Spring activities
Spring unfolds gracefully on the bog. As the sun's warmth embraces the earth, the vines awaken, promising a season of exceptional growth and quality.
In early Spring, after repairing and reinstalling the many sprinkler heads, I'm busy clearing leaves from from ditches, cutting back vines from the center ditches in each bog, changing the oil in the pumps and well, and putting out the frost temperature line and checking it for accuracy. On bad weather days I'm cleaning the storage shed and pump house and organizing the Bogside Barn for honey/bee projects.
By mid-April I'm sprucing up the birdhouses and bee hives for another season. Here, after cleaning out hives of any dead bees, I'm replacing and adding new honey supers to the hives before the bees are in full swing readying for another brood of worker bees and possibly, another queen. Note the thin, unpainted "triangle board" which allows bees to exit naturally and eliminates the need for smoke to keep them calm while I work. For hives with new wax foundations/supers, I feed the bees with sugar water to give them a head start. Lots of "yard work" follows including raking up any berry piles around the bog from the prior harvest, trimming back road brush, weed wacking around the bee yard and the first of many bog weedings.
As the air starts to fill with the sweet fragrance of blossoms, each day brings new anticipation of a fruitful harvest ahead. While the bog springs to life in May, so do the weeds which kicks off the 6 months of mowing roads and edges, weed wacking, and bog weeding. It's also the time for ordering bog fertilizer and supplies and picking up irrigation supplies as needed. Frost season begins, requiring many all-nighters watching bog temperature tolerance for berry buds and turning on sprinklers to warm things up when needed. Pheromone traps are installed on the bogs at the end of May to control insects.
Bee Hives, North End of Ben's Bog
Some of the 17-20 bee hives spruced up and ready for another season. Note the upside down jars of sugar water at bottom right of each hive to feed the bees in early Spring.
Fertilizing
Niece Molly cranking out fertilizer with a portable chest-mount spreader being careful how and where to walk.
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Setting/Checking a Pheromone Trap
Integrated Pest Management (IPM) allows for non-toxic, highly targeted alternative to broad-spectrum insecticides.
