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?