08-31-12 Genus Musa

Or, in simpler English, bananas (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana  for those who want to learn more)
 
I mentioned in my last post that one of my banana trees ( a misnomer since bananas really are herbaceous plants with cells full of water, not wood) had produced a flower.


 I love banana flowers for their beauty and also because they are so intriguing in the way they open one bract (that thing that looks like a very large, red, petal) at a time, revealing a whole "hand" of small flowers mounted on top of the future banana.

I also happen to be very partial to bananas because, many moons ago, when I first arrived in Kibbutz Matzuba, in Galilee, my first job was in the bananas fields where, through a number of seasons, I got to harvest tons of the fruit, unload them at the packing plant and, in spring, I got to plant thousands of new banana "trees".

Those were the late 60s, I was young, loved the adventure of new experiences and, in the early 70s, I met my future wife (My future wife? My present wife? My imperfect wife? My conditional wife? My imperative wife? What tense do I use that's not gonna get me in trouble?)there. So that I have a lot of nostalgic attachment to the place and the plants.

Many moons ago in a banana field in Northern Israel.

As I traveled , I also got to see how ubiquitous and useful banana plants could be, not just for feeding people with a great self wrapped snack, but as a wrapper to cook food and, in Southern India, they serve whole meals on a piece of banana leaf that gets thrown in the street after use for the "holy" cows to eat.
A great way to handle dishes!

 When caught in a rain in Indonesia or Malaysia, I would see locals cut a large banana leaf to use as umbrella to be discarded after the downpour. No need to ever carry a " brolly" as my English friends call it.

But, all in all, the plant itself is very attractive, exotic looking and its flowers are simply amazing, especially when you get to watch their slow opening over the hours of the day. In my case, it is now bordering on obsession.

When we moved to this place, 28 years ago, I planted bananas and bamboo to  recreate that Asian atmosphere. The little kids in the neighborhood who used to play hide and seek in it, nicknamed it "The Jungle". For them it was.

More pictures:

I am in luck right now as I found a second flower this morning but one from a different species, with red bananas:

Bees:they seem to have recovered from last week's assault and are going about their business while stashing away the extra food I supply them with. 
  Right now, their main complaint is from the heat since the thermometer has gone up again. This afternoon, some of them were "bearding" or hanging out in clusters outside the hive because they find it too stifling inside.

08-28-12 Stinging hoodlums

I waited as long as I could before writing this piece for the pain was too great. Last week, as I was looking through the front glass door, I noticed a highly unusual activity by my front hive. It looked like a cloud of bees coming in and out of the hive's front entrance. At closer look, I realized that hive was being robbed. I blocked the entrance to the hive while facing bees that were way more aggressive than mine.
 I guess robbers have to have an attitude!
 I left it closed for about an hour and things settled down. Having lost access to the honey the attackers had moved on. The next morning I opened it and found only about a third of the honey left.

Two days later, as I checked my two backyard hives, I was alarmed by the presence of dead bees and dead baby bees by the entrance.

Even though it was drizzling, I immediately opened both hives to find out all their honey was gone. Just a few days earlier, I had told some of my colleagues how important it was for me to keep the honey inside the hives for "the girls" to eat in winter.
They deserve it!
The next day, my whole yard was invaded by super aggressive bees that roamed in gangs and even went after me, something my bees never do. Based on their actions, I have to assume they were Africanized bees (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africanized_bee)
I have since tried to get in touch with the county beekeeping association to get confirmation of their presence in the Triangle but got no response so far.

So, what's a man to do once he realizes his girls are no Amazons and they get their butt kicked by some roaming hoodlums? First I reduced the entrance to the hive to make it easier to defend ( a little late since the proverbial horse is out of the barn), I started feeding them sugar syrup and pollen patties which, added to whatever they still can collect at this time of year might allow them to rebuild enough storage for winter.
Now my source of delight has turned into a cause for anxiety as I try to read every odd in-flight as a potential threat.

On the good side: time to think about and start the Fall/Winter garden with some lettuce and endives growing in flats and some bush beans and kale started directly into the garden.

Emerging bush bean

Future lettuce

On the not so good side: I have been receiving more and more nocturnal visits by Bambi and family, nibbling here, chopping there.
Since I refuse to live without my home grown cool season greens, I am now forced to stretch some deer fencing around some of the beds (I do not want to fence the whole garden) but it takes away the open look/feel I really like.

Sometimes it is hard to love nature!!!!! :( :( :( but, no, I do not plan to give up.

Pictures:

It figured I couldn't see it, hidden as it was.

Banana flower. For perspective, it is about three feet long. As it opens up, I will keep you in pictures.

Spanish Trumpet

Pickerel plant. Lives in shallow water and in bogs.

Passion flower, so called because it reminds some people of Christ's crown of thorns.

Summer heat and the first signs of fall

Summer heat still is a challenge, limiting my garden work to mornings only, all the while surrounded by a cloud of hungry mosquitoes. that's where long pants and sleeves come handy.

Tomatoes: those over 100 degree days have negatively impacted my crop. I went from having enough to share and dry to barely keeping up with family needs. Mid Summer temps are just too high and, in essence, block the whole pollination process. It should resume soon even though daylight will also be much shorter. You can already tell: no more going to walk at 5:30; it's still dark.

Rain: we have been luckier than those poor farmers in the Mid-West with fairly regular rains. Water is life; w/o it life become rough. I do not complain, having lived in places where drinking water was trucked in and I sure appreciate every drop of rain but while some of us have seen plenty, my corner of the woods has not received the one inch a week considered minimum to keep crops healthy around here.

And sometimes, even what you wish can have a down side. A few days ago we had a misty day and lots of my figs (a fruit that loves water near the roots but not on the fruit) just exploded from the moisture, opening a feeding frenzy among my bees, wasps and big green beetles. Messy! Not to mention that picking good fruit surrounded by so many stingers forces you to major caution.

Figs: in spite of that incident and some bird thievery, figs have come in very nicely. What I do not eat fresh, or share, I put through the dehydrator.

Sliced in half, ready to go in!

Butterflies: have been a more common sight, finally even though the numbers still have not reached what we used to have just a few years ago.
This one tried to sneak into one of my hives while the bees were doing their afternoon orientation dance. No luck, the guards were paying attention and I saw it stumbling down onto the wood chips. It tried several times with the same failing results. I am sure that honey smelled awful nice from its viewpoint.

Other butterflies just preferred flowers:

Da banana jungle: 

Bee killer: this dragon fly not only grabbed one of my bees for lunch but it landed on my office window first to remind me who the boss is around here. It's not just in the Godfather any more!

08-04-2012 Fig time!

The good news for this week is that figs are finally turning color and producing nice amounts of everyday sweet pleasure. The ones in the pictures are my favorites: "Violette de Bordeaux" a.k.a. locally as "La Negrita". It has great color, a nice firm body and is not too sweet (to quote my son David:"The way I like my women!") I also have a "Chicago", sweeter than V de B , a B-17 so named because it was smuggled out of Greece after WWII by a B-17 pilot. Now this one really is sweet. I received it last year from Paul Pepper who loves tinkering with different cultivars but saw this year's crop killed by a late frost (He lives in Northern Wake County) here is my B-17; it was just a few inches tall last year and is now four feet tall:

I almost forgot my other fig tree. It was supposed to be a "Brown Turkey" but based on its watery taste, it was mislabeled and I am the one who's been taken for a turkey. trouble is, that baby is already eight feet tall. I guess I'll keep it for the birds.

Important: Sharing being at the heart of happiness, if you live close enough and want to get figs, let me know a couple of days ahead of time to make sure I have not already promised that day's crop to anybody else and I'll be happy to share with you. Just let me know how much you want/need and I'll make sure to save them for you.

Other than that, tomatoes are still doing well albeit growing a little slower; that heat is tough even on them. Perfect time of the year for tomato/cheese sandwiches but, the real good ones you have to eat standing by the sink; they're a little too juicy for civilized eating.

My cucumber production has come to a halt: high temps hinder proper pollination and you're left with an ugly worn out vine that you keep watering hoping the weather will cool a little sometimes and the cukes will produce a few more fruit.

Started thinking about my fall/winter crops.( Gardeners never live in the moment, they always think about the next crop, a few weeks down or a few years away if planning to plant trees. Only the fresh taste of new fruit or produce brings them back to the present.)

Ah the thought of fresh, crisp lettuce or endive!!!!

In the meantime, I keep sweating away in the garden most mornings trying to keep things fairly tidy and spreading some fresh wood chips around big plants and on the paths. Craig Brown, a North Raleigh tree surgeon surprised me with a load the day before my birthday so that I have been sweating away spreading the good stuff. Craig knows that a good man never has too many wood chips. :)

Pictures:

one of my favorite fellows in the garden; I call it" banana spider" because of its color bur it is really known as the Argiope Aurantia and the garden spider. It builds amazingly strong webs, allowing it to capture insects larger than itself and it does some kind of magic dance when you touch its web, most probably to help stick it to the poor sucker.