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Our weather is so crazy that plants don’t know when to bloom! Hahaha 🤣
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How do you "find" a pumpkin? Are your neighbours pranking you?
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Found a punkin in the garden.
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The other day R noticed an apple tree that had both apples and apple blossoms on it. That's a first!
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Pamzi
i noticed this weekend I had lilies blooming that normally bloom in the spring.
Crazy
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My lilacs are blooming! wth?
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After a couple of unseasonably warm weeks the temperature has taken a nose dive and we've been getting what looks like lake effect rain squalls, my rain gauge shows almost 4" 😲. Fortunately I heeded the forecast and have most of my garden put to bed, there are just a few tomatoes and peppers left out and my dahlias and cannas.
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Lavender,

I am so sorry about your recent hurricane. So sad.

I have been through my share of storms too. I’m in New Orleans.

Katrina wrecked havoc on our city in August of 2005. Storms are miserable to deal with.
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Thought I'd post on the Gardening Thread because it's about nature.

My area had a Hurricane last night & my favorite city (right next to where I live) in under water now. There was a storm surge of around 9 feet, and many people have 4-5 feet of water in their houses.
People and pets are being rescued, and there's so much damage.

I live in very close to the Gulf and am saddened to see the sweetest little town that revolved around nature, gardens, tourism, wildlife preserves,& manatee preservation so badly damaged. Such nice people there, too. Always so friendly and happy to live among nature. Am so thankful that we're not hearing about injuries or deaths, but am sad about the whole situation.

There's no damage where I live as I'm not in a storm surge zone - but, am just feeling so bad about this and don't have any family to share it with. Sorry, if this post doesn't quite fit into the Gardening topic, but I thought Gardeners and nature lovers would understand.
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Daughter,

That sounds fabulous! 😊
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We just went to TX and visited a famously not good Mexican restaurant where at the end of the meal the servers bring fresh, hot sopaipillas that you “stab” with a container of honey so the honey is inside. Beyond yummy, and the perfect end to a mediocre meal! I’m sure someone can name the chain, it’s been around forever. It’s our favorite use of honey!
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I think it's one of those "you can't prove a negative" things, maybe your allergies would be worse without the honey.
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Do you believe that if we eat honey from our local areas that it will help with our allergies?

I am allergic to everything. I eat local honey that I buy at the farmers market. I still deal with allergies!

I find prices are going up at the farmers markets. I do enjoy going though. Lots of great vendors.
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LOL Send, my aunt and uncle kept honeybees and he also used bee stings for his arthritis.
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I’m seeing lots of butterflies near my plumbago plants. So pretty!
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How to tell the bees to use a different entrance, lol.
You may have to learn to use Beespeak!
Start practicing your Zzzz's and hummms! 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 You will be very bizzy!

Online mentions spraying vinegar for honeybees, to get them to move on.
Maybe a can of open vinegar nearby the entrance (not both entrances) will get them to move or make a new entrance?

One elderly old coot I met had the bees sting his hands several times to cure arthritis.
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I have lots of bumblebees all over my flowers now which I know is a good thing. I guess I will have to think about how to block up the current entrances later in the year or early next spring, but they would be welcome to live under my shed if they would only find new a way in and out.
Our front veranda bees returned every year until my father rebuilt the porch. I've wondered since then why my father didn't do anything to get rid of them because all of us were stung occasionally - although now that I think of it I can't remember him ever being stung 🤔
The dog hated them, he made a sport out of chasing and killing bees 🐝
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Found this:
Bumblebee nests don't live for long, so the nest should die naturally within a few months. After that time, the new queens will have flown from the nest to hibernate in the soil elsewhere. It is possible that a different bumblebee queen will find and use the same hole next year.
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This won't help you, Cwillie.
But interesting bee behaviors.
Early spring we had a swarm of bees at the cape honeysuckle.
I was getting ready to panic (=means find a quick but maybe expensive solution) because dH is allergic to bee stings.
He said: Leave them alone, they are swarming, looking for a home, and will leave in a few days. They left.

So, I asked him what you should do about the more permanent bumblebees under your shed.
He said, leave them alone.

That means, I guess, don't go out to your shed, and stop composting for awhile?

Obviously, I don't have the answer!
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I’m amazed at how fast carpenter bees destroy a surface. I have a picket fence near my patio. I continually find piles of sawdust at the bottom of my fence.
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Cwillie, not only have the carpenter bees made tunnels, but woodpeckers (Downey and Hairy) have pecked some tunnels open to eat the larvae! It’s infuriating!
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That's a good idea Anabanana. They were originally coming out under the door but now are using an entrance behind my composter (which makes taking out my compost exciting!), putting up a barrier between the nest and composter could solve that!
Sis and BIL had a carpenter bee that decided their wooden windows were the perfect place for a nest, before I managed to capture it the tunnel got so deep I expected it to break through into the house.
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Cwillie, could you mount a sheet of something between their entrance and the direction from which you approach the shed? Hang a cloth, or lean a sheet of wood. Might minimize contact as they veer around to the other side.

I have a huge problem with carpenter bee damage. They look a lot like bumbles, but instead of having fuzzy butts, theirs look like black plastic.
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I have bumble bees living under my garden shed. Yay for bees, right? Except I grew up with bees living in a crack of our concrete front veranda and I know that coexisting with bumble bees is not a benign thing, although they mostly just want to do their own thing they occasionally get aggressive, and that's not a good thing. And unlike their honey producing cousins they can sting more than once. What to do?
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This year we did not plant any cukes, but some that were left in the garden over the winter decided we needed them. At this point I have been taking "organic" cukes to work every week, and the staff loves them! And no one cares if they have boo boos , they are just happy for free fresh produce these days! This evening he brought in a huge yellow one,, it seems ripe, it was just under all the leaves! Oh well, someone will take it!
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I don't think a mango tree would fit in my house Send 🥭🌳LOL
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I love mangoes!
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Cwillie,
You could try to grow the tree! That would be so very cool.

I am someone who does not like old, damaged, or fruit eaten by something else. And, I like to know the origin of the fruit.
My dH is the opposite.

I think it was Trader Joes or Whole Foods that might have started a market selling less than perfect fruits and veges.
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I have a green cone composter and when I was tossing some corn husks into it I noticed something growing in there. Curious I reached down to pull it up and it's a mango, I have manged to sprout a mango seed in Ontario. Wouldn't it be cool if I could grow it into a tree! (I wish)
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Looked like something a robin or some other bird would do Send, if I'd thought it was a rodent I wouldn't have eaten it.
I've joined the gardening group on reddit and it's crazy how so many people freak out about a little bit of insect damage or less than perfection on their fruits and veggies. When we were kids we ate the wormy apples, we'd spit out the scabby bits and if we encountered a worm we'd just toss it and get another.
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