What's going on in your garden right now?

[rainbowgardener]

Here's the picket fence, complete, but not yet painted:


Here's my seventy year old partner working away with heavy sledgehammer building it:

[imafan26]

The pollinator garden is only a small strip. 4ft wide by about 12 ft long. It is to be a demonstration garden for pollinator month in June. It is in a 30 acre public display garden owned by the University of Hawaii. It isn't mine. There are many volunteers who take care of various sections.

My hui (bee hui) will be presenting an activity for June which is pollinator month. I am growing pollinator and beneficial insect plants for the plant sale. This garden is perpendicular to the Hawaiian pollinator garden which was just replanted and that is the area covered with weed mat. We will be presenting a workshop on bees,across this planting there is a planting of sun hemp demonstrating turn the page gardening. We will be making bee houses out of bamboo and pvc pipe, if we have honey we will have that for sale and we have a teaching hive as well as a small observation hive. We will have a head through the hole featuring sunflowers and bees. Probably seed give away if we can get the seeds donated, sign people up for the pollinator pledge (basically to make them aware and to get them to use IPM and bee safe pesticide strategies). Every second saturday we have a theme. There is usually a garden related class, plant doctor booth, FCE (craft booth), plant sale. The Honolulu Rose Society just did their annual rose sale in February and March and on second Saturdays they talk to the public about rose care and we do have a rose garden. There are 5 mini gardens that comprise the Children's gardens where school tours are offered.
Compost demonstration, Hawaiian alphabet, medicinal, and ecosystem gardens, an orchard, Peace gardens, bonsai, plumeria, Idea garden, herb garden, hedge maze, and an apiary. Fruit from the orchard is donated to the local food bank. There are a lot of dedicated gardeners taking care of the garden. But some gardens are orphans and are in need of adoption. Most of the volunteers are retired. The staff cuts the grass, repairs the leaks, and trims the hedges. The fruit hui takes care of the orchard and trims the trees. The largest trees are trimmed by a local tree trimmer.

The pollinator garden I am planting is for the June event. It is only a temporary garden. It is a strip garden along a grassy path. It will be just big enough to demonstrate a pollinator garden that would be yard size. It formerly was used to raise Hawaiian chili peppers for seeds that the UH sold from the seed lab. The seed lab gets seed from various extension stations around the State. They have 28 varieties of seed available that are suitable for this climate. Chili seed was grown here when the regular supplier crop failed.

Hawaii did not have honey bees until the mid 1800's and most of the native and tropical plants are pollinated by birds, beetles, moths, flies, and ants. Honey bees pollinate more than half the fruits and vegetables we eat. Nearly all the nuts, cucurbits, and many fruits are totally or partially dependent on animal pollinators. Native pollinators and native plants evolved in a protected environment that filled very specific niches and the survival of both the plant and animal are co dependent. It is why Hawaii has one of the highest species extinction rates in the world. Those plants and animals are not usually found in an urban environment, but survive in protected conservation zones. We will be demonstrating plants that can be grown in an urban environment to attract honeybees as well as natural predators (beneficial insects) most of which are also not natives but are necessary to pollinate garden vegetables and fruits as well as feed beneficial insects that can manage pests with less chemicals.

[gumbo2176]

Here's the picket fence, complete, but not yet painted:


Here's my seventy year old partner working away with heavy sledgehammer building it:

Is that fence made of all treated wood? If so, how "wet" was the wood when putting the fence up? I've found almost all the treated wood I've fooled with over the years is still very wet from the pressure treating process. This makes it more of a chore to keep paint on it even when letting it dry out over time to get the moisture content out of the wood. Personally, I'd leave it natural or at the very most, apply something like Thompson's Water Sealer on it if you want to keep it from graying as it ages. You can get that stuff in many different pre-stained colors if clear coat isn't to your liking, and the good thing is, you can cover it with a garden sprayer or one of those cheap paint sprayers to make quick work of it. I'd not want to brush all that fencing once it's up.

[rainbowgardener]

Those fence panels have been sitting around over a year, waiting for us to get it together to build the fence....

[gumbo2176]

Those fence panels have been sitting around over a year, waiting for us to get it together to build the fence....

So, they're good and dry then as long as they were kept out of the weather, and from the freshness of them, it looks like they were. Love the easy chairs in the garden site. Now you just need an small table with an umbrella and a cooler filled with your favorite beverages to really relax when it gets too hot.

[MoonShadows]

Nice fence for your garden area Super Green Thumb. I like it.

Not much going on in my garden right now, and we are expecting our 4th Nor'easter of the month tomorrow, so it looks like we're in for another round of snow and ice.

However, things are shaping up in the greenhouse while we wait for the gardens to thaw. I planted cabbage, Brussel sprouts, lettuce, spinach and scallions in the two cold frames in my greenhouse 4 weeks ago.

I have also started tomatoes, peppers, egg plant and lavender in 80 Jiffy pots this past weekend. Yesterday, I took the Balsam, Fraser and Douglas Fir seeds that I had stratifying in my frig for the past two months and planted 28 of each. This is the first time I am trying trees from seeds.

Maybe after this next round of snow, I'll start my flowers in the greenhouse. I am planning to start about 24 dozen...give or take.

[rainbowgardener]

wow, very impressive operation, Moon Shadows. Is your greenhouse heated?

[MoonShadows]

Thanks! I built a solar hot water heater storage system and have a small electric (oil filled radiator type) for back up. You can see a short video about my solar build in this thread: viewtopic.php?f=50&t=73889&p=417679#p417679

If you want to see the video a bit larger, here is the YouTube link: https://youtu.be/iCcUp2NQgvI

I also sealed every little nook and cranny I could find and put Reflectix insulation on the north and east walls. Even on the latest nighte where it has been falling into the mid 20's here, my greenhouse stays in the mid to up 40's. On colder or real cloudy daysdays, I have to supplement with the electric heater.,