Garden Updates. 6.26.2020

Miscellaneous notes.

I've been cleaning up my bearded iris bed.  It's kind of embarrassing how weedy and unkempt it became during the rainy season.  There was too much else to do.  Now I have a big cleanup to do.

In addition to weeding and cultivating, I'm cutting back the leaves and letting the rhizomes bask in the sun.  I have not decided yet about mulch, although in my heart of hearts I know it would help a lot with leaf spot and bacterial rot diseases.

I'm also culling,  If I think the flowers are ugly, I'm removing that clump. I'm also removing the ones that seemed highly susceptible to the cool wet season diseases, bacterial rot and leaf spot.  The newest reblooming varieties have been the most susceptible, and I culled most of them.  I kept a couple of the big lush modern non rebloomers for this time around, even though I think a couple of those are also too susceptible.  Next year...

Replacing those, are "rescues" from roadside "Free" rhizomes that I grew in separate nursery beds for a year or two, to see what they look like.  Those are nonlabeled, but one looks like Shah Jehan, another like Wabash, and there is a very nice white one and a plicata type with mauve coloration around the edges of the petals.  None of those seems particularly disease susceptible, and all are nice.  That let me decomission that bed in the easement, which I planted with wildflower mix, grass seed and clover.  I also moved into the iris bed, from a nursery bed in what is now the fenced vegetable garden, Monsignor, an apricot colored iris, and a purple one that is very large and nearly black.

Bearded Iris Bed undergoing cleanup for summer.  6.26.2020.

The chestnut trees are starting to bloom.  It's difficult to see the female flowers.  There are a few.  I'm hoping they will start to appear as the male flowers come into full bloom.

Maraval Chestnut in bloom.  6.26.2020

This is one of the chestnut grafts.  It's interesting that these grafts are blooming in their first year.

Graft of Precose Migoule chestnut on Marissard seedling chestnut tree.  6.26.2020

These are a nice summer squash. They are very good sliced, coated with little olive oil and seasoned salt, and cooked in the air fryer.

Peach Bud Grafts. 6.26.2020

So far the bud shield grafts that I did for Sunny Day peach on Lovell rootstock look OK. The earlier one abscissed it's leaf, which I think is OK. The bud is still green as is most of the shield. Im a bit concerned about the brown appearance on the edges of the shield, and hope that doesn't mean it didn't take.  The second one, 2 or 3 days younger, looks about the same as it started.

Bud Graft of "Sunny Day" peach on Lovel, about day #3.  6.26.2020

Bud graft of "Sunny Day" peach on Lovell.  I think this one is about day #6.  6.26.2020

Honeybees. 6.26.2020

It's been a few days since transferring the feral honeybee swarm to the top bar hive. They seem OK. One mistake I made with previous attempts, was I was too nervous about opening the hive. By not doing so, the honeybees built comb across the bars instead ofjust on the bars, and it became impossible to open the hive without making a big mess and ruining a lot of the comb.  This time, I want to do it right.  I opened the hive and examined most of the bars, with comb being built on about 6 bars now.  A couple have a fairly large comb although not yet filling the entire space..

Me at top bar hive, with newly made comb.  6.26.2020

Close up of comb with honeybees.  6.26.2020

Years ago when I was trying to support honeybees as well as native pollinators, I grew some milkweed from seeds.  It hasn't spread much, which is good, but grows nicely each year.  The honeybees like these fragrant flowers.  I also moved some milkweed to woodlot, which is too weedy for much growth of desired plants and is on my list to clean up.  Meanwhile there are these nice ones, which get no watering at all throughout the summer, and are under the fig trees.

Honeybee on Milkweed Flower.  6.26.2020

Honeybees also like alliums.  I have a lot of chives and garlic chive, which they like a lot.

Honeybee on garlic chive blossom.  6.26.2020

Honeybees also like linden flowers.  Again, when I was first thinking about bee keeping, I planted four European linden trees.  They are a nice size now, about 15 feet tall, maybe 20 (who knows) and just beginning to bloom.  This is nice timing.

Flowers on Greenspire European Linden.  6.226.2020

 Then there is the wildflower meadow.  This has devolved to mostly daisies and dandelions, with a handful of dianthus and California poppy.  Still, there is nectar and pollen to be had.  In other areas, coincidentally, we had decided only to mow the periphery.  In those areas there is a lot of white clover, as well as dandelions and daisies.  We also have some areas with lots of herbs, including a big patch of lavender, sage, and rosemary, and I grow a fair number of herbs.

Some of the neighbors are also using a minimal mowing philosophy, which may mean more forage for any bees in the area.

Wildflower meadow area.  6.26.2020

Honeybees. 6.23.2020

There was a swarm of honeybees on a bush in the yard. I cleaned up my old top bar beehive, put on the old beesuit, and transferred them to the hive.

I didn't know what to do.  First I made up a solution of sugar water to calm them down.

They were weighing down this bush, which was 6 feet tall but now touching the ground.

I trimmed off the top of the bush so it would be easier to handle.

Carried the swarm to the beehive.

Put them into the hive and close it.  Now I need to quickly read up on what I need to do. next.  I did give them a shallow pie-plate of water with rocks in it for them to drink, and the same with some sugar water.

Rufus. 6.22.2020