hive visit

Duke university student, Chuck Abolt, prepares to check on a colony of honey bees. He is involved with Duke's Farmhand organization and a university apiary club.

On Sunday I spent some time visiting the six honey bee hives that are being kept at Sarah Duke Gardens, by the Duke Apiary Club. Their main purpose, according to member Chuck Abolt, is to educate the community about the importance of honey bees.

Domestic and feral honey bee populations have been in decline in North America. Thankfully, an interest in beekeeping is on the rise as more and more folks wish to see and taste where their food really comes from (i.e. backyard gardens and small local farms).

Honey bees play a crucial role in pollinating fruit and vegetables. Agricultural operations of all sizes are paying good money to rent hives for the growing season. Look for my short article on beekeeping in next month's issue of Boom. It is a free monthly newspaper you can grab outside of Whole Foods, where I recently paid a king's ransom for a pound of good local clover honey. It was worth it. But considering the two hives on the left produced 120lbs of honey in a single harvest, the idea of keeping my own colony has real appeal.

in the news...Cassilhaus

Yesterday, the Times ran a Home and Garden feature on local architect Ellen Cassilly and her husband Frank Konhaus' home in Durham. The pictures are wonderful.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/09/garden/09location.html

hot colors for summer

Get comfortable, the forecast for the next couple of months can be summed up with the following chorus: Highs in the 90s. Lows in the 70s. Chance of an afternoon thunderstorm.

As heat seems to become all that we have known, color becomes valued even more. Unlike June, when white Shasta daisy, purple irises, and orange daylilies gave some range to my yard and garden’s color wheel—now I’ve got to work harder to keep the constant bank of yellow black eyed susans from being the dominant feature of my perennial border- and given how they self-sow that can be a challenge.

The most common ornamentals around here don’t peak in the hottest part of summer because most folks aren’t buying plant material then. But if you take notes and shop wisely you can plan for some great flowers well into the dog days of summer and before the autumn weather freshens everything up a bit. Stokes' Aster, Blazing Star, Blackberry Lily, ….why don’t we see these in the nursery sections of the retail palaces? Because they are just plain green crowns of new leaves in May. Take a gamble on these if you can find them, they look great in July. Ask your local farm and garden shop to stock them if they don’t already.

The photo (upper right) is of my Texas star hibiscus. I noticed it had begun to show off its fireworks for the first time this morning. This is a native perennial even though it looks like it could come from Costa Rica. Besides great blooms, it has hemp shaped leaves that will turn heads. It is a fun plant if you have a sunny and moist spot under a drain-spout or in a ditch. If you do not have those site requirements in your garden, put it in a pot and plug the drainage hole.

recession garden update

Not counting herbs, last night's dinner saw our first garden supplement. The royal burgundy bush beans were very fresh and very good. Interestingly, almost as soon as they hit the frying pan they lost that purple color. There's more of these outside, but the tomatoes look a long ways off and my eggplants haven't even flowered yet. But the zinnias and marigolds and purple coneflowers that I planted nearby are giving me some pretty things to look at while I wait on more food.