August garden

Much of the garden looks like an over grown wilderness!

 

Buckwheat, purple sprouting broccoli and in the distance sweetcorn.

Sweetcorn has enjoyed the hot summer.

 
 Leeks in the wilderness!

Sweet potato in the big tunnel.

Alfie with grapes in the big tunnel.

Aubergine and basil in the big tunnel.

 Aubergines have done really well this year. 

I didn't polish these ones for the photo!

Cherry tomatoes are nice in salad but one or two plants are more than enough for us.

These need picking not photographing!

 These Brandywine tomatoes are delicious and grow to a great size.
They are my favorite.

My little helper loves to pick tomatoes, we are working on colors!


  This one was 1lb 12 oz.  (and it is all flavorsome flesh!)
While this one is larger than average, most still come in at about 1 lb.

 This is the last peach tree to fruit this year, they are very good!

These grapes in the small tunnel ripen later than all the others and won't be ready for another month or so.

 Blackberries already? where does the summer go!

 Japanese wineberries have done well this year too.

 A close up of the wineberries. They are ripe when they are red.

View September garden 2013

View summer garden 2013

Hummingbird Hawk moth

 On August 14th Angus saw a Silver Washed Fritillary butterfly in the garden. He came in to get the camera but when he went back it was gone, instead he saw this Hummingbird Hawk moth.

The garden is buzzing!

Zoe (11 yrs) has taught herself how to identify Bumble bees.
The garden is filled with them, along with honey bees, wasps, hoverfly...
So far in our garden this summer  Zoe has identified 6 different species of bumble bee and 5 different species of wasps. These are her photos.
  

Male (he has a yellow band) Bombus lapidarius on Aster.
 Commonly known as the Red tailed bumble bee.

Bombus lapidarius worker (female) Red tailed bumble bee.

Queen Bombus lapidarius, red tailed bumble bee.
On Staychs Byzantina (Lambs' ears).

Bombus pascuorum, Common carder bee, on  Teasel.

Bombus Lucorum, White tailed bumble bee. A queen on Marjoram.

 Worker Bombus Hortorum on Teasel, collecting pollen.

Bombus lucorum male on Marjoram.

Bombus lucorum male on Marjoram.

Bombus Lucorum agg. on Marjoram.
(Agg means it is either Bombus Lucorum or Bombus Terrestris.)

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A few of our garden residents photographed at the end of July.

Hoverfly.
Angus and Zoe haven't begun to identify all the different species of hoverfly... YET!

Hoverfly on a day lily

Bombus Lucorum agg. on Marjoram.

Californian tree poppy happiness

 I visited Altamont gardens about 8 years ago with mum and brought home this Californian tree poppy, Romneya coulteri, from the excellent garden centre there, Altamont plants. It was a tiny slip of a thing then. It is now 7 foot tall and covered in flowers, I was so happy when I saw the bees collecting pollen from it.

Truly, all the flowers of tomorrow are the seeds of today and yesterday.

 The pollen is carried in little sacs on the bee's legs.

Their sacs look packed, it is such a vibrant colour too.

 I love this plant for its papery petals, it's rich butter-gold stamens and it's fabulous glaucous foliage.
Add to that the happy memory of a day in Altamont with Mum and all the pollen that it gives to the bees, Perfect.

Summer garden

 July photos of our abundant wild vegetable garden.

 Borage on the left and potatoes on the right.

 Alfie eating peas.

 Carrots coming up on the left, shallots dying back on the right, in the big tunnel.

In the big tunnel.

 Peaches in the small tunnel.

See August garden 2013

See vegetable garden 2013 

Moving bees

 I moved the little cast swarm that has been in a bait hive for the last 6 weeks a distance of about 20 feet to a permanent hive.

 Bee wisdom states that... "One should move a beehive fewer than three feet or over three miles", there are ways around this.

 I moved the bait hive to the new location when all the bees were home in the late evening. I placed a branch in front of their entrance to encourage the bees to re-orientate the following day.

The bees were given a couple of days to get used to their new location. There may be a few old bees who return to the old location and one can leave a box there to collect them, returning them to the new site in the evening but I found that unnecessary as the new hive was in view of the old location.

View of the bait hive entrance lined up with their new entrance behind. After adjusting to their new location the combs with bees are transferred into the permanent hive. 

 The hive ready to receive the combs. Another colony is undisturbed at the other end of the hive.

While transferring the combs I took the opportunity to take a few photos.

This comb is filled with colorful pollen and capped honey on top.

This comb has pollen on the right, Honey on top, brood and larvae.

 

A good view of their capped brood.

 

Here they are in their finished hive.

They were amazingly good natured about the move.

 Edited to add, These bees overwintered successfully and have continued to thrive. 

Butter making season

 We are making butter almost every day since Amber calved in mid July. Each milking is now giving about 1 gallon/ 5 litres of milk and 2 milkings give about one and a quarter pounds of butter.

 

Skimming the cream.

Angus then shakes the half filled jar for 5 minutes....

.... until the butter and buttermilk have separated.
 

 

This is what it looks like looking down into the jar.

A little washing, a little salt and it's ready.  This is well over 1lb of butter.

 Before working the butter, I run very hot water over the board and pat, followed by a splash of cold water to cool them.  

This ensures the butter does not stick to them.

I store the butter in the freezer. There will be enough for one of these pats a week for most of the year.