It’s madness I tell you. One minute I’m looking out my kitchen window and admiring the new season’s blossoms, next there’s fruit. What’s going on!
I’m astounded by the growth in my garden in just a few short weeks. Just like clockwork, Spring brought my fruit trees out in blossom: pretty pink peach, white apple/pear/citrus and the very beautiful yet alien passionfruit flower. Surprisingly my apricot tree seemed to miss that phase completely and went straight to fruit. I must have blinked and missed it!
One thing for certain is I’m doing something right to help bring in the bees: they love blues, violets and purples. As I’ve rediscovered, any blue flowering plant you can partner in your garden is perfect companion for your fruit trees and vegetable garden when it comes to pollination. In my case, herbs are my blue and purple flowers of choice: rosemary, sage, borage, lavender – they all attract bees in a beautiful frenzy.
These herbs flower at different times of the year which means the bees always will have a temptation to fly over to my garden and check out what’s hot.
Beautiful Blue Borage
Borage is a particular stand-out in my garden. Its striking blue star-shaped flowers are a huge draw card for the bees. The flowers are fit for human consumption too, one of the many edible flowers out there. Not that I’ve dined on them myself but apparently you can eat the leaves too – they allegedly taste a little like cucumber. The leaves themselves a hairy but soon disappear once they’ve been cooked – sauteed or steamed.
The borage plant itself is very hardy. In fact, once you have it in your garden it will be a friend for life as it self-seeds. My main borage plant is as tall as me (OK so I admit I’m short, but still it’s a massive plant). The stalks are a little prickly so you may want to wear gloves if you’re planning on handling.
Bring on the Bees
Bees are curious things. They will travel up to 8kms from their hive to forage for nectar and pollen.
Pollen is a source of protein used to build the hive (bees transfer eggs into cells with protein). Nectar is converted to honey (is stored for energy during winter months).
Bees don’t like wind or wet weather, so if they find haven in your backyard be thankful as there are growers out there who would be screaming to trade places. We need to look after our bees!
How does my garden grow? Quite contrary. Here are my other blooming colours of Spring in my backyard: passionfruit, peach, apples, citrus, broad beans AND my apricots.
Wish me luck!
