Making our first brick

This is all Dave Goulson’s fault.

David Goulson founded the flourishing Bumblebee Conservation Trust in 2006. The first book of his that I read was “A sting in the tale”, which is still a favourite of mine, although he has written several others.

The other evening I noticed that he had a YouTube channel and I watched a short 5 minute video “Make a clay bee hotel for hairy footed flower bees”. What intrigued me was that he was so enamoured by the hairy footed flower bees which he attracts to his garden by growing Comfrey.

I too love my hairy footed flower bees that I attract with my Cerinthe major.

David Goulson has gone one step further and made a special bee house to attract them.

Straight away I wanted to do the same thing as it was the hairy footed flower bee nesting in a hole in our house wall that first started my interest in wild bees.

It was back in spring of 2011 that I saw this little face watching me from a hole in the back wall of our house. I was eventually to find out that it was a male Anthophora plumipes or Hairy footed flower bee. I often listen to the bees grating away at the soft limestone of the walls to enlarge their burrows, so I knew Dave Goulson had a good idea for his bee hotel.

If you watch the video you will see that he makes his bee hotel out of modelling clay. I wanted to immediately do the same thing but I had no idea how to lay my hands on modeling clay.

Then it came to mind that the previous day I had been marvelling about the solidity of the potter wasp nest on the house wall. The nest is empty now and the young fledged (do wasps fledge, hatch, take to the wing?) but the remains that endured the winter and heavy rain feel like concrete.

Light bulb moment! If a potter wasp managed to do it then why should not I.

Back at YouTube, we now became enthralled with “Andy Ward’s Ancient Pottery“! This guy is fascinating! So, off we went in search of clay as he suggested and found some mole hills nearby that looked worth a try. With beginner’s luck, the first test runs seemed to work and we proceeded with Kourosh knocking up a quick box for our bee hotel.

It really seems to have worked a treat. It is very heavy so we have secured it to the front wall facing the Cerinthe.

Now we just have to wait to see if these lovely furry bees will select their custom made hotel.

I think the time is running our for the nesting of the Anthophora plumipes but there are plenty of other Anthophora that will arrive later and are also cute.

The garden flowers and other occupants

We have been enjoying an exceptionally warm period here and it has coincided with the first flush of our Wisteria. The white Wisteria is exceptionally perfumed so we felt really lucky to be able to take our coffee and lunches outside while enjoying the intoxicating perfume.

The Wisteria here grows rampant and has to be cut back several times a year. The roots of the purple Wisteria get into the border and I have to cut back long shoots that run for metres and I only discover them in the autumn as things die back.

The Hellebore also were magnificent this year with long flower stalks supporting multi flower heads, I think the months of rain suited them very well. There was so much growth that I had to cut off the finished flowers, filling four barrow loads of spent flower heads from just the front garden.

Everthing comes at a cost in the garden.

This was the first year we had seen the Azara dentata flower so plentifully. It was planted in 2021 as was the flowering Ash behind it.

I planted it, and the flowering Ash in 2021 after reading “The Creation of a Garden”. Nothing like a good gardening book to inspire and give ideas for different plants. The Azara provides masses of pollen as can be attested from the pollen basket of the honeybee in the photo above.

Another feature of the garden at this time is the Cerinthe major. It self seeds now. I have gathered seed in the past but it is difficult as the ripe seed drops off and the almost ripe keeps hold of the seed coat but it will still germinate.

The flowers are full of bumble bees and Anthophora – the furry little gray bees here (in the U.K. they are black).

Our quince tree has been flowering. The pale pink flowers are so perfect against the soft green leaves. The fruit, much as I treasure it, is always attacked and we can only salvage the unblemished parts to use.

Our first poppy in the garden grew on the wall! You cannot but admire the tenacity of a plant that can flourish in such a poor environment. Our other self seeded poppies in the ground have yet to flower.

The hoopoes are summer visitors and a pair come every evening to forage in the front garden.

We do not see many Goldfinches at this time of year. This one looks as if he was coming to check out if we had any flowers seeding at the moment but he had to leave with an empty beak. We will see more of them in the autumn.

Some of our favourite garden residents are the marbled newts (Triturus marmoratus) they are such gentle creatures. These ones were resting contentedly under the rotting leg of our garden bench. The two legs had been made of cut wood from the garden and they had to be replaced to support the bench. I suppose the rotting wood provided a pleasant extra heat source. There were four of them curled up together although the photograph only shows three. We often find several curled up together.

We have never seen them in the house, it is probably too dry for them.

The local whip snakes do, on occasion, come into the house. They soon disappear if they see you or hear your footsteps. Their proper name is Hierophis viridiflavus and they are quite harmless. We often find their cast skins around the garden and outbuildings.

This one made a quick exit out the door, round the corner and into a hole in the wall near the base of our rose Mme Isaac Pereire. Once safe it can never resist a parting hiss as if to say “You did not frighten me one bit!”

The rose provides good shelter for the comings and goings of the snake, largely unseen by us.

In praise of Eleagnus umbellata

No surprise here! Eleagnus umbellata is very popular with all the bees because it produces an abundant supply of nectar.

I need no other reason for planting it in my garden but E. umbellata deserves a place in the garden because of its perfume which carries a good two metres when you are in its vicinity. As the photographs show, the creamy white flowers are delcate and very attractive.

I’ve just noted all my close-up photographs are of bumblebees but all the other bees, including honey bees find it attractive and you can stand underneath it and listen to the buzz.

I bought 10 at 1.71 euros each and shared some with friends. That was in February 2017 and they have grown rapidly. For that price they were just little bare root saplings but they have all survived and they can easily be incorporated into a hedge or trained into a little tree.

I certainly got a good deal from that purchase and I recommend it as a trouble free and valuable addition to the garden. It usually starts flowering here at the beginning of April and has now sadly finished.

It is also known as the Autumn Olive or a French equivalent is the Chalef d’autumne. Chalef seems a funny name but it is used for all the eleagnus species. Perhaps someone knows where this name comes from?

It was in fact a video showing someone enjoying the fruits of this tree in autumn that attracted us to buy it in the first place. The fruits are described as being like sweet currants but we have not been able to taste them to verify this. We are not sure whether the trees have not fruited yet or that the birds beat us to it. I would put my money on the birds.

It’s still raining

Kourosh has managed to take this rather idyllic spring picture of the garden but the blue sky and fluffy white clouds are rare at the moment.

The more normal view is much grayer.

The gray weather is not stopping the trees competing for the most beautiful blossom with the Cherry Goshiki (header) in prime position and the Nashi, Pear Chanticleer, Lonicera tatarica and various plums disputing the runner up.

The Nashi gave fruit for the first time last year and we have high hopes for sucess this year as despite the rain the weather is mild.

I cannot resist this photograph of an Adrena on one of our Malus trees.

Likewise, my male Osmia cornuta in my bee house are saying goodbye as the season progresses, I have not had the same opportunities to chase the wild bees around the garden as I usually do. I have missed catching my visitors on camera and I have been walking considerably less this past five months.

Yesterday I was surprised to see a nearby vineyard with pools of water at the base of the vines which are leafing already. I have never seen water standing in the vineyards before and I wonder whether this will harm them.

I must wait for more sunshine for better close-up photographs. I believe this is Oxalis Iron Cross that I planted many years ago but it seems to have lost its iron cross on its leaves. Is this normal or am I harbouring an intruder? Did you know the flowers attract the butterflies and bees?

Spring 24

Kourosh spotted out first Osmia cornuta on the third of March. He is a male bee and has decided to guard a nest filled in using the hole on the window sill of our bedroom window. It cannot be a very long tunnel and I cannot imagine that there can be many females laid head to toe along its length, but certainly it is in a very protected spot and its isolated situation perhaps protects it from pedators.

Three metres in front of the window is a large patch of winter flowering heather so the Osmia has plenty to feed on at hand. His wait for a female to mate with can be long, I have counted two weeks in other years. A male Osmia must be patient and strong to hold out until the females emerge.

I knew just where to go to catch him taking a nectar break. They are beautiful bees and I find the males with their snowy white punk haircut particularly appealing.

The winter flowering heather is also a magnet for the queen bumble bees.

Everything is pushing through enthusiastically in the garden. The daffodils…

The Hellebores are everywhere as I have been finding places for the self seeded little plants over the years.

The Camellia is flowering and full of buds.

Despite the abundance of colour in the garden there has been little time to sit and stare. In fact, the moss has taken over our sitting places. The moss is thriving in our wet spring weather.

The Natterjack toad (Bufo calamita), uncovered during a brief spell of weeding, appears to be doing well with this wet relatively mild weather. I imagine the worms and other beasties will not be hard to find, he looks well nourished and composed.

Our little Osmia will take the time that it takes to find his female.

In the meantime, we can watch the wild bees find the wild flowers and wait for our time to come.

Plum blossom and cranes

I saw the first flower on the 9 February and in less than a week the whole plum tree is a mass of flowers. It always flowers early and last year we had no fruit as the cold weather that followed prevented the fruits from forming. Some years we have had a lot of fruit, so we will have to wait and see what the weather brings.

The flowers are not just decorative but the whole area surrounding the tree is perfumed with the special bitter sweet odour of the plum flowers. Of course, the whole tree is buzzing with bees and bumblebees, watch the buzz by clicking the Youtube link.

The bulbs are pushing forth and flowering all over the garden and I am pleased that last year’s layered bulb pot is working again. I just left the bulbs to overwinter in the container outside and they have pushed through again. They are not coming through in the orderly fashion of last year but I have no complaints.

Every year we see the cranes pass over. A wonderful sight as they fly in an arrow formation and you can watch as the front birds taking the tough front position tire and are replaced with more rested birds from the further back positions.

This time the noise was much more than usual and they flew round in circles over the garden squalking as if quarreling. Then I realised what had happened. A few days earlier we had had unusually heavy rain and the fields behind they garden were flooded again forming lakes. I could imagine the cranes who use the rivers and lakes arguing and saying “I told you we should have turned left 5 minutes ago!” “I’ve been on this route for years and there are no lakes here, I tell you!” “Look, who has got the GPS, I am tired going round in circles!”

Eventually, they reached some consensus and flew off but not with their usual elegance. Kourosh got a a short 16 second video of their disarray, here is the link.

The Gloom Continues

In mid January we had our first frosty morning, so it has not been so cold – but gloomy and wet.

The garden is progressing as the winter wears on. The Viburnum tinus has been flowering since December and the ornamental apple is gradually losing its fruit to the birds. The difference is more with me as I am a fair weather gardener and it is the bright days that pull me into the garden. The plants do not seem as effected as I am by the low level of light since mid October. The plants most certainly appreciate the extra rain they have received this year.

The exception is that the Hellebores have not been as happy. After being scorched by an extra hot summer, the Hellebores were deluged by the heavy rain that turned many of the leaves brown and I had to cut off a lot of leaves as they had become unsightly. The Hellebore flowers are opening in earnest now and I notice that the bees appreciate the downturned flowers that keep the pollen dryer and easier for the bees to collect.

We thought that we had lost all our bee hives to the Asian hornets (Vespa velutina) at the end of the summer. However, two hives seem to be surviving and bringing in pollen. It is still early days to know whether they will survive till springtime.

There are plenty of flowers to provide pollen inside the garden and the winter flowering honeysuckle has been flowering since December and the gorse is in flower in the woods.

My Cornus mas shrubs are getting bigger and producing more flowers but I still find that the bees are not attracted to them.

Our old apple tree always has some mistletoe growing on it but this year it is covered with it. I will knock most of it off when I get around to it but there is so much yet to do in the garden that warrants more urgent attention.

Yesterday we saw the first flowers on our old plum tree. It always likes to be the first plum tree to flower. It seems to be signaling that despite rain and thick cloud the garden is pushing forward.

This is just to prove that I have been down on my hands and knees as I picked up a hitch hiker while I was weeding. I am not sure what the lizard was doing as it was not a warm day but I must have disturbed him and he was happy to stay on my fleece until I removed him to shelter under a bush.

The best thing about the garden at the moment is the flowering Sarcococca confusa which we have strategically placed where we park the car. We are welcomed home by the perfume of this amazing plant.

A week of flooding

The river Seudre flows behind our garden but it has never broken its banks since we came to live here in 2006.

The fields on the far side of the garden and, because they are lower lying, they turned into lakes after torrential rain during the weekend of the 9-10 of December.

By Tuesday the 12, as the river kept rising, Kourosh began to be worried about the hives. The torrential rain had stopped but the river was still rising.

It did not seem so long ago that this area was desperate for water during the hot dry summer.

The Mahonia has benefitted from a good watering as the water has now receded.

However, I cannot help wondering about all the soliary bees that nest in the ground. Will these solitary bees be drowned in their cocoons before they have a chance to fly?

I saw this dragonfly on Thursday, after the waters had receded but surely December is very late in the year for dragonflies?

Our nearest large town is Saintes and there the river Charente has broken its banks for the second time this winter.

Saintes is badly flooded. There are small boats in the worse affected areas ferrying people to and from their homes.

We were going out to lunch with friends and had parked where we thought we could get access but it was not as easy as we had thought. This is through the Botanical Gardens.

We had quite a long, acrobatic route to travel before we got to the restaurant.

Often peoples homes are safe but the cellars are flooded. We saw chickens running around on someone’s balcony and we realised that their back garden was flooded and so they had moved the chickens to emergency accommodation.

The people of Saintes are stoical about the periodic flooding and the emergency services have done a sterling job in providing these boardwalks to keep the town running.

A bleak December in the garden

Wet days are continuing to be our norm in December. We tend to seize the sunnier days to get out for a walk more than to work in the garden.

We do appreciate the sunny intervals.

But the garden is never so inviting in the dark or misty days.

Kourosh has maintained more activity than I have. He has purchased an Einhell battery driven saw as the petrol one is very heavy and difficult to start. This starts at the press of a button and I thought it would be ideal for me to trim some of the larger shrubs.

I have not got my hands on it yet as Kourosh has found it amazingly profficient at cutting quite large branches and can carry it easily up ladders to reach branches that were previously unaccessible. Needless to say I had not considered this eventuality as it only cost 100 euros so I did not think it would be so powerful. It looks as if we are going to have some very smartly trimmed trees this year.

First frost

This morning we awoke to the first frost of the winter. Until now it has not really been cold but this year France has had 32 continuous days of rain. You have to go back to 1988 between the 12 January and 12 February to find a similar number of continuous days of rain and even then considerably less rain fell. Considering that France started the year from 21 January to 21 February with no rain then you can understand it has been a difficult year for gardeners.

We are well behind with the gardening work but at least the uncut sedums look pretty when frosted.

My Hydrangea brought from the Savill gardens moved this year to a better place, has not only survived but managed to look attractive right up to the frost.

I was so pleased that my Salvia leucantha survived its first year in the soil. I suppose the frost will finish it off but I hope it will be happy to be cut down and covered with a fleece.

I have no such fears for my blue Salvia that grows like a weed and pushes up shoots of two and a half metres in a season. It does provide good colour at this time of year.

The Mahonia “Charity” is also providing colour but no bumbles bees were willing to brave the cold to visit it this morning.

We noticed flowers on our flowering cherry “Accolade” a few days ago. The flowers look as pretty as they usually due when they flower in March – their normal flowering time.

I think the rain and the relatively mild weather has encouraged a lot of the plants, like this Hypericum, to flower.

The saffron greens have been frosted. They did get lots of rain after flowering but not much sun to enrich the bulbs for next year.

The cotoneasters and …

the flowering apples have given a good crop for the birds this winter, despite the dry summer.

The garden survived the drought better than I expected but perhaps a lot of our plants were well established. The Eriobotrya tree is full of flowers.

What did surprise me this morning was the perfume emanating from the flowers even frosted and at a low temperatures. Such a lovely tree. We rarely get the fruit here as the fruit matures at the coldest time of our year.

The rain has filled up the little river at the bottom of our garden. Luckily we are above the level of the surrounding fields that provide plenty of soakaway. The neighbouring city of Saintes was flooded in places but the Charente often breaks its banks and the people who live beside it are amazingly stoic bout the regular flooding.