Thursday, April 28, 2011

Bees and Peas

The time is finally almost here, my bees are due very soon. Not sure I'm ready, we'll see. The hive is in the screened porch. I need to level in 2 concrete blocks over looking to pond for the bees and place the hive on it.
 Not sure  many of you know that Tulip Poplar flowers are the main bee pollen source right now in our area. Followed by blackberry flowers. This Tulip Poplar flower was one of many that were on the ground after high winds the other night. If not for the fallen flowers many of us would not even know the poplar was flowering high up in the trees.

 Here is 'Carolina Moonlight' baptisia, doing very well for a three year old plant. To the right of it is Meg's Sugar Snap Peas, just started flowering two days ago. Oh and that is the garden watch kitty Grumpy on the railing.
Here is another trellis of Sugar Snap Peas nearly 4 foot tall. I see peas on lots of blogs nobody seems to know the best way to plant them. I don't mean to insult anyone by that. This is how Meg plants them. Two rows about 1 foot apart plant the peas thick almost next to each other. Yes I said almost next to each other. You got to plant lots of peas as birds and other varmints will get them, other wise after they get what they can your left with very little pea plants. The yellow flowers at the top of the peas is our kale flowering in the cold frame.

This iris I have had for years, I used to know the name, great showing with three flowers at a time.
Clematis henrii in full bloom. I have had this plant for nearly 15 years. I counted 32 blooms this morning, once fully open maybe 60 flowers will open. Wish I knew how to control it better?
Spiderworts in bloom. I know many of you further south hate these as they are so invasive. Our hard clay and dry summers makes them stay put, so far.

Here is part of the garden. Fava beans in flower in the lower front center, peas at the back left side, the cold frame has bolting kale, to the right of the cold frame bolting mustard greens and rape. The dark green mass in the enter is Swamp Sunflower, massive isn't it. I trimmed it back a lot too!
 This peony I just happened to have a tape measure with me when I took this photo. The tape measure read 6 - 7/8 inches across! I believe the clematis henrii would match this in size too. Hard to believe we get 7 inch blooms in our garden!

Back in the fall when I planted these pansies I never imagined they would look this good in the garden. The pansies will falter once it gets in the 90s here and they will be pulled out. These were grown locally from seed less than a mile from here. The primrose next to it is my oldest primrose over 12 years old, it barely flowered this year and the flowers were stunted.

Sometime this weekend we have to pull up the kale, rape, mustard greens, arugula, muzuna all of which are bolting. And we need to plant potatoes (very late) tomatoes, peppers, basil and other plants we grew from seed.

15 comments:

ann said...

Your garden is so lovely.

Karen said...

Randy, you certainly have a green thumb. The peony is enormous, love the color. I was staring at the tulip poplar flower for quite some time trying to see if I could guess what it was. I'm glad you told us, because I was stumped. How pretty they are! I've never seen one up close before. I just started growing clematis last year, so I'm going to need help figuring out how to train them to climb or whatever people do. It looks like you have it down to a science, yours is spectacular.

greggo said...

Are the iris in the photo with the clematis, Caesar Brothers variety?
Nice color in your garden.

Chandramouli S said...

A lot seems to be happening in your garden. Violas, Clematis, Irises, tulip poplars (looks gorgeous, by the ways) - aaah, great!

tina said...

Your Carolina Moonlight sure does look happy! I can't wait until mine gets that big. It is a pleasure to see the big views of your gardens. That vegetable garden looks perfect-especially those peas!

Jan said...

Great garden tour, Randy...so much going on! Between the veggies & perennials it's quite amazing;-) The pansies do look lovely right now. I especially like that clematis. Do you really need to 'control' it?! I guess it is difficult to cut it back while it's blooming, but you could probably do that if you really needed the space. I have a white one in bloom with much less flowering than yours, but I recently relocated it so I'm lucky it has any blooms at all. Great info on the peas. Not sure I have the right spot to plant peas but if I ever do I will remember to plant them close together as you've said. We have the tulip poplars blooming in the trees in our backyard, too. So far I haven't noticed any blooms on the ground but they cover my ground later as they drop;-) I didn't know the bees liked them so much. Good luck w/your bee-keeping...that sounds like a big job!

Curbstone Valley Farm said...

How exciting! Our bees (the ones we ordered) have been delayed. Our soggy March put a dent in Queen breeding in California this spring. Hopefully they'll be here in the next week or two though. One thing is obvious though, when your bees arrive they certainly won't starve! You have so much blooming for them already. I wish our peas looked like that. You're right about critters, the voles absconded with all of ours. Oh well, we'll try again in the fall.

sweetbay said...

I don't think I've seen views of your garden before. Love the Clematis with the Siberian Iris. We have a lot of Tulip Tree flowers on the ground now too after all of the wind.

Victoria Williams said...

I think your out of control henrii clematis looks great. Mine died a few years ago. I should get another.

Sharon Creech said...

How lush and gorgeous . . .in western NY, gardens are still bare.

Sharon Creech said...

P. S. What state are you in?

Les said...

I love the Tulip Poplar flowers, they are so intricate and I like the colors, but they also remind me of the aftermath of storms and high wind.

Skeeter said...

Looking great and what a harvest for spring! We have a big poplar tree in our front yard and I find those blooms occasionally. Yes, they are way up high...

Janet, The Queen of Seaford said...

I really like the Henryii!! May have to add that one to my wish list.

Jan said...

Just came back to let you know that no sooner had I commented on having NO Tulip Poplar blooms falling to the ground, when they began to fall abundantly! My whole backyard is covered. While pretty in and of themselves, there are so many that they interefere with being able to view the flowers in the garden. Along with the huge amount of pollen that has been falling, it's a bit messy out there right now!