Photo-a-Day Week 24

Welcome to this week's post about the photo a day photos for the past week. If you saw any of my posts on Instagram or Facebook about the Fling, you'll know I want to write about a wonderful community school garden that we visited in Memphis. Stay tuned. 

Without further ado, here are last week's photos with a little more information about each.

Day 160- 

One evening on the Fling, a handful of us went to Gus's Fried Chicken for dinner. It was supposed to be 6/10th of a mile but after a long day visiting gardens, we were pooped. The walk seemed a lot longer. After dinner, we walked down a different block to get back to our hotel. It was the famous Beale Street. There were neon lights galore and music coming from every establishment. It was certainly a hoppin' place to be. 

Beale Street

Day 161-

On our way to the Cooper-Young gardens we went past this decorative crosswalk. I was ready with cell camera in hand as we had driven this route the day (or two?) before and I knew this crosswalk would be coming into view. Yes, from the bus angle it is upside down swimming fish, but fun nonetheless. 

Crosswalk

Day 162-

Once home I was looking forward to seeing the full moon. Sometimes I feel like a real "lunatic", the full moon is magical to me. We had a storm earlier in the evening and I wasn't sure a view of the moon would be in the cards for me to get a photo, but the clouds cleared. The moon was higher in the sky but through the trees and with a few clouds, made for a better photo.

Strawberry Moon

Day 163-

A quick walk through the backyard garden brought me to this jelly fungus along the side trail. This is Exidia recisa, a fungus that grows on dead limbs and twigs. We have so many fungi growing on our trees, dead limbs, and stumps, etc. I find them fascinating to see. 

Jelly Fungus

Day 164-

Long views of clouds interest me. We have our usual summer storms that pop up in the late afternoon and generally they bring rain, though sometimes they blow by us without a drop. This one dropped about a 1/3 of an inch of rain.

Storm's a'coming

Day 165-

We have lots of frogs in our garden. These little Green Tree Frogs are pretty docile frogs. They don't hop away as soon as they see you, so getting a photo isn't too hard. This one was a really young one, so tiny. The leaf is the foliage of Bletilla striata 'Big Bob' and is just over an inch wide. Eryngium planum 'Blue Glitter' in the foreground is just starting to turn its lovely blue color. 

Just hangin' on my leaf

Day 166- 

This spring our neighborhood finally came into the current century. Our internet options were slim to none before fiber optics were installed. Many of us were thrilled to get something that was going to give us more than 30-50 Mbps. We stream TV over Wi-Fi, need Wi-Fi for our cell service (dead zone) so if we lose internet, we are without a lot. The line that went over the road at the back gate hung low. Thursday they were working on getting it hung better. It looked good but Friday we were out of internet. It was fixed, we thought, late Friday evening, then Saturday it was out again. While many in the neighborhood are retired, not all are. They work from home and need a good connection. Happy ending, internet restored and we are getting over 350 Mbps, more than enough to watch TV and write this blog post. 

Hoping to be Reconnected Soon

Watch for a Fling post or two to pop up this week. It was a wonderful Fling but am glad to be home. I know two dogs, one cat, and a sweet husband missed me.

©Copyright 2025 Janet. All rights reserved. Content created by Janet for The Queen of Seaford. words and photos by Janet, The Queen of Seaford.

Puget Sound Fling Day #3 - Heronswood

Our visit to Heronswood was a feast for the senses! 

From the bus drop off, on the pathway of the woodland garden was a striking example of a Japanese climbing hydrangea, Schizophragma hydrangeoides. Heronswood is 15 acre garden founded by Dan Hinkley and Robert Jones. Over time the place was sold to Burpee Seed, then sold off at auction.  The Port S'Klallam Tribe purchased it and it is now under a 501 (c)3 Foundation open to the public. More can information can found at Heronswood site. 

Schizophragma hydrangeoides

A woodland meadow with lots of pinks and blues and yellows caused me to stop and get a few photos. 

Astrantia, Greater Masterwort, was present in many gardens in the PNW. At first I thought it was something else. Many conversations occurred with my fellow Flingers and I lost out on the plant ID and now I can't remember what I thought it was in the first place. I was so sure I was correct, funny how that happens. 

Astrantia

Many of the gardens in Heronswood were groupings with great color complements. White, gray, silver and pale blue paired with some dark colors.

Eryngium 

I wish my Crane's-bill geraniums looked half this nice! 

Geranium pratense, Meadow
crane's-bill

Hot colors included this one, below, common name Angel's Fishing Rod or Fairy Wand Flower. 

Dierama pulcherrimum

And who doesn't love some Meadow Rue dotting the garden on its wispy stems? 

Thalictrum 

There were a few different varieties of ornamental oregano, they all were lush and full of blooms. 

Origanum sp. 

The first Fling I attended was in Asheville and I fell in love with pitcher plants. There are so many varieties and many are native to my area. This planting around a pond with lily pads was just amazing.

Sarracenia sp. 

Isn't this a great color combination? I really am drawn to complementary colors. The peachy yellow lilies and the blue/purple Agapanthus really look great together. 

Agapanthus and Lilium 

More Astrantia 

Astrantia 

Would you believe this is a Fuchsia? I had no idea there were varieties with variegated foliage. 

Fuchsia 'Tom West'

This is a wide shot of the formal parterre garden. I didn't want to leave this spot! Once a kitchen garden for Dan and Robert it is now purely ornamental. Be sure to check out the videos on my Instagram page.

Walking back to the parking area, much as we hated to end our visit, we came across ferns and ferns and ferns!! It was almost prehistoric! 

Here is another oregano, I had never seen this variety before. This one was near the gift shop.

Origanum 'Xera Cascade'

Another plant near the gift shop was an unusual pitcher plant. It almost looks like it had a nose! 

Darlingtonia californica 

This post just scratched the surface of a wonderful garden. If you are in the Puget Sound area and have plans to go to Kingston, WA, be sure to add a visit to Heronswood to your itinerary. 

Next up is our visit to Dan Hinkley's and the Brindley's (Dan's neighbor) gardens. 

©Copyright 2025 Janet. All rights reserved. Content created by Janet for The Queen of Seaford. words and photos by Janet,The Queen of Seaford.

All A'Buzz- Pt. 3, Feeding the Bees

Feeding the bees? Don't the bees find what they need in the environment? Well, yes and no. It depends on the season. In our mild winters, on days above 56 degrees F, the bees will forage to see what is blooming nearby. In my garden I have Edgeworthia chrysantha opening in late January and blooming through mid-March.  See the pollen sacs on the bee's hind legs? Note the color. 

I have had some Edgeworthia blooming already in past years, but this year nary an open bloom. 

Also blooming in my garden during the winter months is the Flowering Apricot, Prunus mume 'Hokkai Bungo'. Today I thought that maybe I should buy and plant a couple more of these beauties. I love the dark pink blooms and the fragrance is cinnamon! When most of the tree is in bloom the fragrance is carried a good distance on the breeze. 

Today the whole tree was buzzing with bees! It was a warm winter day in South Carolina and the bees were taking advantage of getting out and collecting some pollen. 

As spring arrives more trees bloom. We have a lot of maples in the woods that bud early and the bees love them. A favorite tree is Tulip Poplar, Liriodendron tulipifera. I usually find these spent blooms on the ground as the trees are so tall. Over the growing season we have lots of flowering plants for the bees to enjoy.

Eryngium planum 'Blue Glitter' is a favorite for many pollinators. It reseeds a bit so I have it sprinkled throughout the garden.

Agastache 'Blue Boa' is always visited. 

The photo above is a native plant that I have welcomed into the garden. Pluchea camphorata has the scent of camphor when the leaves are crushed. I leave it to spread through the garden as it is a good deer deterrent. Note the color of the pollen - not the bright yellow as in the photo below!

Look at all the bees with their pollen sacs full of bright yellow pollen. 

In addition to nectar and pollen, the bees need fresh water. We have a lake behind the house, so filling watering stations isn't an urgent issue.  Bees use water in various ways. They use it to help cool the hive by putting a thin film of water across the brood and fanning it with their wings. They also use it to control the humidity of the hive. Water aides in the digestion of their food. Clean water is important to a healthy hive. There is a birdbath in our front yard that the bees frequent. 

But what about the times of year where there isn't anything blooming? A drought? A summer dearth? Many folks rely on the stores of honey that the bees have already put up. We didn't have a lot last year or the year before that because our bee population was still growing and the honey stores weren't that full. There are a few feeders that you can use to supplement food for the bees. The one that we have settled on is in the photo below. Charlie makes the solution with water and white cane sugar, similar to hummingbird food. The ratio for bees is 1:1, different than the hummingbird ratio of 4:1. The center of this feeder is open and the bees crawl up and over the center ridge, inside the screening. They are able to collect the sugar water and return to the boxes below.  

This is a good way to make sure the bees don't starve in the summer, but what about the winter? In the best case scenario the bees have honey stores to keep them through the winter. The first year we didn't collect any honey so there was a start of food for them over the winter. The second year we only collected four or five frames of honey so there were some frames of honey. More on collecting honey in a later post.

 To supplement in the winter we don't use the sugar water as it could freeze. We make sugar cakes or sugar fondant. It isn't like bakery fondant, recipe below. We put it in the hive and check every few weeks to see that there is still some sugar cake in the box. Making sure there is water in the winter is important as the bees use it to liquify the sugar cake in order to use it.  In the photo below you see an orange plug in the wooden frame. The wooden frame with the plug is a spacer. You need to create a bit of space for the sugar cake so the lid fits snug on the hives. 

I know there are folks who don't feed their bees and the bees do fine. We don't want our bees to starve so making sure there is supplemental food available is easy enough for us to do. Ask five beekeepers what they do to feed their bees and you will get five answers. None are wrong as long as the bees don't die.

Bee Fondant Sugar Cake

1part water to 4 parts sugar

1/4 tsp. vinegar for each pound of sugar

1/4 tsp. salt 

Bring to a boil and boil for three minutes covered. Remove lid and bring up to 234 degrees. Take off heat and let it cool to 200 degrees. Once it has reached 200 use a whisk or immersion blender until it turns cloudy white. Pour it on parchment paper in a pie plate or other heat proof container to cool. Once cool it can be placed on the hive. If you are not going to use it right away, a plastic bag in the freezer will keep it in good shape until you are ready for it. 

Stay tuned for more bee posts. 

©Copyright 2021 Janet. All rights reserved. Content created by Janet for The Queen of Seaford. words and photos by Janet,The Queen of Seaford.