Honeybee Arrival In Jefferson County Oregon

Honeybee Arrival In Jefferson County Oregon




This is a typical bigger Honeybee operation that goes on in agricultural areas such as ours. These Honeybee's arrive by train. This area is a holding lot. Much like a cattle holding lot, however these are Honeybee's. You will not find this quantity of hives in someones backyard!



I do not advice anyone who is allergic to these insects to do such a thing as I did as far as visiting this holding lot.

First I called up and spoke to the scientist who is, was (?) doing a Honeybee study at this location. Then calling up the land owner to ask for access to their property. Then of course walking on over to the location. I would have loved to be a onlooker when getting these photographs haha!!

Keeping in mind, smoke can be a good thing!! Lighting up a cigarette kept the stings down to just one. Keeping in mind these Honeybee's are not wild per say, however they just arrived at this location. Tired, thirsty and cranky!



Somehow as I picked out the photographs to show you the photographs copied themselves so the photographs are a mess if you go to the album to look around!





These hives get shipped to different farms around our town where this is all located. If you happen to be walking down one of these farm roads, or even driving by with your window rolled down, well you may just get to meet some Honeybee's personal like!

Carrot seed is huge in our area. Someone has to grow it for your favorite garden store to sale to you, right?

We are known for many other crops, however the carrot seed is a big one around here where the Honeybee's help is priceless! Can you imagine hand pollinating something like the carrot seed!?



I also walked over to where the Honeybee's were getting their drinks at. Any insect who has traveled pretty much in any manor is going to be thirsty! I am one who will buy insects to have them shipped here to home. Insects such as ladybugs,praying mantises, some others. The last shippment of ladybugs arrives half dead. So, I stopped buying from that business. If you know of anyone else with a better live arrival rate, and better customer service, can you let me know? We are in Oregon.



I was much more comfortable at this location. The water is not where the Honeybee's live so they are much more docile!! No reason to protect something that is supposed to be for everyone.....



I may have even shown these photographs before?? I recall being at another location that I have permission being at and WALLA Honeybee's were drinking at that spot too. Not sure why I was surprised? Perhaps I was surprised for that other spot was really just a big mud puddle! A mud puddle made by farm equipment and pick up trucks.





This to is one reason why our garden just hums with the sound of Honeybee's as well. Our town is not huge and this holding lot is not a far walk. Honeybee's are supposed to like to stay and work one kind of flower, however we have a big infatuation to our garden when the Honeybee's show up!

I also notice the Honeybee's that come to our ponds, garden are sickly. Because of people using these killer chemicals? We know the Honeybee's come to our garden so they should be going to other peoples gardens..... "My brothers keeper", is something that seams to come to my mind. I sarcastically joke about, "not being my brothers keeper",  for most folks do not care about anything but themselves. Who cares if the Honeybee population dies out, right....... Not here to preach and this is a subject I can get real passionate about. Guy humors me and just lets me rant haha



Just joked with Guy about my ranting. Saying you heard it all before (my rants), but dogonit these people may not have! We both laughed and Guy says to you all,"Sorry about your luck", haha! Keeping the wording clean for some of my younger readers!

In the shot above a couple Honeybee's are gathered for drinks. I like to watch the Honeybee's communication between each other, doing jigs and what not! Predators have a field day with the Honeybee as well! Picking off the Honeybee one by one. No wonder they stay in groups! While I was here the birds staid away. The other insect did not......

I think that is enough photographs. I do have more photographs in the album I made just for this post, though like I said they are kind of a mess.... Thank you for coming by and checking out my photographs and reading! Even if some of my ranting came out in the process..... See you on Monday with whatever else I came up with haha

Dahlia Flower Blooming in the High Desert

Dahlia Flower Blooming in the High Desert




Meet the Dahlia Flower! So many colors, sizes,shapes of the Dahlia! This post will be many photographs of the Dahlia Flowers we have grown.



Most of our Dahlia Flowers have been grown by tubers, though we have grown them by seed as well! 2014 was a interesting year in general! Guy had been hurt at work, so unable to do much of the gardening. I did my best to handle everything on my own and I just like to say, I sure did not understand how much work the garden is for one person HAHA!!



We have been growing the Dahlia organically for some years. Organically means without the use of chemicals. Growing this way has been my way of growing things all my life! I think this is due to where I grew up and was taught by elders how to grow things? Eugene Oregon had/has some of the best teachers when I was young for such things! Or those folks who taught me from the schools I attended to those folks who I would ask if I could work for them just to learn.



Some of the issues we personally have ran into.

Earwigs, nasty things!! The earwigs will get into your blooms and eat away!! We are the High Desert. Meaning when it is spring and summer we get HOT. We joke about how Guy is a water king! He loves to water. Which here in the High Desert one needs to water. Guy is a stickler about this! Guy checks the soil often to see how far down the water has gotten, what six inches is what he says under his breath. This determines how we both water here. Watering also brings in such insects as the earwigs. I have grown up calling earwigs, "pincher bugs".

Since we are a livestock area, we get fresh livestock dung. In this dung comes a host of things such as these tiny worm type insect which eats tubers , bulbs underground! I just ran into more of these the other day while working one of the flower beds. I was not impressed!

Snails and slugs. Again nasty things and birds and the frogs help us with controlling these. Though being in the garden as much as we are, we do our best. I almost went so far as getting chemicals to kill these, however did not go through with it..... keeping in mind birds and the frogs will still eat these chemically lased bugs, which of course go into their system and may make them sick or even kill the birds and the frogs!

Lets see what else? These are the things that come to my mind right now as I am writing this. Aphids I hear folks have issues with these and their Dahlias, however on our Dahlias (knock on wood), we do not have to big of a issue with the Aphids. Nor the Spider Mites again knock on wood!!

Mildew we have a issue with that nasty mildew however again not on our Dahlias or that I can recall at this time.





We are working at this time of getting one of the beds ready for just Dahlias. We will have a couple other things in there as well, but it will be set up just for Dahlias in 2015. Guy's hand is usable at this time finally!! So he will be jumping back into his chores he was unable to do with one hand the entire year of 2014 growing season.



Some of the information I gathered for a post back in 2012 I will add here, plus the bottom photograph I will place the link of that post about the Dahlia for you to read if you so wish.

"The Dahlia is a interesting flower to gardeners like us. They come in so many different colors, sizes (blooms from several inches to a foot or so. They can be as short as a foot, or I read up to 6-8 feet. The tallest ours have gotten has been 5' or so),and many textures.  These are native to Central America, Columbia and Mexico. They had been reported as far back as 1650 a author of a book while he was in Mexico mentioned it in his book when it was finally published."

"

It has been reported the Dahlia was not commercially available until 1813. It took many years to stabilize the species. Mexico made it the national flower in 1963. What I think is really cool is that the Dahlia is a octoploid. It has eight times the haploid chromosome number. Now I am no expert, but this is pretty unique. Most plants have two, just two. Going back way back when I used to read such books for the heck of it , a chromosome is what makes whatever, what it is. The more chromosomes something has, the more diverse a species can be. Hence so many colors, heights, textures,peddle count etc.. "





We actually have tubers that survived the winter!! We have had a pretty mild winter so far! Earlier in the year we had gosh a foot or more of snow and what -14 at one time. Though that was it for us! The weather has been funky I think for us all in the USA.



Like I mentioned in 2015 we will be having one bed just for the Dahlias. Guy brought this up and I am good with the idea! Taking out the Hollyhocks, well their might be a few left on the boarder? I also took out many of the Bachelor Button flowers leaving a controllable amount to care for. I do not want to take away all the flowers that the pollinators like of course!



The Dahlia does attract many of the pollinators, such as all kinds of bee's!!



Well from here I am going to stop chatting and you can see the different Dahlia Flowers we have grown.



























Some of these photographs you may have seen before? Or bought the photographs, or products with the photograph accenting the item?



















I made the above poster in 2012ish? The photograph is also the link to the post, "Many Faces of The Dahlia by Coralie", which is also the name I gave that. Publishing that in 2012. I myself find it entertaining and interesting re reading such things as my old posts just because I write in the here and now. I also notice how much more I pay attention to our chores these days!

As many of you know I am disabled with issues that effect my memory and some other issues. I am fact based. Fact this and fact that, and growing things, attracting wildlife etc. is not real fact based anything haha. Other then my joking around which I call my coping mechanizm I blame on my father hahaha! That is all his fault hahahahahha, just joking!

Thank you for coming by and checking out my photography of our Dahlia Flowers we have grown. 2015 is exciting for I bought some Dahlias from a established, old Dahlia farm right here in Oregon for this year!! See what those and the ones we have here all look like in the flower bed we are preparing just for the Dahlias!

Skipper Butterfly on The Zinnia Flower

Skipper Butterfly on The Zinnia Flower




Meet a Skipper Butterfly that visits our garden every year. Skipper Butterflies are called this for they flutter, or skip from place to place. Not always flowers but to feed the flowers are the place to find them!



The Zinnia Flower patch of ours attracts many such creatures both big and small to their bright colors to feed. Once the creatures are feeding and get used to you, the photography gets easier.



We do get several butterflies here to the garden which I like to see. Fact is here it is February 18, and I saw a bigger butterfly fluttering about yesterday and some smaller moths which was somewhat of a surprise to me since after all it is still winter! Our garden has nothing for these creatures to feed on at the moment.



Soon our garden will be blooming once again and we will see such creatures showing up as we have year after year! Soil is being prepared and/or cleaned up and sprouts of flowering plants are seen everywhere. The weather is being funny, warm for this time of the year. If we do not have a hard frost everything should be blooming early!

Thank you for coming by and checking out this short series of photographs!

Gladiolus Flowers Blooming in the High Desert

Gladiolus Flowers Blooming in the High Desert




Meet the Gladiolus Flowers, or as I will refer to them as the, "Glad flower"!



I added a few colors here for you to see they come in many colors! They are a bulb flower, meaning a hardy bulb is how they grow. I pesonally never had the seeds nor even seen seeds produced from the Glad Flower.



The Glad Flower has grown and bloomed everywhere we have placed the bulbs for some years now. If they come up the next year or not is questionable since frankly Guy is not real impressed with the Glads growing style so he does not take the time to dig up the bulbs. Tell you the truth I forget to dig them up ha!



The Glad Flowers do take extra care. They are top heavy and you have to stake them or tie the flowers up or they will fall over from being so top heavy. If you let them be, or do not tie them, stake them they will fall over.

With that said the Glad flowers are so pretty I want them every year!



Pollinators , like I said I like the beauty of the flower. At this moment I can not think of one pollinator who even comes to the Glad flower! It might be the fact they are top heavy so they fall over easily? Unstable for a pollinator? Though no real bugs attack the Glad flower that I can think of either.......



I am not into cut flowers however for the gardeners that are into cut flower, I would think these would be something a cut grower would have in their garden!

These will again be grown in 2015 and I will be the one who takes care of them. Staking them up, tying them or as I have done before growing  a hardy plant next to the Glad flower to hold the top heavy flower up!

I think the best place we have had these grow is a dryer area we have here in our garden in the High Desert. It is on the south facing side where the sun beats down sometimes to harsh for other flowering plants but the Glad seams to really like this spot! Though the Glad flower has as I have said flowered in every spot we have placed it!



Since I do rely on natural conditions for photography, natural light , natural conditions and do not use fancy computer programs for my photography I really do have to pay attention to the Glad flower. Spent flowers I just do not like to photograph. Instead I like the newly formed flowers, newly "born", flower blooms to photograph. So everyday I walk the small property we have to see what is giving me a new bloom to photograph. Mornings are fabulous! However, I do this several times a day. Typically morning and evening unless we are gone.

Overhead watering is so dangerous with the Glad blooms!! This could put to much weight on them thus falling over. If the Glad was not such a pretty bloom!! I wonder what the unhybrid flowers look like? These Glad Bulbs that you and I have are all hybrids. This is just the way it is!

Soil, since I am not into guessing, I bought yet another soil tester so I can add in the soil properties. We do have our own way of preparing the soil that has came from years and years of Guy and my experience growing flowers..... growing anything is not a scientific thing per say. It is what it is, and we just like doing it and we both are good at it. We do not grow anything if it is going to stress us out! A person can love something so much that they actually kill it just by over loving whatever.

Guy tells a tail about a old women who he ran into while working in the back country putting in roads. She had no electricity, no indoor plumbing and a widow. Guy asked her some advice about her garden. The old women replied that she does not know what she is doing she just does it......

Thank you for coming by and checking out my Gladiolus Flowers. I do have so many more photographs of the Glad however I think these photographs represent a good variety of colors we have grown here in our garden.