Early Forage

Over the past couple of weeks there has been some milder sunny weather enabling the bees to get out and stretch their wings. At the weekend we watched with interest as the bees obviously began to bring little packages of pollen to the hive!


 There was pale yellow and a greenish colour which I think must be from the hazel catkins in the garden.We have tried to plant up the garden to be bee friendly and there are clumps of snowdrops in flower ready to release their nectar and pollen, hazel with catkins full of pollen as well as Viburnum Bodantense and Sarcococca Confusa to hopefully attract the bees for an early feed. Trev managed to capture this bee on the Viburnum on Wednesday.

Better Weather

It's been a busy time over the past month with visiting family and work done in the house and garden- tidying and getting ready for the spring-my favourite time of year in the garden.

The flowers I most look forward to are snowdrops- I just love the clear green and white shoots as they push up through the earth, gradually droop over and open up against the dark ground. Over the years I have tried to collect different varieties and the glossy or matt blue green leaves are as attractive as the flowers. It was with great interest that I watched Carole Klein in her delightful garden explaining how to propagate snowdrops en masse. The method- called twin scaling -involves cutting bulbs into slices, each containing a piece of the basal plate and placing them into vermiculite until they start to grow tiny bulbils. These can then be grown on to flowering size in a couple of years. When my bulbs have finished flowering this year I hope to give this a try!

Feed the Birds

This friendly robin came to help on the allotment recently. As Rob on his blog http://sustainablegarden.blogspot.com/ has pointed out- the times are hard for birds which rely on getting their food from the frozen ground. This robin has learnt to check out the disturbed earth when gardeners are busy- I only managed to find a couple of worms in the frozen conditions to help him out. At home we have been putting out a range of seeds and fruit to help the birds- water is a problem, the pond has been frozen over for some time. At one time it looked frozen solid- it will be interesting to see what has survived in the springtime. Even though survival is an issue the birds have obviously recognised the winter equinox has passed, the days are lengthening and spring is on the way- the collared doves are pairing up and the robin in the garden is being bossy and territorial!!

New Year Allotment

On New Year's Eve the weather was above freezing and our thoughts turned to spending some time on the allotment.
At the end of November the weather turned cold suddenly and deeply- until then we had been picking a few late raspberries, the odd everbearing strawberry and had not had to buy any tomatoes- we had been taking green ones home to ripen on the windowsill!
When we had dropped in in December, the ice and snow had broken down the nets over the brassicas. The green manures- phacelia and mustard were flattened and frosted. We had not been able to tidy up the climbing beans. I was surprised to see the beetroot which I had imagined was hardier was badly affected, but the swedes were fine and clear for the time being at least of whitefly.

 So on the last day of the year we took the chance to cut down and tidy the autumn raspberries. Trev barrowed steaming leaves to top up the compost heap. However the ground was still frozen only an inch or so down so weeding and sorting out the asparagus bed will have to wait for a more sustained thaw.





To Fondant or Not To Fondant ?

In the winter beekeepers are advised to heft their hives to gauge the level of stores. If the hive is light then the advice is to feed the bees with fondant- a boiled icing that the bees can access readily instead of having to process like the syrup that is fed in autumn or spring. Here I have followed a recipe that boils together sugar,water and glucose syrup, once 240F is reached the fondant is kneaded until malleable. This can then be packed in to trays and put directly over the hole in the crown board .
The question now is when is the optimum time to put the fondant on - but I at least have a couple of blocks ready if the time seems to have come!

Lasting Legacy

This weekend we visited Clumber Park- a National Trust property about 20 miles from home. Last week we had driven up but the park was closed because of the heavy snowfall. We have regularly visited the park over the last year, being especially interested in the walled garden which has been renovated and has a great range of fruit and vegetables. It also is one of the properties which has introduced bees to it's gardens.
As we drove through the park it was upsetting to see the extent of the damage - not just branches but whole trees had been broken down by the weight of the snow and ice.
The Cedar Walk has about 20 ancient cedar trees leading to the walled kitchen garden- they are amazing trees- or they were! The trees were completely devastated ,the crowns and branches split and cracked. Some clearing had already been started, but it looked as if some of the trees would not survive and have to be felled.

It occurred to me what would happen to the wood from the trees- the best beehives are made from cedar and I would hope that the National Trust may use the wood usefully-perhaps a sustainable lasting legacy. Hopefully the walk will be replanted but it will be many years before such a fine display will be seen again. So many trees destroyed may not be such an obvious consequence of the disruption caused by the present spell of bad weather but it is certainly one from which it will take along time to recover.

Bring Out Your Dead!!!

Today the temperature reached nearly 10 degrees up the garden today. It was a relief after seeing dead bees round the entrance of the hive in the snow to find bees flying. They were very busy -and seemed to be enjoying the chance to get out after nearly 2 weeks of temperatures below zero. Bees will not defaecate in side the hive, so in winter they need days like this to take cleansing flights and clear out any dead bees. Obviously over this period of cold, lots of the older bees that had manged to keep going because of the milder temperatures in November, couldn't keep going any longer. During the day the pile of dead bees grew and grew- eventually reaching maybe a thousand or more. It was fascinating watching as the bees brought out the dead bees and went about their housekeeping- keeping going until quite late in the day.