Front Yard

Tulips and sweet cherry.More tulips and another sweet cherry.Erythronium.

Beekeeping. Progress notes.

Here we are.  Bees are installed in their hive.  It wasn't difficult.  Afterwards, I sat in a chair an watched them buzzing around for 30 minutes.  I still tire easily.

Hard to see them.  By far the majority are inside the hive.  I sat the box under the hive so remaining bees could find their way to it.  After some exploring, they quickly learned where is the entrance.

The bee box contains about 3 pounds of bees.  That's thousands of them.  Plus the queen.  I was diligent about installing the queen per instructions.

Walking around the place.

Red leaf ornamental plum. I thought I posted on this, when planted - August? - but could not find the post. I think this is "Crimson Point", a columnar plum. The flowers are as nice without petals, as with petals.Tamara rose. Cutting-grown, moved last summer. I thought it died. Growing nicely. Tamara is very thorny. Maybe that will deter deer.Iris pallida albo variegata. Rescued from the Vancouver place, was overgrown there. Coming back nicely. Beautiful foliage.Pieris, rescued from the Vancouver place last fall. It was declining badly. The red new growth is as nice as any flower. Recovering nicely.Pollinizer graft on Asian pear tree. Looks viable and growing. No way to know until it grows actively. Sometimes there can be enough moisture to support a small amount of growth even if a graft hasn't taken.Rhubarb at the Battleground place.Laburnum flower buds. This is going to be impressive.

First batch of Chinese Chives for 2013

Well on their way to becoming the best dumplings in the world. These are the first Chinese chives from the Battleground raised beds. They grew stout, fast, early, and have a strong aroma.

Ning planting 2 apricot trees

Neighbor had 2 seedling apricot trees they've been growing for a number of years. They wanted to give them away, so here we are! Nice neighbors! There is some risk - first, I've never been able to get an apricot tree to survive here. Second, seed-grown, no idea what the apricots will be like. Finally, they might need a pollinator. Still for #2, my neighbor has had these outside for maybe 6 years, in containers. I suspect they will be OK. Maybe there is a rootstock issue with the trees that have died? These are seed grown, so on their own roots. As for pollinator, since these are seed-grown, each should be genetically a little different from the other, so they should be compatible. As for the unknowns, we have room for them, and there isn't much risk, so here they are. This little orchard now has the 2 apricot trees, 2 pear trees, and an American linden (nectar source). Also planned are the 2 dwarf apples I bench-grafted at the Home Orchard Society grafting class, starting to grow. I'll keep then in containers for a little longer before planting in ground.