Here are a few of our honeybees. This is the first year we've been beekeepers and are really enjoying the learning process.

But our bees always go somewhere else to eat! I'm looking for good bees plants that will keep them closer to home.

Any suggestions? All will "bee" appreciated.

Manure

This year I've become an addict to the all natural powers of manure. In my raised beds (mostly vegetable), which had been slightly sinking from lack of organic matter going in and a lot coming out, have produced vigorous and sturdy cucumber vines, lots of peppers on plants that aren't mostly leaves, and a beautiful set of purple podded pole bean vines. All I did was mix a bag of a good quality composted manure into the soil before I planted.

For the rhubarb -- the plants are about 75 years old and had been dwindling -- I just placed an abundant ring of manure around the base of the plants and I've never had such a good crop of rhubarb ever.

Even around some of my perennials, like the Japanese Tree Peony, a good dose of manure gave me more flowers than ever.

We had horses from 1980 through 1998 and I just took their addition to the gardens for granted. Such great soil -- soft and velvety. I think it's coming back now.

Get that manure! Probably is good to put it in in the fall and give it the whole winter to become part of its new environment. Forget those chemical fertilizers!

My Night-blooming Cereus blossomed

My Night-blooming cereus blossomed completely to my surprise on July 11, 2008.

The flower was at least 8 inches across and so much like an angel. Beautiful!

My Dad loved these scrawny leggy epiphytes because once every few years you were rewarded with a most elegant flower.

Nodding Trillium in Cherry Log, Georgia

 

Honey Bees are coming

We're starting 2 hives of honey bees this spring. It's a new adventure for us. We've been attending classes at our local university and going to meetings throughout the state during the past year. It's amazing how much interest there is and the groups are constantly planning learning experiences for new folks and upgrading their own skills as pests, viruses, and other dangers morph or appear.

You can sense how much these folks care about the environment and how much they love their bees. I've not seen a honey bee here in our backyard for years -- if ever. I see our first bees in May, strating with the bumbles. So perhaps, this year in April, our fruit trees will actually get pollinated and perhaps bear some fruit.

And, I can't wait to be browsing the flowers and see some of our own little hbs busily at work.

More on this later. Must find bee favorites in the garden catalogs....

GC&T on Saturday

So we'll be gathering for a sure sign of impending spring -- Garden Catalogs & Tea (yes, that's GC&T). How lovely it sounds. I'm so happy that my mailbox still fills up with these beautiful colorful dreambooks. Buying online is only for the busy summer season when time spent indoors is spent getting things done as quickly as you can so you can get back outdoors to the yard. Winter is the time for browsing catalogs. And tea.

Delphiniums glow

There is peace in flowers

My garden. There's no place like it. I'm surrounded by life and beauty and busy-ness and totally ignored and accepted by it all. A peaceful world away from all the fuss and bother of my other life.

I'll write my garden world here, my indoor haven and outdoor expanse. The place where I can be totally myself without any doubt. I can be the quiet, reflective person I am without judgement. I can just be and accept myself as I am.

My garden. My paradise.