Free Seeds and Busy Busy Bees

One of the things that we did over the weekend was go to a seed swap. I had packaged and saved some of my onion. marigold and purple bell pepper seeds from last year but had no idea what I was going to do with them. Then I saw the seed swap and took them to share with others. We were super excited to get a few cone flower colors we didnt have and Bakers Creek seed company donated lots of seeds for this event and we were able to snag some that we hadnt ever tried.

Time is flying by and we are as busy as our bees on the urban farm. Speaking of bees I can not wait until this Saturday when we pick up our second hive. Since getting stung on the face over the weekend I am a bit nervous about the 2.5 hour drive home with the bees. I am guessing with Mr Ladybugs allergic reaction to bee stings being much worse than mine he is very nervous. If you spot 2 people in a little red car wearing full bee suits just honk and wave its probably us.

The bees are looking awesome and we are hoping to be well on our way to that first honey flow in June just like last year. I can not wait to taste that amazing floral honey like last year. The honey we harvested later in the year was good but oh how we love that first harvest and so do my customers!

Mr Ladybug signed us up for an air plant terrarium class a few weeks ago and we had so much fun. He loved the air plants from Plants for Pets so much be ordered some and make me this nifty planter for them. We saw a frame sort of like this on amazon for $20. I ran to Goodwill and got mine for $4. We just took it apart and added chicken wire. The air plants were $14 but if you have ever priced them at Lowes or a plant nursery you will find they are normally $5-$7 and these are much bigger. So what would have cost us $55 to buy somewhere only cost us $18.

I was actually wearing that bonnet in the above picture when I got stung by the bee. Another bee had gotten into my bonnet and I now understand that old saying "bee in her bonnet". If you have a bee in your bonnet you are a hot mess and people should stay out of your way.

Notice the difference in these two plants? They are actually both tomato plants. The one on the left is called a potato leaf. Since this tray is full of Glacier tomatoes they obviously got a stray seed mixed in with this pack. Its like Christmas to us, we can not wait to see what kind of tomato plant it turns into. I think I will email Territorial Seeds where we got the seeds from and see what variety of potato leaf tomatoes they carry. We are pretty excited about the Glacier tomato. Its a new one for us too and it suppose to be cooler weather hardy. I am hoping to plant a few later in the season and see how late we can harvest tomatoes outside.

Dont let this cute face fool you. This guy has not only torn a huge hole in the screen of my sons room and has been leaving and coming in through it at night he also tore off the coffee filtered top of my sourdough starter and allowed fruit flies to fly in it. I guess we need to start a new one and cat proof it.  He does have his good qualities too though. When Mr Ladybug let the chickens out to forage around the yard yesterday he stays right back there with them to protect them from anything that might try to do them harm. He doesnt even try to attack them. I guess he just attacks screens and sourdough.