Moving Orchard Mason Bee Houses

Each year I add new houses for the Orchard Mason Bees.  They fill up almost all of the holes, so I know they are proliferating.  Now to take some to the Battleground place, where there will be lots of trees to pollinate.

One is home made. The other was bought. I should not have kept it so old, they say they should be replaced to reduce disease. Still, they did well and reproduced well last year.

Kitty cat is vaguely curious but only in that "I don't care" cat way.

Packed with bubble pack to avoid rough travel. I think it's OK this time of year. Earlier in the season bumping and shaking is bad for them. Will install them in a little while. I read, ease or southeast exposures are best. This winter I'll have to make some new bee houses. A bee house is a piece of untreated wood, big enough for 5/16th's inch holes, 6 inches deep. Although these are 4 inches deep. There are many different plans. The bees don't care about the details.

Under the white cherry tree

This is the annual "try to get the dogs to cooperate for a photo under the white cherry tree" photo. I love this tree, old and gnarled, producing a profusion of double white flowers for a week. The orchard mason bees buzz around the flowers during the afternoon.

Yesterday - I pulled weeds, several buckets-full. I changed my mind about the potato choice, removed the fingerlings and replaced with gourmet whites. May plant the fingerlings elsewhere. Noted a few peas have sprouted - only a few. May replant.

Pulled more rhubarb leaves. Last week made strawberry rhubarb jam - easy and quick, the strawberries were frozen last summer. It was very good. Yesterday I made rhubarb jam - haven't tried it yet. I don't want to admit, I may like the version with strawberries, better.

Asian 3-way pear blooming, played the honeybee using a paintbrush to transfer pollen.

Later noted orchard mason bees have started to awaken, several flying around back and forth to their houses. Added a store-bought version with paper tubes, no time to make my own.

Spring Garden Chores

Today (Saturday), I...

Weeded the rose bed. This bed now has almost as many fruit trees, brambles, and plants, as roses, but still contains about 10 rose bushes. I had moved one rose bush to accomodate the new Surefire cherry, and today moved a second one a little further from that new tree. I also moved a David Austin rose from the front yard, and a peony as well. It looks like I butchered the thick peony roots, even though I thought I was digging a wide distance from the stems. We'll see if it grows. It's interesting how few roots the roses seem to have - surprising that they survive moving. I pruned the tops further back to balance the reduced root mass.

Mulched the rose bed with bark mulch. It's now basically ready for Spring and Summer. I did not add compust to most of it this year, because the roses were too rampant last year and I don't want to overstimulate the fruits and roses. I did give some chicken manure to the roses that I moved.

Sprayed most of the fruit trees and roses with Neem oil. Not the peaches - the flowers are opening.

Moved one Orchard Mason Bee house to the front yard, since there are many fruit trees there as well.

Turned over the soil in the tomato patch.

Pruned the remaining rose bushes.

Stood around and stared at the results of my labors.

Grafted 3 fig scions onto the petite negri tree. Just to see if I can. According to most references, it can't be done. I hope they are wrong.

This time I used rubber bands to tie, and used plastic tape to cover and protect. The plastic tape was made by slicing a ziplock sandwich bag. Also used petroleum jelly as an antidessicant, as I did with the apple grafts. It's not just stubbornness - I really would like to see if they grow.

Added some petroleum jelly to the apple grafts - forgot to do that earlier, purpose is to serve as antidessicant.

Also mulched around this red-bark Japanese maple, that I moved to this location a few days ago. It was a seedling in the rose bed, among many others. I had never got around to pulling it up, and now will see how it does as a specimen tree.

New Bee House (Orchard mason bees)

Yesterday a few Orchard Mason Bees(Osmia lignaria)were out flying around, and a couple looked like they were in need of new houses. The choice is to spend about 20 bucks for a new house, or use scraps and make one for free. So I used scraps and made one for free.

It's not rocket science. The best book that I have seen on the topic is "The Orchard Mason Bee" (clever title, huh?) by Brian L. Griffin. This book details their interesting life cycle, and ecological role, as well as rationale for promoting them (decreased viability of honey bees, so can't take fruit pollination for granted). Washington State University also has this site and the extension service has this site, about Orchard Mason Bees. North Carolina State has this site, for an East Coast perspective. This site has more information than I can digest so I'll mark it here to refer back to it.

The main issue is how big the holes need to be. The answer is 5/16th of an inch. Mine were made from 2 2X4 scraps nailed together to create a 4X4, then a little sloping roof added to keep rain from soaking into the wood. The roof is probably not needed since it's under the eaves, but not much trouble.

Here is the result.

Just finished

Date added, so that I know which ones are the oldest and need to be disposed of.

Next to an older bee nest.

I need to set out a dish with some mud for them. I better go out and do that now.

Progress notes, Sunday puttering.

Today was a day of rest - in other words, some puttering.

This is the opuntia rufida that I alluded to in an earlier ramblimg.

Pruned about 15 rose bushes, to about 18 inches. Removed old canes, tried to direct new growth outwards. Aim was also toward renewal - remove older, decrepit canes and small, weak-appearing canes, and leave the stout, younger canes. Despite some of the garden books now directing us to leave them taller, I think that too much blackspot can overwinter on older canes.

Looked at a couple of rose books. There is some temptation, now, to add a coujple of English (David Austin) roses, such as Shakespeaare or Fair Bianca. Must restrain myself - not much place to put them. Maybe if I bought them as small, cutting-grown plants from Heirloom Roses, they will take a few years to reach a good size, then be move to replace a poor performer? On the other hand, some of the David Austin Roses have not performed well in my garden (and some have been very gratifying) - maybe I should restrain myself. In this garden: Tamora (excellent), Symphony (OK), Galmis Castle (poor, few, small, not so fragrant blossoms), Jayne Austin (OK, very fragrant, sparse small flowers on large bush), Evelyn (OK, slow to get started, still quite small after 2 years, beautiful large fragrant flowers), Bibi Maizoon (poor, after 2 years, only a few flowers, those balled up and became moldy), Happy Child (good, slow to get started - cutting grown- but the blossoms are beautiful, not much problem with disease, and very fragrant).

Anigozanthos, looking frail but has survived the shortest Winter days, and now might make it to Spring in the South Window. It tells me when it needs water, by wilting, then I give it some and it revivies. The goal is survival, not gfrowth, so it is watered minimally. So far this experiment with overwintering Anigozanthos is proceeding OK.

Notable garden news: honeybee disaster. Without them to pollinate, the fruit crops may decline. Hopefully the Orchard Mason bees will not be affected and will fill in, in commercial orchards and in the home garden.

Who is eating the Orchard Mason Bees?

Here are the mud-plugs carefully applied by orchard mason bees last summer. I noticed today that about 1/4 of them are poked out. Is it another insect? Birds?

Orchard Mason Bees are non-honey making bees that do not have the highly organized social structure of honey bees. They are efficient pollenizers of fruits (which is why I started playing with them). Honey bees are declining due to mites, and there is some thought that orchard mason bees will be needed in greater numbers to pollenate fruit trees.

There may be local bees anyway - they love the ornamental cherries. However, I bought a kit from Raintree Nursery (mail order), set it up, and even carefully left a bowl of mud near the 'bee house'. It was fun watching the enter and leave the little tunnels in the house. If only 1/5 of the tunnels remain intact, and those bees survive, it will be an increase over the original population.

Still, who is eating them?

Bees like lavender