Vegetables And Herbs As I mentioned in the previous post, I left some vegetables and herbs flowering for pollinators and for seeds. It also helps to draw beneficial insects into the vegetable patch. The downside is that these beneficial insects don’t discriminate, they eat anything they can grab, honeybees and bumblebees included. But we never have to spray our vegetables. There are many more herbs and vegetables in … Continue reading Flowers for Pollinators II
Late Autumn Did we really have a summer? Briefly. Most of the leaves are gone now and the plants are ready to take a rest. But some plants in the garden are still pushing out their last show of the season. I envy some of them when I do garden chores in a sweatshirt in a bracing chilly wind and see them with their bare branches … Continue reading What’s Left
Let Herbs Flower Since I started keeping honey bees, the decision on what plants to add to our garden factors in the honey bees as one of the reasons. I used to think of fragrant, native, butterfly and bird friendly as reasons to choose a plant. Flowers that butterflies love is not necessarily good for bees. The butterfly has a very long proboscis, much longer … Continue reading Flowers For Bees
A Closer Look At What We Eat I love eating vegetables especially a fresh salad just picked minutes ago from our garden. It’s not just tastier than store bought, but also makes me feel healthier physically and psychologically. The leafy vegetables hardly have a chance to flower, but when the weather gets really hot and we’re stuck at work, then they start to ‘bolt.’ I do … Continue reading Vegetables And Their Flowers
Sprouting Time After a long wait for fresh backyard salad, I can hardly stop myself from sowing seeds in the vegetable garden. As soon as the soil softens, judged by seeing weeds coming up, I put Arugula, Radish (Cherry Belle and French Breakfast), Pak choi, Mizuna, Kale, Swiss chard, Scallion, Lettuce, and Broccoli Raab in. The arugula is always the first to come up. I also … Continue reading Spring Vegetable Garden
Petals and Wings 