The new Echium Bee Bed is filling in well. From the colorful lobelia in front to the tallest Tower of Jewels echium plant, they all attract bees.
July 3…The Hugelkulture bed is looking so much better since we weeded, planted, and mulched with compost and wood chips.
A view from our garden bench in July reveals the garden in full glory.
July 3…The dwarf sunflowers are open and attracting bees already. It’s older siblings can only watch with envy.
This deer seems to be asking me the question…”What are you doing out here at this time in the evening, this is MY time?” In the video you’ll see why she looked up…she picked up the sound of the camera’s zoom lens. Their hearing is phenomenal, but luckily their eyesight isn’t that good. I’m standing in the sunlight just a short distance away, but she can’t see me very well.
Arrrgh! Deer damage!
I’m not sure if there’s any reason to net what’s left of these potatoes. They have been stripped of their leaves by the ‘cute’ deer. 😦
I mulched this corn in the morning…by the afternoon, the deer had already sampled it. A temporary fence is now in place to protect it…I hope it recovers.
This tomato’s only crime was to be planted at the end of the bed where the deer could reach it easily.
Planted from seed last year, these Hollyhocks have survived the deer twice. We’re so happy to finally see the blooms, but we’ve yet to see any bees on them.
This is far from National Geographic video quality, but it does show the intimate relationship between the bee and the flower. The bee lands on the flower petals, spreads out the lower ones, then triggers the pollen release possibly by pushing something with it’s head…I couldn’t see that part, but when it happens, it’s sudden and strong, like an explosion.
May 3…Here’s a pretty variegated Scotch Broom (Cytisus scoparius). You can tell that a bee has been there , because the stamen have already popped up.
Pollen Alert…bee has triggered a pollen shower, stamen pop up and rub anthers on her back.
This bee has learned well how to trigger the pollen release as can be seen by the amount of pollen on herself.
I shot this video to show what our bees are doing when they leave the hive. It may surprise you. 🙂
The potatoes have been weeded and hilled up. ‘Survivor*’ garlic is on the left and Meadowfoam is in the background, fenced away from deer, but still accessible to the bees. I’ll be using 12 foot lengths of 1/2″ PVC to drip water the potato rows. The seed potatoes were planted at about 9″ distances which match up to the holes drilled into the PVC drip watering system. *Survivor garlic is garlic that made good sized bulbs even though it got the rust virus.
The first bed of tomatoes has been transplanted from the light stand in the house. We’ve used the tire method for 30+ years. They will dissipate heat into the evening. The night temps will get down into the mid 40’s (7C) even sometimes in the summer, so we’ve got to tent them. You might have noticed the wild mustard patch in the background…that started out as a clover patch. I wanted to grow clover to enhance the soil. I rigged up this PVC arrangement to hold the deer netting off the expected plants. I wanted to see the bees visit the clover blossoms in the spring. Then we experienced a cold snap. The clover died and the mustard plants germinated from the compost we spread out. It grows well, too well. I’ll probably have to spade it into the soil before it goes to seed.
A closer look at the tomatoes and drip watering grid. The 1/2″ PVC has been drilled so the water drips out near the plant. I’ve been using these for over ten years and it works well.
May 4th…The second tomato bed goes in. You might notice the ‘clumpy’ soil. I was soooo tempted to pull out my rototiller to break up the soil, but I resisted. We’ve been trying to prove that we can garden without the use of fossil-fuel. So the soil is a bit lumpy and we’re hoping the tomato plants don’t mind too much.
We’ve been eating lettuce and spinach from this first bed of salad greens for about three weeks. My wife likes the wild arugula, but it’s a bit hot for me.
March 28…Planting the second bed of lettuce, Parel cabbages which were started in the house, purchased broccoli plants and maybe some collard greens.
We’ve got to protect them from the cabbage moth.
May 3…Peeking under the cloth to see how the lettuce is doing.
We planted the edible pod peas in the greenhouse in February.
…and have been using the pea pods in salads and soups for a good month.
April 25…Since the deer like to munch on nasturtiums, we’ve got to protect them. What better way than to clean out the weeds around an apple tree and plant them there. These are a new kind that will sport red blossoms. I hope the bees like them.
May I say something else about Limnanthes Douglasii Poached Egg Plant (Meadowfoam)? It wintered over without any kind of frost protection like a tarp or a pile of leaves. It was tough love for sure because it’s in a section of the garden that’s in the shade until noon. This was self seeded from last year’s crop which was about 1/4 the size. (What have I started?) The Vision Violet Geraniums also wintered over well. Together they have been attracting the bees in the afternoon hours.
May 3…I know, I know, I shouldn’t have to transplant borage because it grows ‘like a bad weed’ around here, but there was an empty spot in the hugelkulture bed after I weeded it and the bees love it so much. Three spade-fulls and I’ve got a three more spots to video the bees. 🙂
This Cardinal Climber is supposed to attract hummingbirds. We’ve started it under lights in the house. My wife is going to donate a couple of plants to try to get it to climb up the echium ‘tree.’ I think it’ll be fun to see if we can get some birds and bees.
May 3…”Reach for the sky,” little Cardinal Climber…
…You will have to if you want to climb this “Tower of Jewel” echium tree. It’s 12 ft tall and growing.
I just bought this African Blue Basil. Jeff, at my favorite nursery, tells me it’s a super bee magnet which will blossom all summer. He knows how to tempt me.
May 5…Because the bees were visiting the moss in the pond so much and because someone on the biobees.com forum mentioned that his grandfather used moss for a watering station, I thought I’d try it out. Who knows, the bees might be getting some kind of essential minerals or properties from it. I just dug some up, found a plastic container and try to keep it hydrated. It’s the only waterer I’ve had any success with.
Time to roll out the “Solar Roller.” Things are drying out. This ‘solar panel roller’ can be positioned to catch the early rays of the sun as well as the sunset. I can get about 10-12 hours of sunshine if I’m conscientious about moving it twice a day.
Forgive me if I’m talking about this new bee bed too often. It’s just that we wanted to add more flowers for the bees without taking away space from the veggie garden. This was the perfect solution…but after adding Walker’s Low Nepeta, artichokes, Scabiosa, and red echium, we’re already running out of space.
This started out as a garden video, but there was so much excitement today with two swarms happening and bees (from where?) checking out my new log hive. I had to include some video below.
November 5, 2014…On an unusually warm November day, I spotted these hebes growing in front of Bill Sweet Insurance Agency. The bees were loving it. Thanks, Bill.
While the east coast is getting hammered by the polar vortex cold weather, the west coast is enjoying warm sunny days into early November. At this time of year there are very few sources of nectar, so it’s good that the honeybees are getting a lot from the hebes. Nectar provides an important energy source (carbohydrate) for the bees.
Many thanks to Steve Montana who has let me use his musical talents as background to the video. “GaelaMae On The Bluffs” was written by Steve and the banjo music was written by Buell Kasey back in the late 1800’s. Watch Steve Montana play banjo at the beginning of Sustainable World. Click on “Soldier’s Joy.”
If you want to grow some very colorful flowers that will bloom in September and October, try the Arizona Sun Gallardia.
Watch the crafty crab spider emerge from below the curled petals bottom right. I’m wondering if the honeybee saw the spider. It almost looked like it was ‘daring’ the spider to come after it. I’ve seen enough honeybees that were trapped in the crab spider’s grip to know it’s foolish to tempt fate, but this one got away.
We planted fennel this year to attract bees and butterflies. We never saw the butterflies, but we spotted the caterpillars and later on the bees.
August 22, 2014…we started seeing caterpillars on the fennel.
Caterpillars are voracious eaters. Michael Marlow has an up close video of one eating a stem. It doesn’t waste any time. I started noticing my fennel branches were getting bare, then I saw the caterpillars.
This is could be one of the earlier stages of growth. The life cycle of the Black Swallowtail Butterflies can be found here.
Fennel can grow quite tall. This one is at least 7 ft. tall. I wonder if the chrysalis will be hidden in the undergrowth.
The honeybees have been visiting the fennel since early September. I don’t know what the insect at the top is, but it’s very colorful. My wife thinks its a Great Golden Digger Wasp.
August 16, 2014…This anemone dahlia serves as a rest stop.
Looking over Kathy’s dahlias at some of the 2500 kinds that must be whittled down to 100.
Kathy grows dahlias…lots of them. Knowing of my interest in bees, she has explained how bees have helped her to grow different kinds of dahlias. For many years, she hand pollinated the dahlias she wanted to hybridize. About a year and a half ago, a swarm of bees chose a nearby cedar tree as their future home and started visiting her dahlias. Kathy says she gets much better results from the bees’ pollination. She collected the seeds after pollination and grew over 2500 kinds. Of the 2500, she will select only about 100 that make the grade. (I’m glad I don’t have to decide, I like them all.)
This is one of 2500 varieties that Kathy grew this year. She must whittle it down to about “100 keepers.”
This is known as a giraffe pattern dahlia. Kathy says she is indebted to the bees for their pollination services. I am intrigued by the variety of styles.
An orchid form dahlia
August 16, 2014…Since the bees adopted this high up cavity in a cedar tree, Kathy has benefited from them pollinating her dahlias. In the video you can see how high up it is with a steady stream of bees flying in and out.
Is this a keeper or will it go into the compost? Kathy hasn’t decided yet, but she does like what she sees. It started opening up yesterday and will look different tomorrow, “it’s promising,” she says.
Kathy says she is indebted to the bees for making this one which she is planning to keep.
Sunspot…a mignon dahlia creation that Kathy has let us grow for our bees.
Adventures in Natural Beekeeping 