Good morning, gardeners, and welcome to the Saturday Morning Garden Blog!
The weather's been kooky here in the Pacific Northwest; 80 degrees one week and 60 the next. This is the time of year when you wake up with your teeth chattering, wondering if it was wise to leave the windows open all night; when the idea of eating lunch outside on the deck might actually be better than doing it; when flannel shirts and cotton T's both share a space in the washing machine. This is also the time of year when the garden quite literally shines. In the morning, the combination of sunlight and dew makes everything seem as if it's been sprinkled in fairy dust. By mid-day, the grass seems twice as long as it was when the day began. It all happens so fast this time of year. Around every corner is yet another weed to pluck; yet another beautiful bloom to discover and adore. Shall we grab a cup of coffee and have a look around?
The dogwoods are always a highlight in my garden. I love the way the cupped flowers catch the light …
This Wine & Roses weigela is putting on a spectacular show …
For whatever reason, my rhododendrons always bloom later than those of my neighbors. It's a happy accident that the white clematis vine is blooming at the same time …
Pink deer food roses …
The last of Frankie's bearded irises …
A small bumblebee (far right) enjoying the lavender …
The honeybees were all over the poached-egg meadowfoam this year. I'll need to plant more so it can spread around the garden …
And speaking of honeybees, it's been an exciting Spring for our little backyard apiary. The bees have been doing all the things they ordinarily do; curing nectar to make honey …
Gathering and storing pollen …
But this is also the time of year when strong honeybee colonies have an insatiable urge to multiply. Splitting themselves by swarming and raising new queens is how they propagate their genetics. They're quite efficient at accomplishing this, as is evidenced by this boy bee we found belly-up in our apiary …
In order to prevent the bees from swarming off on their own, we deliberately split our strong hives, turning one colony into two or three. It's a fascinating thing to see how a colony “starts over” and raises a new queen. Those peanut-like shapes hanging off the bottom of the frame are elongated queen cells the bees created so they could make themselves a new momma …
Sometimes, the bees don't much care for the developing queen, and they'll rip her out of the cell and dispose of her toot sweet (brutal, no?) …
But eventually, after all the baby queens are either hatched or slain …
... the colony welcomes a new virgin queen …
Then all she has to do is get mated!
Sometimes, even a colony that's been split will swarm anyway if it's particularly strong. Fortunately, we caught this one. Knock wood, that swarm will continue to thrive in our apiary …
As exciting as a new queen is, our old queens are far from having outlived their usefulness …
Clearly, the bees love their old queens as much as their beekeepers do …
Meanwhile, the trails behind the apiary are getting a little overgrown, but it doesn't look as if this bunny is especially concerned …
In the orchard, limbs are arching under the weight of developing plums …
Apples may be few this year since the weather was so bad when they were flowering …
The baby fig we made by air-layering a few years back seems to be coming along nicely (although it will be several years before it reaches the size of the momma tree) …
I wonder if the birds will leave us any blueberries this year. Berries are so plentiful when they're unripe …
So that's pretty much the current state of things here in my little neck of the woods. What's going on in your gardens?
PS: The upcoming Saturday Morning Garden Blog hosting schedule is looking a little thin at the moment. Let's fill er up, shall we?
June 10th —
June 17th —
June 24th —Robctwo
July 1st —
July 8th —
July 15th —
July 22nd —
July 29th —
As always, if anyone would like to take a weekend, drop a note in the comment section (or send one of us a private message). We need more regular writers if we want to keep this series going, and new contributors are always welcome.