This may look like just another sunflower photo to you.
To me though, there are two very interesting things about this image.
First, I didn’t plant this sunflower. I have planted sunflowers, but not this one. The sunflower I planted are ‘Titan’ and they aren’t quite blooming yet. This sunflower was planted by a bird, probably, with seed from the birdfeeders. This would happen quite a lot if I allowed all the little seedlings around the birdfeeders grow instead of mowing them down. It also happened once before in an oddly pretty and serendipidous container arrangement that also included some hearty pansies that over-wintered.
So that’s the first thing I find interesting about this photo.
The second thing is all the bees. Bees are naturally attracted to flowers, so that’s not what I find interesting. What’s interesting, to me, is that there are so many bees. Not just here but all over my yard.
I named my garden Bumblebee Garden when I began gardening here about nine years ago because of all the bees. But in the past couple of years there have been relatively few bees by comparison. There has been the odd and lazy carpenter bee, but not so many other bees. I don’t know why. We don’t spray chemicals on the lawn. The farmer who tends the small hayfield doesn’t spray anything. I had sort of attributed it to the overall colony collapse disorder I’ve been reading so much about. But really, I don’t know.
But this year, whoa doggie. We have bees! We have little patches of clover in the lawn covered by bees. Bees are all over our flower boxes. Bees are everywhere! They are mostly what I just call bumblebees—fat, slow and lazy little bees that are not aggressive. When I am working near the flowers and the bees, I don’t hesitate to just bump them out of the way if I need to work on one of their flowers. They don’t care.
I love the bees.
So you see, for me, this photo isn’t just a sunflower. It’s a volunteer and an image of the return of the bees.
I rather like this photo for those reasons alone.
Robin
Did someone shorten the days—like make them 18 hours rather than 24? Because it seems as if I have less time than ever and I’m wondering what I’m doing wrong. Work has been very busy lately, which has put a cap on the amount of time I can spend in the garden. But it is spring, after all, and some things just can’t wait.
The vegetable garden is mostly in. Now that he’s learned to use the chain saw, Harry is happily doing some small clearing along the edges of the driveway. He contributed three mimosa tree trunks that he dug in and I have strung with twine through eye hooks to serve as a trellis for the cucumbers. I think it’s rustic looking and rather like it. But a couple of weeks ago some workmen who were here asked me why I had planted those trees like that in my garden! Perhaps when the vines start to cover the twine it’ll be apparent that the trees are actually posts. Or maybe not. What do you think?
We widened the existing daylily border by the potager. The border is now home to some rampant columbines that threatened to take over the herb bed, supplemented with some alyssum, superbells and osteospermum. Over time I’ll add or relocate perennials to this border, but for now the annuals are providing some color.
In the front of the house, the hellebores are still blooming. They have seeded prolifically and I’ve been moving little baby hellebores to other shady parts of the yard.
Our strawberry patch has really taken off this year. Early this spring the patch was fairly crowded, as the daughters these ‘Jubilee’ strawberries had taken up residence. I dug and dug and gave away probably 50 or 75 of the plants. They’re probably still a little crowded, but they don’t seem to mind, as there is a bumper crop in progress. We eat strawberries constantly. As I write this the house is filled with the smell of strawberries. While I work today, the oven will slow cook the strawberries for ten hours on a very low heat. Later this evening, I’ll finish canning and processing them for strawberry jam.
I don’t have all the containers planted, but some are finished. The window boxes on the back deck are filled with pale yellow petunias, coleus ‘Inky Fingers,’ and asparagus fern. I know a lot of people dislike petunias—and they are terribly over-used—but I love the pale yellow color of these and appreciate how they bloom reliably all summer long. Daily deadheading is one of my favorite activities because I can just step outside the back door, snip, snip, snip and not even break a sweat. And what a difference it makes in the number of blooms!
And finally is this little closeup detail…just because I like it…
Robin
The spring days grow longer and warmer. Of course, it’s welcomed. Still, the precious bit of time at the end of the work day that I can spend watering, weeding, moving plants, starting new plants, potting up containers, is never enough. I have big plans for the summer of 2010. Where will I find the time? And the energy?
The side garden near the chicken coop—where we sit on the bright green Swedish bench to watch Chicken TV—is a major project. It was a long-neglected area that we once referred to as Winifred’s Poop Garden because of its liberal use by our now-deceased Belgian Malinois.
Last year I divided variegated hostas and supplemented them with ‘Sun and Substance’ and a couple of ‘Blue Angel’ hostas. The slugs love the variegated hostas, so they’ll slowly be replaced with other plants. Several tiarella, or foam flowers, have gone in. Twenty more are on the way. I’m keeping my eyes open for more dramatic, thick-leafed hostas that Mr. McGregor’s Daughter tells me will be more slug-resistant so I can toss the variegated slug bait to the chickens.
Trying to establish a little green bit of lawn in front of the bench where the two little Papillons can lounge has been a struggle. It was looking pretty good last summer, but the snow plows did severe damage as they piled 5-foot tall walls of snow in the area this winter. The chickens are attracted to the fresh soil when they’re on walkabout and have managed to dig up the tiny grass seedlings I’ve been nursing. Now I’m thinking I’ll transplant more of the creeping Jenny from other parts of the yard to create a different kind of ground cover.
In the front of the house—a shady, north-facing exposure, the ‘Encore’ azaleas are blooming despite severe damage from the heavy snow. The hellebores have been casting off seedlings for a couple of years now and I will be moving them over to the woodland garden sometime this summer.
In the potager, the angelica anemones are blooming. I must figure out a plan for them, as they re-seed prolifically and clog up my garden paths. I feel guilty pulling them up like weeds, but what is a gardener to do? One must have paths!
I continue to be amazed by the simple little yellow pansies that I had planted in window boxes last fall. They hibernated under a couple of feet of snow and snuck out small blossoms despite the cold. Now they’ve roared back to life. I need to re-plant the window boxes, but the pansies look so vibrant and healthy, I’m temporarily relocating some of them into other containers.
I continue to tell myself to put one foot in front of the other and to stop to enjoy the sound of the birds and the beauty of spring. After all, the work is for a reason. Right?
Robin
