Dwira Park

Today we shook the bees onto fresh frames and foundation, about two weeks later than last year, but then winter seemed to hang about longer this year. The colony looks to be a healthy size but Ill find out if we were successful in about 10 days when I remove the two frames of grubs that we left as bait comb.

It was absolutely lovely in the garden this morning; the fall color is still bright, as the leaves come down and sprinkle the landscape with color. But its unusually warm, the kind of "Indian summer" day we used to have in September and October, not in mid-November. On the front steps, there was a sudden emergence of hundreds of winged insects -- they looked like ants and Ill have to figure out what they were. In any case, its not the time of the year to be hatching!

I did my favorite program this morning for a garden club in a nearby city (this permutation was Gardening for Nature). Actually the location was in a semirural area west of town. In what used to be rolling farm fields, subdivisions and shopping areas have popped up and lakeside houses now dot the nearby shore of Lake Hartwell. They were a great group, amazingly energetic with their outreach and volunteer activities. It was not only gardening and planting activities that they were involved with, but also community action projects. They mentioned a local hospital thats created a garden area that patients receiving chemo could look at through the expansive windows. What a lovely thing -- when my mom was in extensive rehab, the ability to go outdoors, and visit in the courtyard garden at the hospital was so significant to both of us, but probably to me most.

A early morning walk found us (a good friend and me) admiring Green and Gold (Chrysogonum virginianum) and the emerging green of the oak-hickory forest in the back of the Garden.

Its a lovely forest, with Piedmont azaleas and sweet shrub in flower (not to mention the oaks and hickories, achoo!)



We heard one of the red-shouldered hawks calling in the forest and coming out towards the meadows, we saw a pair soaring high up, barely within reach of my camera lens.

In the raised bed garden thats the main vegetable garden, I try to practice intensive raised-bed gardening, loosely based on the square-foot method. Im afraid Im not methodical enough to be precise about planting -- frankly, I like to play with my garden, but I do try to rotate vegetables as I can.

We eat as much as we can from the garden, but having it look nice is important, too. The garden is right out the kitchen door, so I think about it as a perennial vegetable/flower bed, even if its made up of annuals. I want it to be pleasing throughout the year. Rotating out plants, reseeding, and routinely adding more compost and amendments; all of these things are part of my gardening year.