GoodBumblebee.com launch May 18, 2019

Hello! Springtime seems just right for launching a website called GoodBumblebee.com, does it not?

I started Good Bumblebee because I go out of my way to support companies that hold my same values and practice them every day, even if I pay a little more, but I didn’t know of a place that offered products only from this type of company. Plus, I was spending a lot of time researching the way a company conducts itself before I would make a purchase. I figured I couldn’t be the only one doing this!

Good Bumblebee is a place where you can go to find high-quality products from companies that have committed to responsible business practices. Just some of the traits of the partners Good Bumblebee seeks are …

• Providing products that do as little damage to the earth as possible
• Paying employees a livable wage
• Giving back through charitable organizations
• Not testing on animals
• Using sustainable packaging

Good Bumblebee vets companies for their positive attributes before partnering with them and featuring their products on the site. So once you’re there, you know that any product you’re looking at is from a company doing a lot of good in the world. The research has already been done for you!

Come check out GoodBumblebee.com and let me know what you think! Do you know of a company that might fit our criteria that you would like for me to check out? Send me their info!

I just want to say … May 25, 2011

Is that a fine lookin’ mater or what?!? This was the first tomato to ripen from my self-watering containers. It was sliced up and served with salt, pepper and basil and was sweet, firm and DEE-LICIOUS! I had a go-round with spider mites and am currently treating for early blight, but I’ve been successful using only organic solutions to the problems. And if everything continues to go well, I’m going to be eating tomatoes to my heart’s content 🙂

Newbie’s Delight

I’ll admit that since I’m new at this I probably get disproportionately excited about watching the plants grow, but I really find it so delightful!  I took this photo today of the community garden. Look at how much the corn has grown. It took a little bit of a beating from the storm last night (maybe some hail damage), but with a little TLC, I think it’s going to be okay.

And the watermelon! The little radishes to the left were planted late in the game, so I”m happy with their progression.

On Saturday morning I participated in the group harvesting. It was drizzling outside, but the turnout was still good. There’s a lot of activity on Saturday mornings! People helping each other with their gardens and harvest, groups of volunteers weeding the common areas, high-schoolers turning compost. It’s a fulfilling way to spend my morning! After that, one of the veteran gardeners gave a class on organic soil amendments, pest control and disease control.  I had another appointment at that time, so I had to miss it!  Too bad. Guess I’ll just have to keep using trial and error with a healthy dose of help from the internet!

Community Garden May 17, 2011

So I recently adopted a plot at a local community garden. I have to tell you … I fully expected to start with a clean slate. A long, narrow row of fresh, rich, weedless soil, ready for planting. Apparently, that’s not how it works. At least not here. I had to pull up stinky, rotten mustard greens, weed the plot, weed it again, weed it AGAIN, till it (okay, I’ve had some help, I admit) and finally I put seeds in the ground. I inherited some onions I chose to keep, and those are kind of fun. It gives me something ready for picking while waiting on the little sprouts to get going!

Here’s what the plot looks like now with the sprouts coming up …

I planted corn, cantaloupe, watermelon, cucumbers, squash, radishes and mustard greens. Most of them are coming up quite nicely!

The onions have a VERY strong aroma. Coupled with all the cilantro/coriander planted around the garden, it smells like an authentic taco stand around here! Yum!

Every day the plot looks different! Stay tuned for more photos coming soon!

Basil sprouts! April 20, 2011

Basil sprouts!

Basil is probably my second favorite herb after rosemary, and I enjoyed the heck out of it last year – practically every night to be honest. I’m very excited that spring and summer bring more basil! I planted seeds Sunday afternoon, and I already have sprouts! Hundreds of them. It’s kind of hard to see them since it was cloudy out when I took the photo, but can you see them? Huh? Huh? Can you? Can you? (Click on the photo for a close-up).

Homemade self-watering containers April 19, 2011

So my buckets may not be as pretty as most (okay any) other containers out there, but they work like a charm and require a whole lot less watering than other types of containers! I got the idea from my beloved Mother Earth News, who never lets me down. They’re made from 5-gallon buckets donated to me by a local bbq joint. Information and DIY instructions on them can be found here:

http://www.motherearthnews.com/multimedia/image-gallery.aspx?id=2147493501&seq=1

and here:

http://www.urbanorganicgardener.com/self-watering-containers/how-to-make-a-self-watering-container/

Check out the video called “Container Within A Container With Pipe” to get a good idea of what I have going on.

Two new additions

So today I adopted two new tomato transplants. SOMEONE (who shall remain nameless) was going to toss them into the compost bin. Can you believe it? Giving up on them before they’ve even had a chance to get out of the nursery pot! I put them in planters for now until I get more buckets assembled. Let’s see if I can get them going by giving them some wiggle room. I can tell they’re happier already 🙂

Ahhh! We can stretch!

The stork brought babies! April 18, 2011

Baby tomatoes, that is. Lots of them! I have five different varieties of tomato plants growing in my bucket containers, one of which is a cherry tomato. Basically overnight I suddenly had 14 tiny cherry tomatoes! The others only have one or two each for now. I wonder if it’s because I sing to the cherry tomato plant more than the others.

Sea o' buckets