Posts Tagged ‘Gardening’
Turnip Flowers Give Bees ‘Pollen Power’
Posted in Bee to Flower relationship, Bee Video, Bee-loving flowers, Natural Beekeeping, Uncategorized, tagged bee-loving flowers, Gardening, honey bees, Warre Hive, Wild pollinators on April 25, 2017| 11 Comments »
Turnips, a Cover Crop You Can Eat
Posted in Bee to Flower relationship, Bee Video, Bee-loving flowers, Bumblebees, Gardening, Growing flowers for bees, Macro bee video, Natural Beekeeping, Videos, tagged bee-loving flowers, beekeeping, bees on Oregon Coast, Gardening, Gardening tips, honey bees, natural beekeeping, raised beds, turnip soup recipe on October 15, 2016| 5 Comments »
…and the bees love it too.
Turnip soup recipe
Chop an onion, saute in olive oil, add 4 to 5 cups of peeled chopped turnips, two garlic cloves (peeled and cut in half), add two teaspoons of smoked paprika, and teaspoon of thyme leaves. Cook until lightly brown, add three cups of vegetable or chicken broth, salt to taste. Bring to boil and simmer until veggies are cooked. Blend in blender, return to pan, add a cup of milk, or milk alternative.
Sue’s Secret Garden
Posted in Bee to Flower relationship, Bee-loving flowers, Gardening, Growing flowers for bees, Videos, tagged bee-loving flowers, Bombus vosnesenskii, echium, Gardening, organic gardening on May 21, 2016| 11 Comments »
Bees are Buzzing, Garden is Growing, Deer are ‘Devouring’
Posted in Bee Video, Bee-loving flowers, Birds Foot Trefoil, Birds Foot Trefoil pollination video, Bumblebees, Butterflies, Hugelkulture, Log hives, Macro bee video, Music video, Natural Beekeeping, Tower of Jewels, Videos, tagged Acanthus Mollis, African Blue Basil, Bear Breeches, Bee pollinating Bird's Foot Trefoil, bee-loving flowers, beekeeping, Bees and Hidcote Hypericum, Bees and St. John's Wort, Bees on blackberries, Bombus vosnesenskii, Circus Marcus, Crow squawking, Deer eating plum, Deer netting, deer netting in raised beds, echium, Free Music Archive, Gardening, honey bees, hugelkulture, iPhone video, Log hive wood carving, macro nature video, natural beekeeping, nature photography, Nepeta, Oyster Plant, Swallowtail butterfly, Tower of Jewels, Walker's Low on July 9, 2015| 14 Comments »
Planting for Bees? It’s About Thyme
Posted in Bee to Flower relationship, Bee-loving flowers, Natural Beekeeping, Videos, tagged bee-loving flowers, beekeeping, bees on Oregon Coast, Gardening, honey bees on March 25, 2015| 8 Comments »
To finish out the beautiful music of La Tabú, I added some video of this new plant…a type of St. John’s Wort called HyPearls Hypericum.
Fennel Attracts Bees, Butterflies. and more
Posted in Bee Video, Bee-loving flowers, Butterflies, Natural Beekeeping, Videos, tagged "Old Friends-Old Songs", bee-loving flowers, Bees on fennel, bees on Oregon Coast, caterpillar on fennel, Fennel, Gardening, John Fullerton, Kirk Schumacher, Michael Marlow, natural beekeeping on September 24, 2014| 8 Comments »
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.
Bees Enjoy Winter Turnip Flowers (and more)
Posted in Bee-loving flowers, Drip watering, Natural Beekeeping, Raised beds, Sustainable living, Videos, tagged bee-loving flowers, bees on catkins, bees on Oregon Coast, bees pollinating turnip flowers, deer netting in raised beds, drip watering, Gardening, macro nature video, natural beekeeping, nature photography, pussy willow trees, raised beds, Sustainable living, Turnip flowers, Turnip flowers for bees, turnips, vegetable growing on February 12, 2014| 16 Comments »
When we planted turnips, lettuce and kale in July for our winter garden little did we know we were planting for the bees as well as ourselves.
Worried about Bees? Plant some Flowers!
Posted in Bee to Flower relationship, Bee-loving flowers, Natural Beekeeping, Poached Egg Meadowfoam, tagged Bee on gaillardia, bee pollinating penstemon, bee-loving flowers, bees on Oregon Coast, bumblebee on Penstemon, bumblebees, bumblebees on Penstemon video, butterfly on pincushion flower, butterflyweed, Gardening, Limnanthus alba, Limnanthus Douglasii, macro nature video, meadowfoam, Meadowfoam bees, Oregon Coast bees, Outsidepride.com, penstemon, S, Salvia attracts bees, Scabiosa pollinator, Wild pollinators on February 4, 2014| 12 Comments »
If you’ve ever watched the bees on a Poached Egg Meadowfoam (Limnanthes Douglasii), you will want to grow some for your bees. Last year I bought 12 plants from my friendly nursery (101 Plants). The bees were on them everyday. Unfortunately, the deer discovered them, and mowed them down. This year I’m happy to say I found a source for seeds. I’m buying 1000 seeds for under $5.00 from Outside Pride in Oregon. With that many seeds, I can scatter them in quite a few areas (fenced in, this time). The bees will love them and so will I.
I was under the mistaken impression that Meadowfoam was grown mostly in Oregon and Northern California, but I see the Royal Horticultural Society in Great Britain has a listing for it as a Poached Egg Plant.
The oil from Limnanthes Alba is valuable…According to Oregon Meadowfoam Growers, meadowfoam oil is 20 times more stable than soybean oil, which means it does not deteriorate as readily when exposed to air. A gallon of meadowfoam oil is worth about $200 retail.
Don’t forget the butterflies!
One of the beekeeping blogs I follow, written by Emma Sarah Tennant, featured a TED talk by Marla Spivak, showing the reasons why bees are disappearing and how we can help them by planting habitat. We are proud to be a small part of a growing movement to help our wild pollinators.
Bulbs for the Bees
Posted in Bee-loving flowers, Bumblebees, Natural Beekeeping, Tower of Jewels, tagged Allium, bee-loving flowers, beekeeping, bees on Oregon Coast, Gardening, grape hyacinth, honey bees, natural beekeeping, Siberian Squill, Snowdrops, Tower of Jewels, Wild pollinators on November 19, 2013| 10 Comments »
It’s possible that everyone already knows certain bulbs provide an early nectar source for bees. I might be new to the game because, well, I’ve never really been overly appreciative of growing flowers. “They take up space and use precious water.” Being on a shallow well makes you a water miser. But these grow during the rainy season. Some can even be planted in the front lawn, not taking up space or using extra water as in the Siberian Squill. Being a beekeeper has changed my attitude towards flowers. Now my motto is, ” You can never have too many (bee-loving) flowers.”
Since I recently broke up a new patch of ground for the Towers of Jewel ‘trees’, I have some extra space I can dedicate to bulbs. Che Guebuddha, a blogger from Sweden, mentioned even more bulbs like the white Snow Drops and the yellow Eranthis. A quick call to find out I can’t get them locally, but I CAN get them from John Scheepers on the east coast. I order another 150 more. Looks like I’ll have to break more ground. As an after thought I wonder if I have to worry about poisons on the bulbs. Alicia at the customer service desk of John Scheepers, Inc. assures me “there are no sprays, poisons, or toxins associated with these bulbs.” Good! They are going in next weekend.
No, These are NOT Giant Marijuana Plants
Posted in Bee-loving flowers, Bumblebees, Natural Beekeeping, Tower of Jewels, tagged bee-loving flowers, echium, Gardening, natural beekeeping, organic gardening, Tower of Jewels, Transplanting Tower of Jewels on November 13, 2013| 5 Comments »
But they ARE echium ‘trees’; more specifically, Towers of Jewels.
Last year the only one I had grew 10 feet (3 meters) in a single year. The bumblebees loved it. They worked it mid May til mid September. I kept thinking about collecting seeds, then forgot. Not to worry, I’ve got plenty of ‘upstarts’ now.
According to Palmbob, at Dave’s garden, trying to transplant it, ends up killing it, but these are still growing almost a month after transplanting. The Tower of Jewels is a member of the Boraginaceae family which includes borage (grows all year here) and comfrey which I planted 40 years ago and is still coming back. I’m hoping these will grow to be tall nectar sources for bees and butterflies.