Rosemary Contenders

Every year is a new attempt at getting a rosemary plant to overwinter.  None of our locations last summer worked.  Not being gardeners who give up easily, we've planted some new rosemary.  The first plant pictured here gets my highest vote of confidence.  It is near the house, in an alcove to protect it from high winds, and will get full sun all morning.

 Below is a shot of the plant for which I have the least confidence...seeing how the plant in this location died last year AND the year before.  It is just such a nice location, convenient to the kitchen and near lots of other herbs (who all manage to overwinter--go figure!) so I keep trying.  The big disadvantage to this spot is that the plow tends to dump 8' piles of snow here every winter, which may be too much for a rosemary plant to tolerate.  You think?

 Here we see another failed location, but for some of the same reasons listed above, we're going to try again.  This little plant will get lots of sun, is near other herbs (who also do quite well), and the guy we planted here last year *almost* overwintered.  It had a tiny section of green on it this spring, unlike the other rosemary plants that were shriveled and brown. See below that I've surrounded this newcomer with rocks to help it retain some heat.  Do I think that will work?  No, not really;  but it looks nice and helps ease my conscience.  The sage behind it is gorgeous, by the way.  I'm hoping it will be a good role model for the new rosemary plant.

I'm very excited about this last location.  Close to the wall of our outdoor grill, this plant will benefit from the warmth that the stones collect all day in the sun.  It will also be partially protected from the elements all winter.  I deem this plant "second most likely to succeed".

Bee Check

We made a bee check this weekend and were mostly pleased with what we saw. Above, you can see the bees using the top feeder to eat sugar water.  They crawl up through an access hole, over a wooden wall, and down to the water.  Somehow one or two bees still manage to get into the large pool and drown, but for the most part, the feeder works pretty well. We noticed some mold on the inside wall of the feeder, so we will ask about that at our next bee meeting.

 In this picture you can see that the bees are mainly in the center frames of the hive.  On top of their frames is a grease patty they eat to help them manage mites.

 We noticed on this visit that our ten frames still allow some space in between each one.  The bees can't stand the space and fill it up with extra comb. Above, you can see a large example that fell off when we removed a frame to examine.

Brave Husband (who didn't even wear gloves on this visit) holds up a frame to check.  In the sun, wearing a veil, it is hard to see what is really going on inside this frame; but thanks to modern technology, we were able to enlarge this photo on the computer and look inside some of the cells.  We were very pleased to see eggs and larvae which means that our queen is laying!

Ten Things I Love About Sping

1.  The strawberries are getting ready to start our first harvest of the season.

2.  The mint and oregano are still behaving enough that I can still see my little bear statue.  By the end of summer, they'll be duking it out in this corner of the shed garden. (See the mint in the front and oregano in the back.)

3.  Not everything died over the winter.  That alone is reason to celebrate. (See the fennel and a rouge holly.)

4.  Lily of the Valley is starting to emerge.  I was told when I planted it that there is some lore surrounding the effect Lily of the Valley may have on the gardener's heart, but I'm glad to say that several years later my heart is still beating. That is just another reason to be glad.

5.  Apple blossoms! And this year, with our new hive, it is fun to watch honeybees on the blossoms.

6.  The tulips weren't eaten!  This is only the second time in eleven years that we've gotten to enjoy tulips.  The tulips usually are eaten as soon as the leaves spring up.  I'd like to think our fantastic abstract art scared away the culprit this spring.

7.  Cherry blossoms fall like snow in our front yard each spring. The children sometimes dance around in them.  The chickens eat them.  It is all very enchanting.

8.  The Bleeding Heart is taking over.  Maybe soon it will camouflage the hose that I can't seem to correctly coil.

9.  These irises are refreshingly low-maintenance -- my kind of plant.

10.  I don't mind dandelions. I know most people hate these little guys, but they make me happy.  That little Lemon Balm growing near the center is another story (Argh!! It's everywhere!), but the dandelions are yellow, free, apparently nutritious, and good for the honeybees. I hear they make good wine, too (we'll have to try that).  They are endless fun for children. They are a sure sign that spring is here.

Window Boxes, take two

This is our second year with window boxes.  Last year they were quite colorful, but I couldn't help thinking that we could make them work for us.  (Notice a theme on our patch of land?  We only keep pets that can pull their own weight; why shouldn't a window box be held to the same standard?)

Besides a few pansies for color and some pretty little nameless white flowers that should spill over nicely to add visual appeal, everything in the box is either edible or on the list as a nectar source for honeybees.  Some, like thyme, even do both.  In some of our window boxes, the ivy from last year overwintered.  It looks a little brown, but I left it in to see how it would recover.

My oldest son helped me with this project and was surprised to see how many flowers are "named after" Harry Potter characters. (Lily, Pansy, Petunia, etc.)  The box beneath his bedroom window has a Lupine in honor of this amazing phenomenon (since his favorite HP character is Lupin). He wanted to install a Harry Potter garden, which is a great idea.  Maybe next year...

Raising Butterflies

My youngest son got a Butterfly Pavilion for Christmas. (Butterfly Pavilion is from a company called Insect Lore.)  In the final weeks of winter, we sent away for our caterpillars and let the fun begin. The caterpillars arrived in late March and spent only a few weeks with us.  My son documented the changes in a little booklet we made.

We originally labeled the pages in his book by weeks, but each change for our butterflies took a little less than a week, which was fantastic for holding the interest of a five-year-old.

Once they turned into butterflies, we only kept them inside for a few days, picking fresh flowers for them daily (dandelions and grape hyacinth, mostly).

When the daytime temperatures were consistently comfortable, we released the butterflies into the garden.  The butterflies didn't want to leave at first, which allowed the kids time to hold them. This was an easy project we will probably do again next year.

Installing Honeybees

As soon as my cat became quite used to her new play area, we've ruined all her fun by installing honeybees.

The honeybees arrived in a package of about ten thousand.  The queen was inside a smaller cage in the center of the cage you see below.

 We sprayed the package several times with sugar water to make the honeybees happy and full.  It also attracted a variety of neighborhood bees and other winged insects into our garage.  Note to self: don't spray tons of sugar water in the garage next time.

Brave husband and brave son (in baggy beekeeper suit!) opened the package and literally dumped the bees into the hive.  (Little brother needed to hang back because we don't yet own a veil for him.)   They made an opening in the tiny queen cage and wedged the queen cage into the hive where the other bees will hopefully find her and rescue her from her little cage by chewing through the candy that blocks her exit.  Finally, a top-feeder full of more sugar water was placed on top of the hive and the lid was sealed with a brick to stop the high winds from wrecking everything.

Now we just need to wait and see if the honeybees like their new home.

Busy as Bees

We've been busy this spring! New this year is an asparagus patch.

It won't yield any asparagus this year or next, so it is more of a long-term investment.

Speaking of long-term investments, we are also starting an adventure with honeybees. We won't get any honey until at least next year.

After spending a weekend digging the asparagus pits, I spent several days transforming a huge patch of grass (above)

into a bee yard. (below)