a box of bees

got home..found a box of bees in the mailbox ( first photo ) ...so i put out the bee house ( second ) and then opened the box...a few had hatched out in transit ( third ) and so i put them in the refrigerator fr about twenty minutes to slow them down ( fourth )..the outdoor temperature ( fifth ) was well warm enough and so i opened the mesh bag ( sixth ) and put it out in the house ( seventh )..in a matter of a few minute ( five perhaps ) the hatched bees began to emerge ( eighth through fifteenth )...solitary, non-aggressive pollinators for my suburban back yard..and, with luck, cocoons in the autumn...i will be putting the cocoons i harvested last autumn out over the weekend...more bee news as it happens..or as i find it.

vines and stolons with a few stems

back home i had a look around the back yard...the first photo is of the ramp bed a month ago..lots of green...the second is toady..all the green is in the eighteen stems that will hopefully flower as the summer goes on...the teosinte ( fourth and fifth ) at home continues to do well and clearly shows its parentage of maize more and more..the daughter plant in the pot is leafing well ( sixth ) and the stolon ( seventh ) that rooted and created it has moved on to reproduce again...some of the strawberry plants i put in last friday seem very unhealthy...and a few are exhibiting new growth ( eighth and ninth )..all i need is a couple to survive and there will be daughter plants...meanwhile the chinese yam is vining all over..they are entwining with the cage around the pepper plant and with one another...( tenth through thirteenth )...there will be aerial bulbs soon enough.

dry...die back...new growth

ran out to the community garden after work to check on my bed....a mixed bag of news...i fear the replacement teosinte has failed to take and it is late..so one plant will be the lot...and it was seriously curled from transpiration ( first photo )...some water and about fifteen minutes served to unfurl the leaves a bit ( second photo )..even the native jerusalem artichokes looked a dry ( third ) so they were well watered as well..the spuds ( fourth ) looked fine and the sunchokes perked up some after a bit (fifth ) but where was the rye that was there two days ago? not fallen in the natives ( sixth and seventh) some thing ( one ) do it in? nowhere to be found...at first glance the asparagus looked fine( eighth ) but one of the spears has died back ( ninth )...this has been offset by plentiful growth of new spears ( tenth through twelfth )...all the plants are resilient and all should be fine....that asparagus bothers me though.

a variety of plants and places

i ran out to the community garden after work to water the teosinte mostly...the soil was dry and the well established one was showing some leaf curl from transpiration ( first photo )...one of the replacement plants is till visible ( second ) but not leafing and the other has failed completely...there may be a solitary plant there this season...interestingly in the next bed over one of the carolina horsenettles has flowered ( third and fourth ) clearly showing its membership in the solanum ( and so nightshade ) family...it would be interesting to see if it fruits and what they might look like...the jerusalem artichokes are up to my waist..a good sign...the back yard meanwhile has alfalfa blooming ( fifth and sixth ) while the northern tepehuan teosinte ( seventh ) is looking distinctly corny...there is new growth on one of the wild strawberries ( eighth ) and finally the chinese yam's new vines have finally become large enough to be photogenic ( ninth through twelfth ) including one that is just about to latch onto the tomato cage around the pepper plant...there will be more.