garden – Page 2 – Mason Bees and Phragmites tubes for sale

Mason Bees at Seedy Saturdays/Sundays

ARCHIVAL: This post has been re-dated from 2016 in order to position it closer in the blog to Mason Bee Information

Selling mason bees and reed tubes today proved to be very successful. I had registered for a table selling mason bees cocoons and Phragmites reed-stem tubes at the Victoria Seedy Saturday.

My schedule for attending upcoming Seedy Saturdays is as follows, also you can follow the links to their websites for more details.

March 12: North Vancouver Seedy Saturday

April 2: Surrey Seedy Saturday”>Surrey Seedy Saturday

February 27: Sooke Seedy Saturday
March 6: Nanaimo Seedy Sunday.

March 12: North Vancouver Seedy Saturday
April 2: Surrey Seedy Saturday

I produced the poster below to identify my location at the seedy Saurdays. A big thankyou to all who were willing to get engaged with raising mason bees and I encourage all those who buy my bees and tubes to give me feedback on their experience with raising them.

PHRAGMITES Reed Grass Tubes for Mason Bee pollinators available for 2018 season

ARCHIVAL POST ONLY .. SEE MOST RECENT POSTS

Some successful Phragmites tubes split open in November before cleaning out the cocoons.

Colourful Patterns in the Garden

My son Alex and his partner Virginie do a great job of running Wind-whipped Farms . Here are some images from their lettuce garden in the fall of 2020:

Building a raised bed

I find that using a raised bed with recycled windows for cover and planting winter crops in September is a great solution here for supply of winter lettuces and spinach for early spring harvest. Here is the process I used:
12 – 2’X2’concrete pavers were used and scrap lumber was used to tie it together

Used fence posts were carried to the garden

2×2 concrete pavers ware placed inside the post frame

The tractor fills the structure with compost which holds up the pavers .

when the pavers stanbd up, pieces of old lumber are used to stabilize the top of the pavers

Pine Nut Harvest

Well not much of a harvest yet this year but my two trees planted over 10 years ago have finally produced some cones..2 each!! They fell off near the beginning of September and now I am keeping them in a warm place until they ripen. The cones exude sap so its best to wear disposable gloves when handling. The key to transplanting Pinenuts is that you must scatter soil and needles from the ground around another pine… any variety, around the base of the new tree in order to inoculate the soil with the mycorrhiza necessary for growth.

There are many websites available with information on how to grow and harvest the nuts.