topic Re: Summer Flora and Fauna in Off-Topic

Summer Flora and Fauna

TallTrees — Fri, 30 Jun 2023 16:44:10 GMT

🌼 🐝 🦋🐛🐞🕸

April to June

April my Red Mason Bees start to emerge after a long long time in their silk cocoon. I put them out when it's about 14C . They pollinate all the fruit trees, apples pears plums they come and go to their home tubes where they lay an egg with pollen and nectar place a mud plug in between each until they reach the end of the tube and on they go until June.

This year a dear little bee also used the tubes. They do a similar thing in July, hoped to see more but one tube very welcome.

I took a photo of the tubes and Spot the odd one out!

All these bees only do good no harm to any one and they are so special. Our friend the leaf cutter bee moved in and I couldn't be more thrilled.

They pollinate the summer flowers and vegetable flowers.

I have started a new crop of vegetables this year

Tomatoes Runner beans and cucumber

cucumber flower

Beans just starting to crop now

Tomato flowers.

Growing these gives me so much joy. Growing these from seeds is so interesting and neighbour's swapping different varieties they have grown too. A new one to me is a Tomato from a neighbour that is a chocolate colour!

Re: Summer Flora and Fauna

Cleoriff — Fri, 30 Jun 2023 23:34:10 GMT

A lovely interesting read @TallTrees. Nice to see what's going on in your garden. ❤️

Re: Summer Flora and Fauna

TallTrees — Sat, 01 Jul 2023 08:39:23 GMT

Thank you @Cleoriff

Trying to give a little light relief to the momentous troubles that seem to beset the planet presently 🥺

Pedestal pot photo from my garden.

This is a really pretty and economic way to fill a pedestal pot.

Creeping jenny came from garden and the blue campanula arrived anyway, all over the garden here 🙄 makes a pretty display.

In the centre I planted a small grass type plant called carex this was a piece from the garden and will stay in pot through winter.

How is your garden doing?

Did you manage to pot anything this year?

Know it's hard work though. I had a rest from vegetables last year, got some energy up from rest !!

Bye Cleoriff 💖

Re: Summer Flora and Fauna

TallTrees — Mon, 03 Jul 2023 07:43:12 GMT

How sweet is this: a female blackbird sunbathing.

Summer 😊

Enjoying the sun.

BASIL CUCUMBER AND TOMATOES

waiting and waiting for them to grow so I can eat them a n d t h e n there'll be too many of them at once!! 🤣🙄

@Breanna

How does your garden grow?

Re: Summer Flora and Fauna

Cleoriff — Mon, 03 Jul 2023 07:44:24 GMT

I've only potted a few this year @TallTrees. Had some surgery late May and not really fully recovered so just did as much as I felt like. I love campanula. Particularly the blue, when it's drifting over walls etc.

Re: Summer Flora and Fauna

TallTrees — Mon, 03 Jul 2023 07:53:22 GMT

Campanula is really lovely. It gets everywhere here in between pavings every pot, I resist calling it a weed though!

Glad you managed a pot or two. Know you had lots. Heavy work though and sensible to only take on what you can manage. @Cleoriff

Re: Summer Flora and Fauna

Breanna — Mon, 03 Jul 2023 13:57:05 GMT

So lovely to see everything going on in your garden @TallTrees! We are growing well over here. Had a good lunch of fresh broad beans, onions and garlic sauteed with bacon. Very happy the garlic is growing well this year.

Had a bit of weird weather (hot to cold and calm to windy) the last week or two which has caused some of my onions and all of the shallots to finish up early this year. Spent Sunday morning getting them twisted up to cure for a couple weeks.

You're right @TallTrees as soon as those cucumbers and tomatoes are ready, they'll all be coming at once 🤣

Re: Summer Flora and Fauna

TallTrees — Tue, 04 Jul 2023 08:43:48 GMT

Edible and arty! @Breanna

I would like to grow garlic, just simply. If you could give me some advice it would be most appreciated.

More little leaf cutter bees ready for next year. This is a great little bee busy making her bees.

Here she is

Re: Summer Flora and Fauna

Breanna — Tue, 04 Jul 2023 09:32:37 GMT

Are all the closed up tubes already finished @TallTrees? These guys are so interesting! My husband has been set on attracting birds to our garden and now he's befriended a blackbird who will come up to the door and tell you if the feeder gets emptied out by the starlings.

I must say I usually don't have the planning brain for things like garlic! Typically it should be planted in about mid-late autumn before the ground goes cold but I didn't have the chance so I put mine out in late January. I was afraid it might get warm too early like last year so I just put soil in cardboard boxes and put them in full shade to keep everything cool for as long as possible, then in March or April I just pulled them out into the sun. Super easy!

Re: Summer Flora and Fauna

TallTrees — Tue, 04 Jul 2023 09:56:22 GMT

Hi @Breanna

Yes I thought garlic was planted end of year. Do you use the garlic from the shops?

BEES

Each female put in about 6 or 7 eggs into a tube so each female can fill about three tubes I suppose. All the tubes in my boxes rarely get completely used but there are quite a lot. Each tube for the Red Mason Bee has about 7 eggs/bees in on average and over their laying period All the females fill about 100 to 150 tubes this makes a huge colony. I put out about 200 tubes and about 1000 bees from last years colony. I find that the bees fill more or sometimes less tubes, some of my bees may choose to go elsewhere and fill holes in trees also each year is different. This year the tubes have also attracted the leaf cutter bee, I am very pleased about that.

Blackbirds and robins are very "pushy" and will come in the house too. They are smart and such fun.

Re: Summer Flora and Fauna

Breanna — Tue, 04 Jul 2023 10:15:35 GMT

Such a lot of dedication to your bees @TallTrees. Most people only glimpse the roses missing big circles from their leaves. Only a few get to see where they go 😂

I'm never impressed with the quality of supermarket garlic so I didn't think it would grow very well. Organic Gardening Catalogue do some good bundles in Jan/Feb so I grabbed my garlic, shallot, onion sets, and potatoes from there.

I did plant some supermarket potatoes in one pot to see how they got on. Definitely not as vigorous as the Charlottes and Pink Fir Apple potatoes I planted but they're green and growing. Time will tell if they come out well. The hot weather last year caused quite a bit of blight on my tubers but thankfully most of them were easily taken care of with the peeler before going into the boiling pot! This year it's been cool so everything is very lush out there in the garden now.

Re: Summer Flora and Fauna

TallTrees — Tue, 04 Jul 2023 12:01:47 GMT

Agree @Breanna

To get good things out you need to put good things in!

Love your garden 😍