re: The 2021 Garden Thread

Not a one.

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Be careful out there when picking peppers.

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I have some I started a few days ago in the garage (stays about 80 degrees in there). But I'm completely new to all of this, so just going by online recs for my area.

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Anybody started broccoli seed yet?

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I started some about this time last year and they pretty much all bolted. So I’m waiting another month. I’m basically starting everything later this year. Only thing I have started right now is tomatoes and brussel sprouts. Because the brussel sprouts take a really long time to mature.

What variety do you plant? Maybe that was my problem. I can’t remember the variety I planted last year.

I may just wait until my local garden center gets some transplants. They usually have them available when it is time to plant them. It should take the guess work out for me.

Since you are further north than us, you can probably start all of that now. Definitely the brussel sprouts. Depending on your zone the window for planting broccoli is probably sooner and smaller than mine. Kale and mustards you can plant now, or you can wait a little longer. They taste much better once it gets colder. Last year during the warmer periods my mustards were more bitter. Once it started getting cooler they started tasting much better.

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Do y’all do anything to your soil to “freshen” it up or just dive right back in?

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Add a little bit of compost and fertilizer and plant. Fertilizer strategy is a little different go fall plants. Since most of them are leafy veggies, I use higher nitrogen. Calcium nitrate is a good one.

Got my first set of 200 each of broc, cab, and cauli in the trays today.

I let mine sit inside first to keep the soil cool until they germinate then move to the greenhouse.

Fall tomatoes have all germinated and are getting bigger. 3 out of 7 brussel sprouts have germinated.


Also, it’s been about a month since the last time we opened up the beehive. Figured it was time to check on how they are doing.



Honey super is still mostly full of capped honey. The outer frames have not been fully refilled, but we are in a dearth. So I guess that’s to be expected.




Upper brood box had a good bit of honey, pollen, nectar, and brood. The queen seems to be slowing down on egg laying. Again, I guess that can be attributed to the dearth. You can see a swarm cell in the first picture. But it is an old swarm cell from when the hive swarmed a couple of months ago. I removed it before putting the frame back in.



Our queen was in the upper brood box. She’s looking very healthy. The bottom brood box was mostly empty. Very light. A little bit of pollen and nectar. I saw no eggs or larva in the bottom box. But I didn’t check every frame. I just pulled a couple, and by that time the bees were getting very ornery. So at that point I decided let’s go ahead and replace the beetle traps and close the hive back up.