Spring Bee Hiving Moon
Scraping the mulch off the bulbs today, that scent, you know the one, decayed leaf matter mixed with the soil came up. It says life is at work here, even in the midst of death. That smell alone brings me out in the early days of gardening. It was there when I raked off the mulch over the beds where I planted the carrots and the beets.
Then, under the leaves are pale green stalks emerging, starved for direct sun, happy to have their cover removed. They’ll get a deeper green in just a day or two. We’re past the time for freezes of any serious sort now though frost is not only still possible, it’s still likely until around May 10, May 15.
The whole garden will gradually come back into full life. The spring ephemerals shoot up now and will bloom soon. The carrots and beets will germinate and then in mid-May we’ll drop in the tomatoes, peppers, beans, chard, kale, melons, cucumbers and eggplants. Meanwhile the fruit trees will bud, then flower, as will the currants and the elderberries and the gooseberries and the blueberries.
If the bees are alive, and I hope they are, they’ll be getting busy. I’ll have a divide this year instead of a package, which means I’ll have to buy a queen for the divide. If they’re really going. I’ll find out tomorrow.