M, Sammy and Daddy plant lettuce.

Spring.

It must be spring, officially.  The sun is out, and things are growing in the garden...some good, some bad.

First the good.  The bees are hard at work.  Go bees!

Second, the first pea plant has decided to flower.  This is one of the plants that was started indoors, then spent a few weeks under a row cover, and has now been out in the open for the last few weeks.  Go peas!

And then the bad news: the pests are on to all the delicious happenings at the MCF.  What I used to call the cabbage moth is actually a Little White (Pieris rapae), an invasive from Europe that thrives all across North America, including the Miller City Farm.  This one (below, on the kale just L of center) showed up today, flitting from kale leaf to kale leaf, leaving single yellow-green eggs that will soon be unstoppable green caterpillars.  I guess the kale are headed for the brazing pot now while we still have them.

Bees!

Bees. It's been many weeks of anticipation and education as I attended bee class and read countless beekeeping references.  But all the preparation still didn't prepare me for the moment I popped the lid off of my box of 10,000 bees!

But first, getting them home.  I'd put a downpayment on a "nuc" of bees back in March.  (a nuc of bees cost $99, if you were wondering).  A nucleus is an active hive, scaled down to a small box with 5 frames.  The bees have been living in this hive for a few weeks, so the queen has been laying and the workers have the frames full of honey and pollen to feed the growing brood.  On the scheduled date of April 7th, Maddy and I went to the nursery to pick up our hive.  Being good Portlanders, we of course rode our bike.  Here's our new minivan-sized bike, Maddy, and the nuc:

We put the box in the backyard and pulled the plug blocking the entrance hole and....nothing happened.    But as soon as the sun had warmed up the box, the bees swarmed out and flew in a vortex, accomplishing their orientation flight to get there new bearings.  After an hour of buzzing vortex, the workers were off to investigate the neighborhood, leaving relatively fewer bees in the hive, and it was now the safest time to open the box.  I put on a white shirt (bees stay calm around white) and put on my veil:

I pulled the lid off, and to my pleasant surprise the bees remained happy and busy.  Unfortunately there aren't any pictures of this, since Gretel was holding Juliet and they wanted to stay a bit back from the action.  Trying to cause minimal bee casualties, I carefully transferred the 5 full frames to my first deep box, and added 5 empty frames to fill it out.  On went the cover, and the bees were settled into their new digs:

The unpainted wood is an entrance reduce that closes down the size of the entrance while the hive is still young and small.  This makes the entrance easier to defend in case of raiding by a stronger hive.  Here is a video of the girls in action 5 days later. Be sure to turn on the sound:

Springtime!

Greens

You may recall that a while back I put some lettuce and brassica starts in the ground under cover.  This week the weather has been pretty good, so I decided to take the cover off the row:

In there is a mix of lettuces with chard and kale as well.  Some of the chard took pretty heavy bug damage, but it looks like everything is still growing.  Strangely, the plants get larger the further along the row you get.  I wonder if there is a fertility gradient in the soil, or if its the moisture?  I'm not sure, but here is the last lettuce in line, with my hand for perspective.  It's almost salad time:

First Asparagus

I can't seem to remember what variety of asparagus I planted last season.  Apparently something purple because here it is, the first asparagus stalk of the season!  Yesterday it was 60 and sunny, and the long range forecasts are for warm and sun.  Maybe this stalk will grow and harden off before the slugs get it?