The MidPoint of Summer

 July feels like it's smack in the middle of Summer. When in reality it is the downward slope. Our minds fight with the calendar perception of summer being June, July, and August, while the garden and crops are just getting truly in July, and while the sunlight hours of the day start to plummet.  While it does manage to get quite warm in June, July is the barometer for the impending heat in August. In which case, July was already telling us that August would be brutal. The rains and storms were still coming on a regular basis, but were slowing down.  The storms were violent, beautiful, and came mostly at night.

The heat index would routinely hit over 100 and reached 117'F on a regular basis. Smoke from Western wildfires hung in the air like a dirty yellow blanket. Day and night the skies offered only filtered light, and little clean oxygen to breathe.

After the 4th of July, we seemed to skip July altogether and go into the drought and oppressive heat normally reserved for August. Tomatoes and plants enjoy the warm nights but brutally hot days and ridiculously hot nights stunted them I was looking towards a lower than average harvest season in a year that had seemed perfect for them.  The grapevine was still going gangbusters and I was enjoying documenting their quick progression.  

The zinnias, cut flowers, and sunflowers took off and were enjoyed by not only the pollinators but also the local small songbirds.

By the 3rd week in July we brought in our first basket of tomatoes and the grapes were turning deep rose. Canning season had started!  

Last year I crossed a black corn with an orange corn and came up with the center corn. FUN!

Tomatoes and Blackberries

These are giant green June Bugs, and we
were up to our eyeballs in them in the 
chicken garden. They especially love to lay 
their eggs in poo, which the chicken garden is
planted in. The chickens LOVE to eat the tomatoes
AND the beetles.

The littles started sleeping inside, but didn't quite understand
they were to use the perches. Instead they slept on the nest box 
edges and the fan mount, which resulted in a few clipped feathers
and toenails.

The cutflowers including alfalfa, Queen Anne's lace, and 

It's National Pollinator Week

Yup, the little critters that flit from flower to flower so that we can enjoy spectacular blooms, delicious fruits, and farm fresh veggies have their own appreciation week.

Who knew?!

Here at Dunrovin Station, we are happy to have pollinators of all shapes and sizes.  We have a 4 acre hay meadow full of not only prairie grasses, but also many species of flowering wildflowers.

We also have  a half acre bee meadow full of wildflowers and clover, and the rows between the apple trees are allowed to go wild, which provides the pollinators not only more places to play, but draws them towards our fruit trees and then further down the hill towards the garden.

To further encourage pollinators, I have built a bee house.  Yes, that's a real thing.  I would LOVE to have a bee hive and enjoy the harvest of sticky, golden bee spit. The local community college even has a long term class on beekeeping, which ends with you having your own hive.  However, I don't think taking on yet another project or learning experience right now is the way to go.  So I might look into that for next year.

I still want to encourage pollinators, especially honey bees.  But until then, I will house Mason bees.  These little bees are fabulous things.  They don't swarm, and they don't sting.  They simply flit around pollinating things, all they ask is for a place to live.  So wish granted.

I built a shelter and provided a waterer.  The logs are covered in 5/16" holes, with no rough jagged edges.  They are situated so that they are out of the sun and wind, and are protected from the harshest of the rains.  And of course, are in the middle of a meadow!  The water container is an old chicken waterer, which had seen better days and was covered in rust.  I sanded it down and painted it.  We've had so much rain that I haven't had to fill it.  The edge keeps refilling itself.  Painted white and bright red, I've even seen hummingbirds stopping by for happy hour.

You can buy Mason bee houses, which are about the size of a bird house and filled with 5/16th" wood/ composite straws.  (I have no affiliation with any of these sellers.) There are some cute ones on Easy, and Pinterest, and are available all over the internet.  Either way, your Mason bees will love you for it.

For more information on how to encourage pollinators in your yard, contact your local extension office.  A simple google search will send you in the right direction, or check out the Pollinator Partnership.



UPDATE*****

I went out to take some sunset photos this evening (16 June) and found this..! The bees have found us and are moving IN!