Ning's Meadow. 5.10.14

Ning Planting Lavender Meadow

Ning Planting lavender meadow.

Ning has been putting in large areas of wildflowers and herbs.  He covers the grass with a big sheet of black plastic, leaves it for a few months, and removes it.  That kills of the vast majority of weeds and grass.  Then he plants wildflower seeds, using a container like a big saltshaker.  For the Lavender and Sage meadow, he bought starts.

When these bloom they will be awesome.  Honeybees love lavender and I think they will love the sage too.

Honeybees and Bee forage. 5.6.14

Honeybee cluster in new top bar hive.  5.4.14

Allium bee forage.  5.16.14

I opened one of the hives on Sunday, to inspect and see if the queen was released.  It was a bit chilly, so the vast majority - if not all - of the bees were in the hive, in a bee ball.  I didn't want to disturb them further, so did not look further.

Here's a problem to avoid.  One of the effects of my illness was weight loss.  My jeans tend to fall off, if I forget a belt.  Which I did forget.  Problem #2. I was commando.  Problem #3.  I was not careful to pull the bee suit down over the jeans.

Honeybees are really good about finding warm places to tunnel in and sting.  That's all I'm going to say.

Lesson learned.

I've been watching for foraging activity.  They have plenty of sugar water.  Alliums are a bee favorite.   Allium globosum is blooming now.  I'll let the onions and shallots bloom too.  Bees love those.

Next project- on a warm afternoon while they are foraging, I will check again for queen and comb construction.

Package Bees Arrive. 4.23.14

Two Packages of Bees

Today the packaged bees arrived.  Italian honeybees.  I installed them in the two beehives.  To each colony, I provided a quart of 1:1 cane sugar:water, and a patty of pollen substitute from Ruhl Bee Supply in Gladstone.

Now it's time to leave them alone, except checking on the queen in a few days and checking on the food supply.

At the bee supply store they had large packets of bee flower seeds.  From those, I think I'm on the right track.  Borage, Phaselia, and others.  I picked up a packet of Limnanthes douglasii.  Give it a try.  Yesterday at Lowes for deer fencing, I picked up a couple of Veronica plants in bloom, also for the honeybees.

Front Flower Beds. Cleanup. 3.9.14

Front Border 1

Front Border 2

I've made incremental progress cleaning up the front border.  This is a couple square feet at a time.

About 1/2 of the bulbs are moved from the Vancouver place, mostly in the past couple of weeks.

As I go along, I add compost mulch to prevent weed seed germination.

There are some large patches of weeds but it's getting there.  Should be nice when the flowers open.

I moved violets here from home, for ground cover.  Some people consider violets invasive.  Here, they occasionally self-sow new plants but have been in the Vancouver yard for 15 years and have barely increased their area.   Dividing them and replanting, they might fill in somewhat and reduce weed growth.

Sedum sarmentosum might be good here, if underlying weeds don't take over again.

I have left patches for summer flowers.  This is where I want to plant the Mirabilis jalapa.

Most of the plants here are deer and rabbit resistant.  I also want to add some herbs for color and for kitchen use.  There is lavender, rosemary, and garlic chive now for color and bee forage.

There is more to do.  I'm not / can't be in a hurry.

Spring Bulbs, Flowers and Irises. Progress Report. 3.7.14

Sedum sarmentosum in iris bed

Allium spring growth

Unknown bulb sprouting.

 With the warm days, many bulbs are growing rapidly.  A few daffodils are blooming.

Sedum sarmentosum ("Cemetery moss") survives the winter and growing nicely in the bearded iris raised bed.  I planted this fro starts taken from my previous garden.   Sedum sarmentosum grows easily.  I've seen some web information that it's invasive.  I've grown it for many years.  It grows and spreads easily, but also pulls out easily and does not self seed.  This plant is not invasive.  One reviewer didn't like this plant because they observed it attracts bees.  To me that's a plus.

Ornamental alliums are several inches tall.  Fortunately I labeled a couple, so I knew they were alliums.

A few will have to bloom so I know what they are.  One especially large sprouting bulb could be an allium.  I'm guessing it's a Camassia.

 Anemone blanda is blooming around the yard.  They are only a few inches tall.  Nice cheerful flowers.  Rabbits ate most of the De Caen anemones, although there is a chance some might bloom.  I planted them specifically  because they are described as rabbit and deer resistant.

I bought some hollyhock starts.  Hollyhocks are considered a short lived perennial.  If they survive and grow, they should bloom this year.  They are a long shot.  The roots don't look like much, and the root ends were ragged.  I trimmed them more cleanly and planted in a somewhat protected spot.  Hollyhocks are considered deer susceptible.  The spot is close to the house, surrounded by other plants.

I plated seeds for Four O'Clocks in containers.

Irises and bulbs.  Early Spring Growth.

Anemone blanda

Hollyhock Starts

Shrub Order. Trial for Bee Forage and Deer Resistance. 1.2.14

I placed an order from forestfarms.com.  I want to try some additional shrubs for bee forage and deer resistance.

The sterile Buddleias grew very nicely last year.  By far the fastest growing shrubs in the yard, bloomed later into the summer and fall, and deer didn't touch them.  We want to fill in between them, for a hedge.  I want multicolored flowers.  Currently, the hedge consists of Buddleia X Flutterby Peach Cobbler (3) and Blueberry Cobbler (1); Miss Ruby (1) and a yellow unknown I suspect is Buddleia globosa.

Image Source: wikipedia Buddleia "Honeycomb"

 To fill in the Buddleia hedge, I ordered one sleeve of Flutterby Vanilla (off white), two sleeves of Honeycomb (yellow), and one sleeve of Asian Moon (purple).  Combined with the current varieties, that will make a good color mix.  They grow so fast, the sleeves - small starts - should fill in fine and bloom this year, and next year catch up with the older shrubs.

The down side for the sterile Buddleias, so far, is they can look weedy, and the early flowers on the long flower clusters dry up and turn brown, before the last flowers open.  Which can look shabby, unless they are deadheaded despite the unopened end flowers.

Image source:  Wikipedia Philadelphusn

I also ordered 2 sleeves of Philadelphus lewisii - Mock orange.  Mock oranges are considered excellent bee attractants.  The single-flowered ones are considered more bee friendly than modern double ones.  They are native.  They are reported as variably deer resistant.

And 2 Hebe hybrids.  No photo - not available in public domain.  Hebes are also thought to be good bee forage and deer resistant.  They will go into the bee garden.

4:00 's (Four O'clocks) Mirabilis jalapa

Mirabilis jalapa image from wikimedia commonsw

Miribilis jalapa image from wikimedia commons

Looking at catalogs for next year.

When I was about 10 years old, my neighbor, a widow I knew only as "Mrs. Winklejohn" had a big patch of "4 O'clocks" near her porch.    I remember she also grew a species oriental lily - something I grow now, and she had a parakeet.

I don't know what led me to think about these flowers again.  I grew them more than a decade ago.  I don't recall much about them then.

Mirabilis jalapa originates in Peru.  It's a tender perennial that is often grown as an annual.  They have a large root that can overwinter in mild climates, or be dug in colder climates and stored for next year.  Not that I have the energy to do that.

I found some 4 O'Clocks seeds on seedsavers.org and ordered them.  Part of my effort to grow heritage flowers. 

4 O'Clocks are reported to be deer resistant.  I could not find info about rabbit resistant. 

Mirabilis jalapa historic illustration

They are considered an attractant for bees and hummingbirds.  They produce seeds that can be collected for next year, as well as the perennial roots.

I remember the flowers as being quite small - an inch or two.  In some illustrations, the flower in the illustration can be larger than the real item.

If they grow, these could be a nice addition to the bee garden.

Most articles mention the fragrance of these flowers, which open in the afternoon and evening, but not in the morning.

In China Mirabilis jalapa is called "the shower flower" or "the rice boiling flower".   

We'll see how they do.

Winter is a good time to study and reflect.

Mirabilis jalapa historic illustration 1765

More seeds for Kitchen garden and bee garden.

Another order, seedsavers.org. 

Bean, Dragon's Tongue PKT
Bean, Pencil Pod Golden Wax PKT
Pepper, Hot Portugal PKT
Pepper, Maule's Red Hot PKT
Squash, Golden Zucchini OG
Tomato, Cherokee Purple OG
Tomato, Italian Heirloom PKT
Tomato, Mexico Midget OG PKT
Flower, Four O'Clocks PKT
Flower, Bee's Friend PKT
Flower, Starfire Signet PKT
Sunflower, Titan OG

Image from vintageprintable.com

All of these are in the "Master Plan".  The garden beds are planned and all but one are built and filled; that last one is built but needs a chicken-wire bottom for moles and to be filled.

The 4 O'clocks are reported as deer and rabbit resistant, and may be a bee forage flower.  Phaseala ("Bee's Friend") is considered a great forage source.  The signet marigolds will be used in companion planting for vegetables.

I have a lot of seeds from last year.  I may try some of those too. 

This helps keep me going until late winter when I can start planting.  Especially cold days like today.

Apiary garden / Bee garden

Bee garden

Pink sedum

Pink sedum

Today I added a few plants to the bee garden.  I bought some a couple of weeks ago - some coreopsis starts, and a Caryopteris plant.  I think those were from the marked-down table at Home Depot.  I've been watering them so they don't die.  Now they are planted.

I also moved some very large chive bunches.  I think the bees should like the chive flowers.

I moved the first of several catnip plants.  They, and the chive plants, are much too big for the iris beds.  The bees seem lukewarm about the catnip flowers, but they did forage them a little.

Not much foraging going on today, as far as I can see.

The pink sedum was a stray plant in a border at home.  I don't recall buying it.  It's probably a volunteer.  Maybe a seedling from Autumn Joy.  The flowers are white with pink center.  Nice.  The plants were very lanky  and floppy.  I suspect that is due to the shady / north exposure.  Next year, in full sun, maybe it will be more compact.

Thinking about next year.  I'll put down some sort of underlayment to cover the grass.  Newspaper or brown paper.  Cover with straw, or chopped tree trimmings if I can get them.

Also want to move more Hyacinthoides hispanica from the yard at home.  They naturalized there.  Fairly easy to dig up and move, if caught at about 2 to 4 inches tall.  Once in place, they don't appear to miss a beat.

Planting a Crabapple Tree. "Prairie Fire."

I saw this tree in the sale section at Home Depot.  Not wanting to do the work to plant another tree right now, but it's a good kind of fatigue.  Given that the tree fruited this year, maybe it will have viable spurs to bloom next Spring.   Plus, apples are pretty rugged so it has a good chance to survive.  So I bought this tree.

Crabapple "Prairie Fire" before unpotting.

 I'm not crazy about buying tall trees at the nursery.  I think small trees have a better chance to establish.  However, there's the issue of browsing deer.  So I selected the tallest specimen.  Around 8 feet or 9 feet tall.  A bit lanky.  It will fill in.

Unpotted, hole prepared, added "Plant Success" inoculant.

 I expected this to be a ball-and-burlap tree with compost added to the container, and it was.  Not excessive root growth.

Added some "Plant Success" mycorrhizal inoculant.   This soil has not had chemical treatment for 2 years.  I don't know about prior to that.  Reasonable to try to add back some beneficial microbes. 

The lower branches were sharply bend downwards.  I suspect trauma in shipping and handling.  I removed the worst. left the rest.  Expect to prune branch tips when leaves have fallen.
I researched this variety online.  It is multi - disease resistant.   It has pink flowers in the Spring.  If the flowering time is right, it can serve as a pollen source for other apples.  As a type of apple, it will add to the bee forage.

This variety has small fruits that birds eat during the winter.  Another plus.

Planted, mulched, minor pruning.

Bee forage

Bumblebee on Buddleia X "Peach Cobbler"

I don't see a lot of foraging by the honeybees.

Buddleia - bumblebees like them, and continue to forage.  But not honeybees.

Sedum Autumn Joy and similar - a fair amount of foraging.  I'm glad I moved these mature plants to the Battleground yard.

Sedum "Autumn Joy"

Sedum "Autumn Joy"

Lots of bees on these succulents.

Not much forage remaining on Oregano.  At this point, oregano is no longer a significant source.  Given how much it was foraged earlier, I want to add more, next year.

Anise hyssop is also done.  Coreopsis and Caryopteris are nearly done.

I can't imagine there is much more nectar and pollen remaining.  At this point, the honeybees will need to depend on what they have stored.  If that runs out, I might need to add some sugar water.

Moving an established, dehydrated Sedum clump.

Sedum, unknown variety

More for the apiary garden.

I recovered this sedum clump from a grass-filled area under an old cherry tree.  It has not been watered this year.

Sedum is dry tolerant but given the very dry location, that was extreme.

The advantage of the dry soil, is it was very light.  It required a couple of slices with the shovel, and came out easily.  Part of the clump broke off.  So now I have a small clump and a larger clump.

After getting them to the Battleground place, I soaked them for a while, then planted.  THe wilted leaves firmed up a little, not much.   I think they will do fine.  This year is too late to make the leaves nice looking and plump, but there will be a few flowers for the bees.  Next year I expect they will be impressive.  It was an old, well established clump.

Bee Forage. 8/3/2013

Bee Garden

Agasstache

 I've been sick this week.  No gardening this weekend.

OK, except.  Fred Meyer had perennials at 3 for price of 2, so I bought 3 6inch pots.  Sedum - in bud.  Agastache, in bloom.  Another Caryopteris.  Not in bud or bloom  The plant I bought earlier has been blooming steadily and is regularly covered by bees.  There is time for this one to bloom and provide forage.

Catnip is blooming.  Some bee foraging.
Oregano continues.  Lots and lots of foraging bees.
Caryopteris continues.  Lots of foraging bees.
Buddleia continues.  occasional bumblebees.
Borage just started this week.  Frequent honeybees.
Thistle started this week.  Frequent honeybees.

Bees are ignoring the Perosvkia, and Melissa, now blooming actively.

Bumblebee on Caryopteris

Bee on Catnip

Borage

Bee forage. Jul 31.

Melissa in bloom.  Lemon Balm.

Melissa just started blooming.  Not many bees on it yet.  Mostly bumblebees.  Bumblebees seem to be less picky.

Same for this small patch of peppermint.  Its away from the hive so they may not have found it.

Spearmint is not yet blooming.

Honeybees continue to concentrate heavily on Caryopteris and oregano.  They also frequent Lavender flowers.

And actively forage dandelions, in heavy bloom, and thistle, at its peak. 

Bumblebees occasionally feed on the buddleia hybrids.  Not heavily. I had better hopes for them.

They seem unaware of wild carrot, blooming heavily.

Mentha in bloom.  Peppermint.

Bee forage now. Late July.

Oregano flowers

I should keep better track of what is blooming, what has foraging bees, and what doesn't.

Oregano just started blooming.  I don't have a lot of oregano, but they are covered with honeybees.

Lavender is blooming.  Lots of honeybees and bumble bees.

Caryopteris continues blooming.  Honeybees and bumble bees.

Shallots just stopped blooming and have set seeds.  They bloomed about 2 or 3 weeks.  They were covered by honeybees.

Chinese chives are almost finished blooming.  I don't have a lot.  They should be more prolific next year.  Bees foraged the chive flowers frequently.

White clover and dandelions - occasional bees.

Catnip - starting to bloom.  Occasional honeybees and occasional small pollinating bees.  As these continue to bloom, bees are more active on the catnip blossoms.

Buddleia - rare bumble bee visitors.  In full bloom now, although "Miss Molly" and "Miss Ruby" are dwindling a bit.  "Blueberry Cobbler" just started.

Sweet alyssum, thyme, marigolds - I have not seen bees visiting these.  They are in full bloom.

About to bloom:  Lemon Balm, Peppermint, Spearmint.

Apiary Garden / Bee Garden

Daisies, dandelions, hawthorns, blackberries

I haven't seen many honeybees on the dandelions or daisies.  They are eating something.  I don't know what. 

Caryopteris "Dark Night"  and Canothus  TLC plants from close-out sale.

These plants are in place for a better tomorrow.  They won't look like much for a year or two.  They will need to be moved next year - will run out of room.  This 'nursery' is good for now.

Catnip, lavender, lemon balm

Also in 'nursery'.  I grew the catnip from seeds.  Next year it will have its own location.  The lavenders were small seedlings, need more time to grow.  The lemon balm is volunteer from yard in Vancouver. 

Blackberries, Tilia americana, lemon balm

Each of the trees gets a surround of an herb.  Lemon balm, mint, oregano.  Oregano is more compact compared to the other two - better choice for smaller trees.   There is marjoram by the house -  also compact, would be a good choice for smaller trees.

Buddleia  hybrid "Miss Molly"

So far not a lot of insects on the Buddleia's.  might be a mistake.  They look nice.  One of the few shrubs in bloom now.  They are deer and rabbit resistant and should tolerate the dry summers with minimal effort.  I did see butterflies on one.  So they stay.

Cilantro in bloom

This bed went to wildness.  Cilantro is blooming - can provide seed if I time it right.

Lavatera "Barnsley Baby" - started as seedling.

This lavatera was buried by snowpeas and turnip greens.  Blooming now.

Apiary yard

Nice setting for apiary.

Daisies and wild flowers

Wildflowers

Clover and dandelions

Shrubs by the road

 The shrubs don't look like much  now.  Come Spring, they should take off and grow and bloom.  TLC this year, pays off next year.  Lots of grass clipping mulch.

Shallots in bloom

 Allowed the shallots to bloom.  I don't care much about the bulb formation.  When the flowers are done, I'll dig them up.

Perovskia / Salvia rusa "Little Spire"

 Te leaves of this Perovskia have a nice medicinal fragrance - not exactly like sage or lavender, but there is a similarity.  I'm doing to expect it to double in size next year.  I was browsing Lowes garden department, and noted honeybees concentrating on the Perovskia.   So I bought one.

Caryopteris "Dark Night" and Penstemon "Red Riding Hood"

They can be moved when bigger.   The Caryopteris came from Yard and Garden Land - same situation, they had more bees than any nearby plant.  Back to Lowes, the Penstemon was a major bee magnet, better than lavenders.  They are over the hill, but the plan is to build up the apiary garden for next year and the year after.