Tag: bees

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Barbie's garden Bugs & Pests Gardening Home page features Miscellaneous

Bugs Galore

Springtime spender brings more than the beautiful flowers and great edibles!! It brings the hungry critters that devour those same Spring essentials! They must have all arrived on the same bus, because my garden is full of them!!

A fruit beetle in the Tea Tree

This fly is interesting – what is this?? He seems to be devouring a house fly!! It looks like he is a predator. Perhaps a good thing?

My beautiful Borage flowers always bring the bees!! I make sure they are all over the garden. This one is under my peach tree!

My roses are under attack!! The aphids are having a glorious time !! I am waiting for the lady bugs to come and clean up !! So no pesticide spraying in my garden!

What kind of fly is this in a bee costume!!?? Or a bee in a fly costume!??

More and more aphids! These are black and only under the leaves of my Artemesia Powis Castle! Very interesting. I use them in a tea as a bug repellent!

Here is that weird fly again – can anyone put a name to this?

Now this is the strangest – tons of blue flies all over my Tea Tree flowers! Drunk on the nectar!

I have come to respect all those critters and flying visitors to my garden. If there were no aphids, I would never see a lady bug. So all I need to do is patiently wait for the good bugs to arrive! Garden spiders, frogs and lizards are also gathering to feast on the bugaboos. My birds are always happy to help clean up as well. The sugar bird also helps when the button spider population is over growing!  Every little creature is necessary in the big scheme of things – so as nature intended it to be!! Who are we to interfere!

Happy bugging (and gardening) xxxx

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Barbie's garden Bugs & Pests Gardening Home page features Miscellaneous

Bug-eyed

Its been a while since I have had a chance to write and blog about my garden. Work has been taking up all of my time and before the sun sets, I dash out and take some photos or just play with the chickens in the garden (they always need supervision nowadays – no free run of the place!) This is the time I can really look closely at whats happening in my garden. I can really see the difference and September brought some strange growths – remember the fungus? – and the bugs have started to come out in full force. It is midge season – argh!!! They are small gnat-like flies that bite like the dickens! They come out as the sun is setting and jump all over you. Once they crawl under your sleeve they are more than likely looking for a bite! The chickens’ feather are full of them…I have to give the girls a real rub down to dislodge these critters…. they are worse than mosquitos!

But lets rather look at the interesting bugs in my garden, shall we?…….

[one_half]Shiny armour – not sure if friend or foe[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Looks like he is made of gold![/one_half_last]



[one_third][/one_third]

[one_third][/one_third]

[one_third_last][/one_third_last]

Not a fly nor is it a bee ….any guesses?? A fly in bee’s clothing?? A bee in fly’s clothing ??

 

[one_half]Here’s the real bee! Not an imposter![/one_half]

[one_half_last]The bees love the blue flowers![/one_half_last]

 

[one_half]Butterflies everywhere![/one_half]

[one_half_last]Enjoying the sun’s rays![/one_half_last]

Whats bugging you in your garden?

xxxx

 

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Christine's garden Gardening Home page features Miscellaneous Trees

Dance of the Bees

Bee 1 doing a pirouette

The fol­low­ing buzzing con­ver­sa­tion is based (albeit very loosely) on true fic­tional tales. The names of the Bees have been con­cealed in order to pro­tect their buzzing identity.

Dance of the bees

Overheard on location in Claremont, Cape Town
The Stage: Australian frangipani tree (Hymenosprum Flavum)
Cast of characters (in order of appearance): Bee 1; Bee2; Woman with camera, Bee 3 and Bee4

Bee 1: Buzzz … where is that human now with her camera? Doesn’t she know I have lots to do today, I need to pollinate the flowers and gather nectar …
Bee 2: She better get here soon, the nectar from these blossoms is calling me! And have you seen all the pollen?

Enter: Woman with camera

Bee 1: At last … let’s get on with the show!
Bee 2: Quick, I’ll buzz on over that way whilst you do a few dive bombs …
Bee 1: Ok, I’ll give her a few pirouettes, that should make her smile. (It does!)
Bee 2: Let’s hope she’s focused the camera properly and got the right lens, so we can get back to our flowers!

Bees 3 & 4 appear from the side of the tree …

Bee 3: Bzzzzz, I don’t have time for this today, too much nectar here in the Australian frangipani tree, got to get to it before the darn birds get here!
Bee 4: Me too, you guys can do all the pirouettes you want, I’m starving!
Bee 1: Well that’s very un-sporting of you guys. After all she waters and feeds the plants so we can eat … and doesn’t use any insecticides on them so we are safe! The very least we can do is put on a bit of a show for her.
Bee 2: I’m with Bee 1! Lets get this party started …

Bee 3 & 4 go about the business of pollinating and whatever it is bees do whilst Bee 1 and Bee 2 proceed to do a lovely dance for Woman with camera.
Woman with camera is well pleased with the 200+ shots she took and hopes to have at least 6 she can use.

Woman with camera: Thanks my little Bee friends for the great show! Enjoy your buzzing around the blooms!
Bee 1 & Bee 2: Buzzzz and Thankzzzz! See you again soon!

Photos shot on location

Click to enlarge to see the dance of the Bee!
[one_half]The Stage: Australian frangipani treeAustralian frangipani[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Bee 1 checks out the sceneBee 1 checks out the scene[/one_half_last]

[one_half]Bee 2 gets ready for actionBee 2 gets ready for action[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Bee 1 doing a pirouetteBee 1 doing a pirouette[/one_half_last]

[one_half]Around and around …Around and around ...[/one_half]

[one_half_last]and around she goesand around she goes[/one_half_last]

From the Bees and I, we wish you …
Happy Gardening
xxx

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Christine's garden Gardening Home page features

Bee-ootiful

Bees

Bee-ootiful

I love seeing the bees buzzing around my garden. When I see them busily buzzing around from flower to flower then I know I am doing something right by providing them with nectar and pollen to attract them to my garden. The sun came out for a short while today so I sat in a puddle when the drizzling stopped to watch them buzzing from flower to flower in the Rose Bed. The only flowers they seem interested in right now are the Alyssum I planted here. I never realised Alyssum had any fragrance until I sat there waiting to capture at least one photograph of the bees and realised they do smell – quite pretty actually when nothing much else is going on in the garden. It was a lovely half hour spent amongst the flowers and the bees before it started drizzling again and I ran for cover.

Oh … and in case you are wondering, I only managed to get one half-way decent photograph of the bee in that half hour. Photography, like gardening, takes practice. But as they say, practise makes perfect. I’ll get there, one day (I hope). If nothing else, I’m learning to be patient!

Happy gardening
xxx