Gardeners are Strange
Gardeners are strange people. All gardeners know this, but sometimes it’s a secret. The beauty of our strangeness is that we can hide it very, very well. We can smile and look perfectly normal while people admire the pretty landscape we have created.
What others don’t see is the darker – or weirder – side of gardening. They don’t see the manic glee in our eyes when we are in our backyards up to our eyeballs in cow plop, the oh-so-sexy wardrobe of construction worker boots and 20 year old tee shirts, the frantic struggle to get that huge @%$# shrub (@%$# means dang of course) OUT OF THE GROUND so we can move it to a better location while telling said shrub we are helping it…just talking away to a shrub. This is all normal for the gardener but we are fairly careful not to let the neighbors see this behavior.
Until blogging. Then suddenly we decided, heck, let’s just tell the world about our weirdness. Just throw it right out there. Of course we hope our neighbors don’t read our blogs but hey, rest of the world, you all get to know about our habits beyond the pretty flowers.
Like any other gardener, my property is my bubble and it’s a happy place I love it here you can come in but if you are a pain in the butt or carry bad karma you can just leave now thank you very much ta ta I don’t see you any more I’m very busy…
But my latest weirdness made me realize that I am truly a nut. What is my latest weirdness? This:
What is this? Well I’m not really sure what I am doing. In fact, I rarely know what I’m doing but that’s another post. What I was attempting was to feed feral honey bees. There I was, taking a rest from yard work, and I realized that there were honey bees flying around. Not a few – a lot of honey bees. We are having a warm spell and suddenly here the bees were. My habitat gardener mind instantly went into overdrive and I was looking up how to feed feral honey bees, what is the morality of this, should I feed them or let nature handle it, what do they eat, etc.
I read a zillion web pages but took a recipe from WikiBooks Beekeeping of 1:1 ratio of sugar and water to make a syrup. Now anything recommended for feeding bees did not apply to me as I wasn’t dealing with hives I kept and had no idea where the wild hive was located. Not that this stopped me. Next thing you know, I am getting spring water, anise extract and, not happening to have a bee feeder on hand, searching for any saucer I had with color in it. All of my dishes are white, I love white, no color, dang…and stealing nandina leaves from a neighbor. Nandina is a dirty word in GA but I’d finally found an application for it.
So I read, ran to the store, tried to figure out what to do and had an absolute blast in my bubble watching the little bees. Did it work? Heck no. But still, I had fun. It was interesting. And I’ll try to learn a lot more about it so that I might actually know what I am doing.
Still, I grasp how strange it is to get in a flutter over the bees. I do understand that they have stored winter food and don’t need me. It’s Gardener’s OCD.
I also got busted. Someone came to work at the house and asked me, very kindly as if they might set me off, what the dish of liquid was. My reaction was to ask the man, “Do I have to admit what that is?” But I’ll post it on a blog and tell the world.
But my property is my bubble and it’s a happy place I love it here you can come in but if you are a pain in the butt or carry bad karma you can just leave now thank you very much ta ta I don’t see you any more I’m very busy…
For an interesting read on feral hives, please visit: SaveTheHives Feral Bee Project.
Bloom Day What’s Blooming for Bees May
Strange? Karyl, whatever do you mean? I don’t think what you’ve done is strange at all. You might even attract some hummingbirds with those red flowers even if the bees don’t use it
p.s. I don’t see why we should be embarrassed to admit we dig up shrubs to move them 1′ to the right!! I think we all need to come out of the closet on this!!! Enough shame, more pride!
You too? You make me feel much better! I’ve moved shrubs 1′, like it’s going to matter a whit when that shrub is 20′x20 at maturity. Still, that 1′ was important!
Sssshhh! Now everyone will know how OCD we gardeners are!
Had to laugh at the cow poop…after shoveling 3 yards of lovely horse manure up into the compost pile, and all I could think about was how much better my gardens would be for it. It’s better than TV, more rewarding by far, and much better exercise too!
I get giddy over manure. Just giddy. Most gardeners do. Say “wood chips” and I may pass out.
What is this tv stuff?