Garden Delights

 Dear Friends,

Although springtime has been a little slow in coming this year, our garden (and the wild plants growing without our help) is finally coming along, showing promise for future harvests.

Our fava beans have developed beautiful blossoms on them, and although the bottom blossoms fall off without fruiting, we're told that is normal and that the top blossoms should fruit (here's to hope!).
They are worth growing just for their ornamental value, if nothing else. Some of the beans were beheaded by starlings (little stinkers!), but fortunately the birds don't seem to bother them once they are over six inches tall.

We are trying to encourage pollinators to come to our vegetables this year, and have invested in a few coneflowers and chamomile to help. So far we've only seen hoverflies, tiny wasps, and one bumblebee, but hopefully the warmer weather in the forecast will bring others about soon.

 Here is our little front door all-sorts bed, full of herbs, flowers, and vegetables. We love to go out every morning and check on everyone's progress. Our dog comes with us, and when we sneak a little lemon grass or lemon balm, she comes and sneaks some, too (which is why we always sneak from the middle of the plants, where she can't reach).



We found a lady's mantle at our local greenhouse, and we are all enchanted by her water-collecting abilities. Can you see the poor little snapdragon in the right corner that was looking beautiful before the rains came and drowned it? Thank heavens lady's mantle likes having wet feet (Those other things you see growing there aren't weeds, they're salad ingredients)!



The robins have decided that the wreath right next to our door is the perfect spot for a nest, so we have to be as quiet as we can going out the front.

We built a small bean house in the front, thinking it would be a whimsical decorative accent, but it's a little more rustic than we'd hoped, so we're figuring out ways of making it prettier while waiting for those runners and purple Italians to cover the bare branches!

We were very surprised to find mulberries growing on this little "oak tree" that volunteered itself by our gas meter~ has anyone ever seen a mulberry with this type of leaf?

For some reason the berries didn't last very long (they weren't even ripe)~ Maybe some type of bird got into them?

Hmmm, I guess we'll never know!

Here's wishing that sunshine and flowers come your way today~ When you say your prayers tonight, please remember the bees, that they might recover their losses and be strong again. Without any bees to pollinate our food, there wouldn't be any us!

Love,

Marqueta

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The Bee

by Emily Dickinson ~

Like trains of cars on tracks of plush
I hear the level bee:
A jar across the flowers goes,
Their velvet masonry
Withstands until the sweet assault
Their chivalry consumes,
While she, victorious, tilts away
To vanquish other blooms.
Her feet are shod with gauze,
Her helmet is of gold;
Her breast, a single onyx
With chrysoprase, inlaid.
Her labor is a chant,
Her idleness a tune;
Oh, for a bee's experience
Of clovers and of noon!