Welcome to The Yardstead
On March 12-13th, the UF Honey Bee Research and Extension lab will be offering the 3rd annual Bee College at UF Whitney Marine labs in St. Augustine, FL. The Bee College is Florida’s largest educational honey bee event, and is open to all ages and all experience levels. There will be beginner and advanced tracks, as well as classes for those who don’t even keep bees (gardening for bees, bumble bee biology, native pollinators of Fl, etc!).
There will be over 20 speakers from around the country, several hands-on workshops, and of course our annual honey show. A complete schedule, speaker bios, general info, and honey show rules can be found at www.UFhoneybee.com (click Bee College on the left). There is a discount for County Agents, Master Gardeners, Master Beekeeper program participants, Students, Kids, and Master Naturalists.
In addition, UF will be offering a restricted use pesticide certification class, African bee training for First Responders and Pest Control Operators, and USDA-ID/FABIS African bee identification training, with anticipated CEU credits offered.
For a complete brochure, please see www.UFhoneybee.com!
Portland Oregon has one of the premier Community Garden programs in the country. They offer garden plots to residents for a small fee, and donate fresh garden produce to local agencies to feed the hungry. They encourage good healty gardening practices such as organic gardening, healthy soil building practices, composting, cover cropping, and sustainability. The program also encourages positive social practices such as community involvement and intergenerational cooperation. Portland currently has 32 community gardens throughout the city with more coming in the future.
The Portland Community Gardens program has provided gardening opportunities for the physical and social benefit of the people and neighborhoods since 1975. The 32 locations are scattered among many Portland neighborhoods. Volunteer garden managers........
Vermicomposting is composting using worms. There are a variety of species of worms. The most common used earthworm are Red Wigglers or Night Crawlers (think fish bait). These can easily be looked up online for more information as well as to purchase online.
We have become interested in raising worms after watching a video produced by Olomana gardens in Haiwaii. In this video worms were raised very easily in a stacked composting bin. These bins can also be found online and seem relatively inexpensive. At Olomana gardens the worms were being raised under permaculture principles. Garden and food waste are fed to the worms. The worms produce castings (vermicompost) or are fed to chickens. Then the compost or chicken poo is used to fertilize the gardens. So a cycle is created that is relatively self-sustaining. Each system depends on the other to produce well.
Of course, I went immediately to the internet and to youtube to find information on raising worms. There are a variety of ways to do this. Stack bins seem to be.......
