My husband works out with Rhona Mahony, who is dedicated to helping the honeybee population in our area.  She works out with my husband Leonard.  She asked and I agreed to host a beehive in our garden in January. But Rhona is a volunteer, and she works with volunteers, and she builds beehives on her own time with donated materials, so it took a while to get built.

I think it is pretty.

In what I see as a strange twist of fate, it arrived at my house in April, the day after my father in law Jack died.   Jack was always enthusiastic about bees, and I did not realize why until just recently. In Polish his name, TRZMIEL, means a type of bee.

And they have been busy! They pollinated the HECK out of my berries, setting me up for a great crop.

So much happened  before and after Jack’s death that I have let my garden go completely to flower.  Even the carrots are fixing to flower, which is going to be good for the bees. So when people ask what I’m growing these days, I say ‘flowers.’

The netting on the fence has provided support for cucumbers, beans, sweet peas and snap peas over the years. Now it is waiting for the nasturtiums to climb up.

The real intense blue is from anagallis monelii, an annual I got from Annie’s Annuals. The less intense blue is from borage, which spreads like crazy in my garden. White is alyssum, erigeron, and feverfew.  It’s a mess, but the bees love it. There’s some kale and asparagus, also, and the odd potato plant.

The honeybees have been so happy, I think they sent off a daughter swarm.  I know for a fact they are making lots of trips to the flowers in my area, and making lots of honey, if you can tell by this picture.

The honey in these combs is not visible in this picture because of the lighting, but it’s there!