Tag Archives: Suppliers

Hummingbirds, bees and some yard cleanup

The bulk of today was filled with cleanup. I did harvest another 3 lbs of blackberries which brings the total so far this year to about 11.5 lbs off of 6 plants. I cut down the cilantro and kept the seed heads. Not sure what I am going to do with them but they are drying on the back porch. With the ground nice and moist I was able to get some of the weeds out of the flower beds and part of the veggie garden. The raspberry bed is THE place to be if you are a bee. I saw more bees there than I have seen in any spot that size since I’ve moved here. Yeah bees!

I noticed an almost red big beef? tomato. It will be our first big one. We’ve been eating cherries for some time but this year I planted long season indeterminate varieties for eating tomatoes. I have some determinate paste tomatoes I am going to dehydrate but they aren’t near ready.

The monarda is waning due to the powdery mildew. I’ve cut it back but don’t want to spray as it lives in my herb bed. The hummingbirds still stop by the few flowers left hoping for a treat. One pulled away part of the flower as she was lunching and watching her trying to shake it off of her beak was quite a site. I decided to break out the hummingbird feeder and filled it with some boiled sugar water. Within 20 minutes I had 3 visitors. The honey bees have found it too and watching them and the hummingbirds manuever around each other can be quite entertaining.

I was at the Walter Kelly site looking at bee supplies. I would love to have an observation hive here on my desk but alas I would be run out of the house if I attempted to bring them inside. The tarantula is barely allowed in the house as it is.