NATURE PREVAILS!

I love my bees.

I have been worried about them since Easter when I saw their swarm fly away. The population had been severely reduced and the ratio of drone to workers was way up. I thought I heard the death knell when I checked on them a couple of weeks ago to find only capped drone in the second deep while the first deep was completely abandoned.

I ordered a new queen from Brushy Mountain right before vacation and then yesterday, after worrying about my population, called my bee mentor who offered to sell me 9 frames and a deep's worth of workers (for the low, low price of $125...) She advised me to remove the lower now-abandoned deep and gave me tips on preparing for my new girls. I went out this afternoon to remove my first deep and discovered....

TWO FULL FRAMES OF CAPPED BROOD AND LARVAE ....

... plus some more in adjoining frames. I have a QUEEN!!!

I'm going to send out birth announcements, I'm so proud.

I wish my camera was working. I'll have to work on that tomorrow.

By the Hive

I'm working on thoughts for what to plant along the stone wall leading up to the hive. I would like something bee friendly but the shade choices are limited and I probably shouldn't encourage the bees to hang out near the stairs.

small species catmint (nepeta 'Walker's Low')
corsican mint

I think I'll put the bee flowers in the front bed.
Mondara 'Raspberry Wine' - bee balm
Echinacea Purpurea 'Prarie Splendor' - cone flower
Agastache 'Purple Haze' - anise hyssop
Eupatorium coelestinum 'Wayside' - hardy ageratum
Melissa officinalis - lemon balm
Solidago - goldenrod


I also need to identify water issues with creating a bed against the porch where I want to place the monarda (bee balm). Do I want that as only bee balm or also as an herb location? They can do part shade areas and I need to try them there if that's the case.

Lavender at the woodline NOPE I think lavender won't work in the clay. Keep thinking.

I picked up a great book at the library that I'm using for reference to think about my backyard design. "Designing the New Kitchen Garden An American Potager Handbook" by Jennifer R. Bartley It's been inspiring.

Work Schedule

Summer 2009 - Build IBM beds in rest of back yard; build strawberry pyramid
September 2009 - Plant strawberries; divide and distribute daylilies
November 2009 - Start winter sowing
February 2010 - Severely prune abelia and pull out more honeysuckle
March 2010 - Figure out swarm control measures
September 2010 - Build grape trellis
April 2011 - Plant grape vines
September 2011 - Plant espalier apples/pears


I am adjusting the schedule to push the grapes until 2011. They are causing me too much consternation and I can't get up the nerve to actually commit to building the trellis.

I will allow myself to think about espaliered fruit when my needlepoint hollies are giving me some protection from the neighbors. Not until they are getting bigger....

Backyard Plot Diagram

Click on the picture to get a better look. This is a rough scale drawing of my backyard showing existing structures and plants. I'm trying to fit a grapevine or two into the landscape. Please leave a comment if you have an idea for me.

Option 1:

There's only one place to do a straight 20' run that gets sun. It would cut my lawn in half and I'd want the wire low - 2' off the ground or 3' at the most since it would block the view of the woods from my screened porch if it were taller. It wouldn't interfere with walkways and would provide a demarcation for the bee balm that I wanted to plant against the porch anyway.

Option 2:

Another option is to make the trellis in the shape of an L with 10' arms. I could do this one at the 4'-5' height but I'm afraid it would shade out a rectangle of ground that I thought I might want to use for a second raised bed to do flowers or more veggies. Could I incorporate the trellis into the raised bed and just have the trellis running along the east and north sides of the bed?? The west side wouldn't get enough sun because of the shade from the woods. Maybe the vine wouldn't shade the bed too badly?

Option 3:

A third option is to grow it up one of the two trees that define an entryway into the woods (leading to the fort!) I could mount a support spanning the two trees and train the vines up and across, making a kind of overhead door frame to go into the woods.

I'm running out of full sun locations since the porch shades a big chunk in the morning (the bee balm location) and then the woods shade some in the afternoon too. I think I could fit one or two raised beds along the treeline between the hive and the entrance to the fort. :) It goes back to the fact that I don't want to block the view from the porch into the woods since that's so, so pretty. Maybe I wouldn't do a raised bed in that location and just do mounded ground with flowers so they wouldn't interrupt the view so much. Hmmm.