How's Robb?

 

  It has been another lovely week in the garden. The beans are starting to ripen. It’s nice to pick enough for the two of us each day. This was what I picked on Saturday.  And this is what I picked on Sunday. The dragon tongue beans continue to be my absolutely favorite bean. Beautiful, easy to spot when harvesting, and unfailingly tender when I let them get a bit overgrown.  The red swan beans are nice, but I think I might try a different purple variety next year. If anyone has any suggestions for purple beans that do well in the Bay Area, I’d love to hear your thoughts.  This was the first year I managed to grow breadseed poppies. I’ve tried these in the past, and could not get them to germinate. I absolutely love the colors and the architectural quality of the seed pods.  Another first this year was a respectable crop of figs from the tree I got from my neighbors. They had it in a pot, and it was really struggling. They’d ironically named it Jésus (with Spanish pronunciation), becau

Last weekend I did a long-overdue inspection of my Emperor Norton hive. The colony, which previously had been so vigorous, seemed to be struggling.  As soon as I lifted the lid off the hive I could see the problem. The hive had been infiltrated by wax moths and their destructive larvae.  I don’t have any photos because my camera was misbehaving. And honestly, a wax moth infestation is both difficult to photograph and disgusting in person. I wasn’t interested in struggling with my camera in order to photograph that mess.  There was also a thriving community of spiders in the hive box. The less said about that, the better.  I removed all of the larvae-riddled honeycomb because the bees were avoiding it. This left the bees with a snug home and significantly fewer uninvited guests   Over the course of the past week, Robb had cleaned the nastiest comb out of the frames I had removed from the hive. We saved what we could, which wasn’t much.  On Saturday, I added a box of clean frames to the

  My life has been incredibly hectic since theaters were allowed to re-open, so things like blogging have completely languished.  To be honest, things were so unsettled during the time theaters were closed that I just didn’t know what to say. During this entire time my garden was a great source of comfort.  No matter what else was going on, I knew that things were growing in my tiny urban garden.  Bees would be foraging, and the scrub jays would be seeking out mischief. Because of the 4th of July falling on a Monday, I actually had a long weekend, and I spent every bit of it in my garden.  I had recently rearranged some of our vintage lawn furniture, which has been a great success with cats and humans alike.  The chickens circle like sharks when Robb and I eat outside, but we selfishly do not share our meals with them. We’re currently in a glorious time of year for backyard fruit. The red currants are just finishing up, and the pluots are ripening.   I’ve already made jam with the gree