bee swarm

This was actually taken from our Apartment balcony when I noticed a swarm of bees on a tree in the courtyard.  We live on the 4th floor, so they were VERY high up.  I later was informed by my mother in law (she is a hobby bee keeper) that I should have called the fire department, as bee hives that swarm usually are looking for a safe place to live and rarely find one and die.  The fire department apparently can catch them and has a list of bee keepers that will take them.  Hope these guys made it somewhere safe!  I spotted them in the morning and they were still there went i went to bed at night.  They were gone the next morning, so were there for 15-25 hours.

Pentecost

Monday was a national holiday because of Pentecost, so we took advantage of the fantastic weather to do a bike tour from Zurich to Zug and back.  The first half of the tour was riding upstream along the Sihl river from Zurich to Sihlbrugg and then after a short stretch on a main road, we went uphill to catch a great view of the Zugersee.  Heading toward Zug we stopped at a lovely Kloster with a fabulous kitchen garden.  It was enourmous, and they had over 30 tomato varieties growing (under glass roofed tomato houses, of course, to prevent blight).  Along with using glass covered cold frames for seedlings, they had plastic foil high tunnels where they had finished harvesting the first round on florence fennel!  Amazing how early they were able to get a harvest.  It looked like they were selling transplants as well, and I probably would have bought one had we not been on bike with still a ways to go.  Then we passed through the town of Baar before arriving in Zug.  I promptly demanded a Zugerkirschtorte.  The first one we got was from cafe Meier, which was eaten on the steps next to the Train station and the second one we tried was from Confiserie Speck, which was eaten next to the lake.  I think I prefered the first one, as it was a bit less boozy and had a bit more icing to take away from the bite of the alcohol. (can you tell I am not a big drinker?)  Then we headed back to Zurich, which was considerably easier as the last half was downstream.  Definitely a moderate bike tour to do in the area!

planting grapes

One of the things I wanted in our garden was grapes.  They are hard to find organically AND locally, it is typically one or the other and the varieties sold these days tend to be selected for size and seedlessness not flavor.  Both me and my partner love the flavor (and the heavenly smell!) of muscat grapes and we researched a bit to find the best variety to grow organically.  We decided on Muscat Bleu (a red/blue variety) and Birntaler Muskat (a white/green variety).   Both were bare root plants that were mail ordered.  We ended up adding a terraced area along a retaining wall for them.  Hopefully this bed will continue to the walkway when we have time to prep it.  I would love to under plant the grapes with tulips or some other early flowering bulb.  Will this be a good pairing?

soon to be filled with grapes at which point supporting wires will be added and the 'wilderness' on the retaining wall will be scaled back.

why I love Zurich.  A lovely view of the alps from our Garden at dusk.

april update

We just got back from 2 wonderful, warm and sunny weeks in Sicily.  I guess we picked a good time to leave town because we were informed that the weather had been cold and rainy, even below freezing all of Easter weekend.  The peas, radishes and other plants accordingly stalled and look about the same.   Our transplants on the other hand really grew!  Thankfully our neighbor watered while we were gone, and the first thing I did after returning was pot up the tomatoes.  They did get a bit leggy as the lights were further that a few inches away, but I didn't want to ask our neighbor to deal with that too!  Sadly, the eggplants and some of the peppers have a green aphid problem.  They don't seem to be suffering yet, and the organic insecticide oil I sprayed on them seemed to do more damage than the actual aphids, so I will just let them be for another month and hopefully they will make great food for the ladybugs once planted outside.  The beets and fennel under row cover seem to be doing well, but the other brassicas and salad seem to have not grown much.

overwintered mache harvest right before we went on vacation as our last meal

April 15th was my other half's birthday, and of course it was a great excuse to harvest rhubarb from the garden to make a cake (mixed with store bought strawberries).  It was delicious.

first rhubarb harvest and random herbs

 On April 16th, I seeded the pumpkins, cucumber and squashes in newspaper pots and planted a flat of basil and thai basil seed.

mixed daffodils????

We have the loveliest purple tulips and old fashioned daffodils (white) blooming right now, but alas, I forgot to get a picture.  The lilacs are starting to form buds and the daffodils are fading.  By the way the dandelions are growing and blooming, I know busier times are just around the corner.

March update

I had a whole week free at the end of march, so used it to get some garden work done.  The first order of business was preparing a flower bed out of a grassy, sloped corner that was difficult do mow.  New beds sans power tools are hard work!  Of course I changed plans a few times in between, and got distracted and started re-leveling the pavers nearby along the way, but in the end I finished this terraced bed and got the blueberry bushes planted.  It looks a bit random, as i tried to use materials already on hand, but it will do for now.  We aren't allowed to use peat moss so I gathered lots of pine needles in the forest (even though online research tells me that they wont actually change the acidity of the soil) and added lots of compost to the planting hole.  We will only water with rain water and try a sulfur fertilizer to help decrease the pH. 

Our other big project was replacing some rotted posts that formed a retaining wall and pathway.  This was the most irritating project imaginable.  Trying to remove rotted wood that is confined on all sides by other structures and then trying to dig a hole under these confinements takes much longer than usual. 

Right before heading of on vacation I planted some transplants to make watering (at home) easier for our neighbor.  Fennel, salad, beet, savoy cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower got planted under cover even though it was a bit early and they were a bit small. I had too many lettuce seedlings so I gave them away to 3 other gardeners. 




The favas, radishes and peas have germinated, and I think I see the germination leaves on the carrots, although it is hard to tell.  The weather has been warm and sunny but nights have been cold.

hellebores

primroses

sprouting favas

lettuce seedlings

sprouting rhubarb

poor worm, i thought i was 'saving' him from my digging only to see that moments later he was taken by a lizard.

spring is in the air!

Last week the daytime temperatures were about 15 C so I let the seedlings get some sun on the balcony during the day.  Nights are still cold, so they were brought back inside each evening.  I have been watering with dilute fertilizer mix every time I water and that seems to have helped growth a little, although the brassicas are growing VERY slowly.  They are also quite long and falling over.  Any idea of what went wrong?  I have had them under lights since they sprouted, but perhaps they were a few inches too far away?  The lettuce looks good, and if it is warm next week, I'll harden them off and plant them.  That will free up some space under the lights for my recently sown tomatoes.

seedlings enjoying some sun on a mild day

seedling update

The seedlings are finally starting to show signs of true leaves.  The celeriac has finally germinated and the jalapenos as well (although not 100%).  I think the slow growth after germination may be due to the coconut compressed pots I used, I am guessing they are a sterile growing medium but they don't have a lot of nutrients.  Today I fertilized with a dilute liquid fertilizer, hopefully there wont be any root burn.  Oddly the white lettuce seeds (4 varieties) have all sprouted where as the 2 black seeded varieties are still empty.  I wonder if the seed color trait is linked to germination time?

edit: both black seeded varieties never germinated even after a second sowing.  must have been a bad batch and just a coincidence they were both black seeded.

The brassicas seem to be getting leggy even though they are under lights.