Taro & Ti Home

Years of reading and asking newbie questions and absorbing have cumulated in this experience - my first humble beehive. It’s a hive that anyone can build. It’s a hive that can be in anyone’s back-yard or apartment balcony - out in the open or surreptitiously hidden as we indulge in our hobby and honeybee conservation. This latest article describes my first visit to my beehive after a week of it getting established in its new home. It was a very fruitful and painless visit for both bee and myself. And it represents the first of a great many such visits as I expand my collection of hives. Read about it here:

http://bees.taroandti.com/2008/05/10/first-hive-inspection/

Every story has an end. This cutout is no exception. The previous blog layed out the act of getting the bees out of the wall. This blog closes up the story and opens the way to future articles on managing the hive itself. I cover the trip home with the hive in the back of a pickup truck, and my inability to avoid running out to look at the bees. Will the excitement wear off? Probably not - I still run out to look at the new leaf on one of my banana trees or taro plants.

http://bees.taroandti.com/2008/05/08/first-honeybee-cutout-epilogue/

The time for getting my bees is finally at hand. In this blog I lay out as close to step-by-step what I did to get the honeybees out of the wall. I have to say, suddenly I have no more desire to get rock-climbing gear or sky diving - this was thrilling! Sure, roll your eyes - you stick your hand into a mass of thousands of bees and see how thrilled you get. Needless to say, the cutout was a complete success with no unexpected problems. Read on to get the whole story.

http://bees.taroandti.com/2008/05/08/first-honeybee-cutout-the-act/

No one should step into a project involving 20,000 honeybees without some preparation. As much as I like to just dive right in, a sense of self-preservation spurred me to slow down and take things step-by-step and make sure I have what I need to accomplish my first honeybee cutout. This article describes that preparation in detail.

http://bees.taroandti.com/2008/05/07/first-honeybee-cutout-the-preparation/

I’ve been drooling over the prospect of generating my own honey for years. I finally have a property where I can put few hives but until recently, the cost of hives was prohibitive. However, I found Top Bar Hives and that all changed. In short order, I got my first one built - and will be populating it this month with plenty of bees. Here is the first article covering my entry into this exciting hobby.

http://bees.taroandti.com/2008/04/21/entry-to-beekeeping/

It has certainly been challenging growing some of the taros I have - many are single specimens with no backups. Up until recently, if a taro was declining, I knew of no way to rehabilitate it - and several of the specimens I started out with years ago have ceased to be. Now, I have formed a Taro ICU to address this issue - and it is working wonderfully. Not only that, but it also is extraordinarily simple to the point of… why didn’t I think of that before?

http://aquaculture.taroandti.com/2008/03/08/taro-icu/ 

Here is a brief essay on my entry into growing bananas. None have fruited yet - tho many are very close to fruiting currently. These make for a very easy jungle in any garden bed, and tasty bananas in a greenhouse or where their stems are protected from freezing.

http://bananas.taroandti.com/2008/03/03/my-first-bananas/ 

My journey into aquaculture has been a lot of tentative baby steps, and revolves around my taro. It is a necessary step for me to get the full potential I can from some of the taro I grow, as well as enhance the production of the rest. This article describes that tentative beginning - and what the future holds for the path I have undertaken.

http://aquaculture.taroandti.com/2008/03/02/entry-to-aquaculture/ 

I’m pleased to announce the publishing of the latest article about my greenhouses - this one about my current pit greenhouse. It’s a modest hole in the ground that protects my tender tropical plants from the extremes of winter and summer without costing me an arm and a leg thanks to the miracle of earth-mass heating.

http://greenhouse.taroandti.com/2008/02/28/earth-sheltered-pit-greenhouse/

I have recently updated the recipes section with a LOT of new recipes. Cover your keyboards with drool-protection as you peruse these delicious recipes. And be sure to return frequently as I’ll be adding many new recipes to combine my horticultural habits with the need to eat.

http://food.taroandti.com/

I have been busy uploading useful information for you kalo growers over at my Taro section. I still have a great number of taro varieties to list, complete with descriptions courtesy the 1939 CTAHR Bulletin “Taro Varieties in Hawaii”. As time goes, I’ll flesh those descriptions out with plenty of photographs and reviews. Be sure to visit the Glossary and naturally, don’t neglect to read The Taro Disclaimer - very important!

http://taro.taroandti.com/

I am embarking on a new adventure - growing my own avocados. This post begins my documentation of that adventure; the purchase of my first avocado plant. And, are those flowers already? This adventure could get interesting very quickly.

http://avocado.taroandti.com/2008/02/27/first-avocado/

Here’s a little inspirational post I wrote to express the need for us gardeners to grow something, anything, at all times - even in the chilly grips of winter. Nothing is too small, nothing is too humble - get something growing to keep the flame lit and perhaps relieve your cabin-fever while you wait for the ground to thaw.

http://garden.taroandti.com/2008/02/27/no-matter-how-small/

Here is a post describing my entry into the adventure of growing chocolate. Cacao theobroma is a finicky tree to grow and one that still challenges me and in this post I detail those challenges, with plenty of photographs of my progress. The adventure is far from over and many more articles will follow this one up until I’m holding my own home-grown pod of chocolate, and beyond.

http://chocolate.taroandti.com/2008/02/27/in-the-beginning/

Here is an essay I wrote documenting my first humble greenhouse. It was built out of cattle-panels, zip-ties and translucent poly, was very inexpensive to  build and was amazingly effective at keeping my tender tropicals alive. This design has followed me in my current earth sheltered pit greenhouse, with the hoops covering the pit now.

http://greenhouse.taroandti.com/2008/02/26/first-greenhouse/ 

Boo Rescue is a post I wrote about my effort to rescue and rehabilitate a poorly growing and neglected bamboo from the back of my property. The area has a much shallower subsoil than I had known about when I planted it back there and over the four years it resided there, it didn’t grow any new culms or any taller and two of the plants had perished. This last boo is destined for greatness - its parents grew over 30′ tall and had 2″ culms easily.

http://boo.taroandti.com/2008/02/24/boo-rescue/

Here’s a new post that I wrote recently. I recently purchased some Giant Grey Henon bamboo and this documents my review of it and my bamboo aspirations. I’ll follow this particular boo as it grows, giving a time-lapse of it going from it’s current 3-4′ tall culms to 40-60′ tall culms when it matures here in a few years.

http://boo.taroandti.com/2008/02/23/boo-potted-up/