pollinators
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Spectacular Sunflowers
Here’s a whole post on all the awesomeness of sunflowers, their many many strengths, and why you should put them in your garden or farm. I mean, I love sunflowers. So let’s get the obvious out of the way…they’re stunningly beautiful. With so many varieties out there, I typically order a multi-pack or a few… Continue reading
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Monarch Butterfly Survey: Biodiversity in Marginal Land
Lots of stuff going on at the farm, and a lot changes in a week or two with these long solstice sunlight hours. Things are booming, but the rain is also still coming (we’re up to 140mm on the month of June so far). There’s a lot of topics I could write about (and probably… Continue reading
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2 for 2: Overwintering Honeybees
Still in the first year of beekeeping here! It felt like a big test, to see if I could successfully overwinter the bees. On a nice day recently I went in for a check, removing the R10 and R20 insulation that was (hopefully) keeping the bees stable all winter. And right away we saw good… Continue reading
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And Suddenly, It All Made Sense
A beginner beekeeper is going to make some mistakes. This first-timer made one about four weeks ago and, instead of catching the mistake and correcting for it, it took sheer luck for the light bulb to go on. At the end of August was when the nectar stopped flowing. After all that time learning how… Continue reading
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Learn By Doing II
Back in June we were just getting started with an entirely new and exciting learning curve with the beehive. This is a sequel to that post. We’ve had a lot of frustrating things go on this summer, and we have entered a zone of discomfort. This is a sort of grey zone where you are… Continue reading
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A Sweet August: Extracting Our First Honey
Just three months ago we had yet to get our first beehive. Now, we’ve got a massive colony, a bunch of very heavy honey boxes and it’s time to extract. It’s been a bit overwhelming to have just the one hive and see how all the changes occur. A few weeks ago we nearly lost… Continue reading
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Swallows & Honey
For the past few weeks, we’ve been treated to quite the display as we are working in the field. The sight of two Tree Swallow parents flying about all day and the sounds of hungry hungry Tree Swallow babies was really captivating and a joy to see. When I left for a couple days for… Continue reading
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Learn By Doing
It’s been two weeks, and our beekeeping mentor couldn’t make it. So, into the hive solo we go! My favourite (and preferred) way of learning is to just do it yourself. Go for it. Get in there. How else are you going to know? Books are great, YouTube is great. But there comes a point… Continue reading
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My First Beehive
On Monday, something super exciting happened…I got my first honeybee hive! I’m super excited to go on a new journey with an entirely new learning curve. The biggest reason I’ve wanted to keep bees is that I think it will connect me to nature and the surroundings in a much deeper way. Watching and listening… Continue reading
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Garden Planning
We spend all winter here at the farm planning our season, thinking about what worked well last year, what we should change, and new things to explore that might benefit us. We also think a lot about things we can plant or grow that are not crops, but have ecological benefits, be it providing a… Continue reading
About Graham
Graham is an ecologist-farmer from Canada working on educating about the wonders and beauty of the natural world, and how we can design biodiverse food production systems.
