc trap we built, but they returned home to the hive bix after we moved it a couple ft further feom our other hive and took out the mite treatment strip. I only had 1 frame and follower board left in there so i quickly wax up some new frames for them. We did, again, confirm the queen is in there and they are back to work on pulling out the 3/4 frames.
We will leave them locked in 2 -3 days and hop again they stay. Recheck hive in 5 days to replace sugar water and any pollen patty