Tuesday 28 February 2012

Is this a Queen Bee?

Over winter we store empty plant pots and outdoor toys in the greenhouse and when we came to clear them out this year we found this bee in one of the toy boxes.



Garden Dad thinks it might be a Queen Bee and I'm feeling a bit sorry that I have displaced it from its hibernation. I hope I haven't exposed it too early to cold nights but I am also a little concerned that it will try to return to the greenhouse toy store and end up stinging one of the children. From my brief exploration online I believe that at this time of year a mated Queen bee will be busy looking for a suitable hive and beginning to gather nectar, so perhaps the warmth of the greenhouse will no longer be needed and a new home will soon be found. I have my fingers crossed.

Sunday 26 February 2012

Back with a Burst of Colour

It feels as if winter is coming to a close and spring is just starting to emerge. After a long winter break, this weekend seemed the right time to re-open the shutters, dust away the cobwebs and once again pick up my garden trowel and keyboard.

The garden has been nothing more than a play area over the winter months this year. Ordinarily you wouldn't find us to be fair weather gardeners but we really did put the garden to bed around October time. We had no winter vegetables because we were only using up seeds we already had last year and a cheeky little mouse, with the help of a scorching sun, early in the 2011 season left us with an empty winter store. We consequently moved our attentions to the house, enjoying Christmas and settling into school. But we are back, with a burst of colour!

Garden Boy was so keen to start planting that he was ripping open seed pods that had fallen from our neighbours tree, planting the seeds carefully in our herb patch. A trip to the garden centre was in order, so today, having tidied the garage and cleaned the greenhouse yesterday, we went along to stock up on compost, get our little garden helpers some new watering cans and buy some colourful flowers to bring instant colour to the garden.

Having refuelled with a cuppa on our return home, we spent a happy afternoon planting up old wellies, the narrow bed behind our seating area and a basket to cheerfully welcome visitors.



I even had eager helpers to pull up the first set of weeds, daring to emerge! And with a tin full of new seed varieties I feel ready and raring to go...