The dry garden

The Manuka bushes were planted in the spring of 2019, we thought the bees might enjoy them. The bushes survived until last summer with some watering in the first summer and I hoped they would perk up this year. They are not, evidently drought tolerant so I must find something to replace them. There is no room for a tree as they are between the very large Liriodendron and the small Evodia. The other alternative is just to let the space cover naturally. Any ideas? They have the full afternoon sun.

The screen of willows (Salix Alba Chermesina) was planted in 2015 and never gets watered.

With the help of the Magnolia grandiflora (another drought tolerant marvel) they provide a sheltered shady spot in the morning.

The fruit trees cannot get watered and the Golden Delicious apple tree is starting to produce its apples.

The dry weather has meant that the apples are small and the tree is dropping its burden.

The Nashi Kosui tree was planted in 2021. It is quite close to the vegetable garden and I think Kourosh secretly waters it when he does the watering of the vegetables.

He is very proud that this year it has provided its first crop of fruit.

The bees are sheltered from the sun for part of the day and we leave plenty of water out for them and the birds.

The yellow cat’s ear weeds are in full flourish at the moment.

It is difficult to get angry with these weeds as the Dasypoda bees love them and I enjoy watching them as they collect the pollen on their silky hind legs.

There are other wild bees like this Halictus, and of course the honeybees, that come onto these yellow flowers but it is mainly the Dasypoda.

Despite the vagaries of the weather this year, we have had plenty of tomatoes, cucumbers and courgettes with the promise of plenty of butternut and potimarron pumpkins to come. It does mean that the vegetables must be watered almost daily.

A Week of Flowers, Day 4

Manuka flowers, 5.5.21

We bought some Manuka bushes as a present for our honey bees and to see if we might get some interesting flavours in the honey. Well, so far it has worked in the reverse. We love the pink flowers but the honey bees have so far ignored them. At least some of the solitary wild bees appreciate them.

Hypericum, 9.6.21

My Hypericum has been grown from seed given to me by a friend who did not know the variety. It is probably “Hidcote” which is a very popular variety. The seeds were amazingly fruitful and the seedlings extremely sturdy, so I have a large reservoir of Hypericum plants I can pop into needy places in the garden. They reward you with prolific yellow flowers in the summer and require little care and attention.

A present for the bees

While we were staying with our son in Malaga over Christmas, we once again, visited the beautiful botanical gardens La Concepción.  This time we saw the Manuka bushes in flower and saw how attractive the flowers were to the honey bees.  The Manuka plants are native to New Zealand and my internet research indicates that they are easy to grow, will tolerate temperatures down to minus ten centigrade and do not require wet soil.  This certainly sounded interesting.

I was delighted to find I could order plants in France and decided to order from Gamme Vert as I could avoid the delivery charge by picking the plants up myself from their nearest shop.

We are running out of sunny spots in the garden so Kourosh decided to clear off  the turf to provide the plants with their personal flower bed.  They will probably have to share it as time goes by but for now it is all theirs.

The plants all had strong roots and have had plenty of rain to allow them to settle into their new home.  The Manuka or Leptospermum scoparium “Martini” that I have chosen is due to flower in May to June.  I cannot say why the Manuka was flowering in December in Malaga but it may just flower there over a much longer period.

I really do feel our bees deserve a present as they are out there as soon as there is a glimmer of sun in this unusually dull start to the year.  The Loquat or Eribotrya japonicais just about finished flowering and the cold seems to have finished off the older flowers.

The bees, like this one, appear to be flying at temperatures that my indoor/outdoor thermometer reads as under ten degrees centigrade.

This is “Pissenlit” in the sunshine.  The temperature at the house was showing seven degrees so I decided to put an old fashioned liquid thermometer in the shade near the hives.

The thermometer read seven degrees, so the sunshine must keep them warm enough to forage on nearby flowers.

The queen bumble bees are said to be able to fly at the lower temperatures because their fluffy coats provide insulation but they should choose a shady site to continue their light hibernation or else they will be woken prematurely by the fickle winter sun.

Let’s hope there are more sunny days coming up for the bees to stretch their wings and the gardeners to appreciate the spring flowers appearing.

To see the bees bringing in the pollen to “Violette Noire” have a look at this short video (1min30s) taken on the 6 of February.