The Raven's Roost

Thursday, I went to a county extension/UF class on veggie gardening for beginners. Despite the name, the majority of us had tried and been wildly unsuccessful with our gardens, so no one was really a raw beginner. The main thing I learned is that despite our efforts to amend our soil (it's actually just sand, we did a soil comp test and it's just sand) we're still drastically underfeeding the plants. I say "we" but I really mean "me." The extension guy also had a real gem of wisdom about citrus - feed them three times over the summer. I'd always heard you shouldn't feed them more than once a year, which may explain why my trees aren't flourishing. He recommended every other month until September or so.

I'll also be starting some seed trays today for things I can grow over the early summer like tomatoes and peppers. July and August are often too hot for anything, but you can start another round of seeds then for fall planting. I just need to think about how I want to approach my hybrid pepper project and where I want those plants.

Once the veggie garden is sorted out, I plan to start looking for a spot to put a beehive. It's not the right time for getting one, but I'll be able to find and prep a good place for them and start taking some beekeeping classes. Locally I can acquire bees just over the line in Georgia. It would be a day trip but probably better than trying to have them shipped through the mail.

I'm slightly annoyed by the tradwife trend. While it's making information on doing these things a little more readily available, I've been interested in self-sustaining practices, off grid life, and running a small farm for a long time, and suddenly there are all these chicks on Instagram churning butter while wearing expensive sundresses. That's just me, though, I always feel a little discouraged when some "niche" interest of mine goes mainstream. Not that this is exactly niche, but it felt more like a small, safe community of like-minded people, and now it's ... more political? Maybe more political, but it definitely feels more commodified, like a packaged lifestyle look than an actual life.

ANYWAY BEES.

UF's bee lab is open the first Wednesday of each month for tours. Of course, this is the science side of the university, so they maybe need to go easy on my English major self. I also bought myself a couple of beginning beekeeping books, so when I go to take a class or shadow a beekeeper, I have a better idea of what to expect and what to do.