![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/IMAG0308.jpg\" "\\"IMAG0308\\"")
<\/a>filling two frames with brood, making honey and collecting pollen. \u00a0After the bees, more honeycrisp bagging. \u00a0Yes, this is a pain, but it’s a one and done pain. \u00a0That is, after you do it those apples are ok. \u00a0I may start a feeding program this year for the orchard, \u00a0but that’s separate from the immediate disease and predation prevention.<\/p>\nThis is what horticulturists calls IMP or integrated pest management. \u00a0Basically you first support the plant because a strong plant can repel invaders. \u00a0Then you do physical things like picking the bugs off, bagging the apples. \u00a0Only after you’ve done these things–and there are many more than I’ve mentioned–do you consider a pesticide or fungicide. \u00a0I don’t resort to those, so my whole strategy comes on the first two legs of the stool.<\/p>\n
After I got some bagging done, it was time to go pick up Bill Schimdt and head out to Plato, Minnesota to meet Luke Lemmer of High Brix Gardens. \u00a0Plato, Minnesota is about 5 miles west of Young America. \u00a0Luke is a husband and father trying to make a living selling bio-dynamic soil nutrients for gardens as an adjunct of International Ag Lab’s agricultural product line.<\/p>\n
Luke had mixed the broadcast minerals and put our orders of drenches, foliar sprays and transplant aids in a box. \u00a0We spoke with him near the site of a new building he has planned. \u00a0He says this year his business has finally begun to take off. \u00a0His daughter came out, hugging him and looking down at the ground. \u00a0She had what sounded like a summer cold. \u00a0He explained the use of the various products and the schedule they require.<\/p>\n
The site of his home used to house a hotel and beer garden back when Plato was more of a manufacturing hub. \u00a0It now has one factory and the grain elevator. \u00a0It’s on an east west railroad line. \u00a0A pretty little town, bucolic with all the green thanks to our rains of late. \u00a0300 souls. \u00a0A true small town.<\/p>\n
Back home a nap, then I broadcast the minerals and dug them in on all of our beds and got most of the tomatoes, peppers, egg plants, kale and tomatillos treated with a transplant powder and water. \u00a0We’re really a bit behind the curve, since the broadcast will be done in the fall in the future and the transplant aids are made to use when putting the plants in the ground. \u00a0But we’re starting when we can.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Beltane \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 New (Solstice) Moon The day began with the bees, lively and growing, now well into the second box, already \u00a0filling two frames … Continue reading Gardens and Bees<\/span>