Last week as I was perusing the blogosphere looking at gardens, several people commented on the lack of bees in their garden. Their plants were healthy and flowering, but they were not producing fruit. If you are having that problem you can google “how to hand pollinate________” (insert the name of the plant you want to hand pollinate). You will find quite a few sites, some of which include video demonstrations.
I encouraged mason bees to come live on our property because they are less aggressive than honey bees. If you are interested in attracting mason bees, click here to find more information. I used paper tubes the first year, but they have created their own homes the last couple of summers. I also planted a wall of flowers between my raised garden beds and the backyard to attract bees to the area. I took this picture while standing on the trampoline, so it is hard to tell that the Russian sage are over three feet high.
I planted my raspberry bushes in front of my honey suckle. The honey suckle provides shade as well as attracts bees to the area.
See the bee in the upper left corner? I apologize for my poor photography skills. You should see the pictures that end up in the trash!
The strawberries are planted under a flowering tree. I will have lots of strawberries for my nephews to pick this weekend! I am amazed at how many berries each plant is producing. Each crop of berries seems to be tastier than the last. My kids said that the first crop tasted like store bought strawberries (gasp!), but they are becoming more flavorful and sweeter with each picking. Have you found this to be true with your berries?
I finally have baby cucumbers. I can’t remember the name of this cucumber, but it is supposed to be a Japanese variety. I hope it tastes better than it looks!
It is easy to see why this is called spinach mustard. I am going to have to do another massive spinach harvest and soon!
We harvested our first green beans this week. They are still thriving and blooming, so I am expecting to harvest green beans through out the rest of the summer. Unfortunately, my peas have died off.
The heat has caused some of my broccoli to burn.
I harvested all of the large broccoli crowns and put them in a bowl of water to let them finish maturing inside. I currently have 7 broccoli crowns on my counter.
I missed this squash and it has grown too large and too bumpy to cook for dinner. I am going to leave it on the vine and see how big it grows. Once it has been harvested, I will dry it out and attempt to turn it into a bird house. I have been harvesting 3 -4 summer squash a day. Please leave links and recipes for your favorite squash recipes in the comment section. I will be posting a list of squash recipes next week. I also thought it would be nice to print out some recipes to leave with the squash when I play ding-dong-ditch on my neighbors.
The Frugal Engineer says
I just posted a recipe that could be used with summer squash (I made it with zucchini)!
http://engineermother.blogspot.com/2009/07/zucchini-and-chicken-pasta-with.html
The Book Lady Online says
Alea,
Your garden is so beautiful. I'm so glad you give us a chance to see it every week :o)
Rebecca says
Your garden is gorgeous. That takes a lot of work to maintain and keep organized. Kudos to you.
Shana says
I am so impressed. your garden looks great. My hubby's aunt put a couple hives in for her garden and for honey and she said this was the best garden she has ever had and she is 75 years old so I think that says a lot.
Melissa says
LOL at "ding-dong-ditch"!
I'm not sure, but leaving the squash on the plant to grow huge might kill off the plant.
We haven't done much to attract bees to the garden. I plant marigolds near the tomatoes, and attracting bees is a secondary benefit. My neighbor happens to have butterfly bushes about ten feet away from my vegetable garden, and that probably helps, too.
The Thrifty Countrywoman says
Wow Alea! That's quite a garden! I don't have any trouble attracting bees,because the back of our property is covered in ground ivy (a weed). It has tiny trumpet shaped lavender flowers and the bees are mad about it. Too bad there's no seeds for it. It really doesn't make a bad ground cover. At least better than crab grass!