Lavender, Roses and Bees-Flower Gardening Magic

Lavender, roses and bees take center stage in our summer garden. Lavender blooms profusely throughout the garden now, and the border around the rose garden area is a symphony of humming and buzzing. Hubby and I worked on the garden pathways on Saturday, completing a record number of feet in one day; we finished the main pathway steps, then the circle around the rose garden. We have about 5 more feet of walkway to complete, stones on the work path to cement, and then we need to agree on the “ta-da!” factor at the garden entrance. I set aside a special stepping stone I bought at B and M Greenhouse in Farmville for the entrance; it has a butterfly impressed upon its surface. I’m considering buying those bright rock-sized glass stones at the dollar store that florists use to fill clear vases with to create a stained-glass effect, but I can’t decide if it will look dazzling or Las Vegas showgirl cheap at the entrance. I get the sneaking suspicion that a scattering of those glass rocks may look too glittery for my country garden. I also have visions of them becoming slick with moss over the years and causing someone to tumble down the garden path a la Jack and Jill in the old nursery rhyme. I think I’d better wait and see what Hubby comes up with.

Garden entrance. Tempting to add some glitz, but it’s going to ruin the natural look! Morning glories climb the trellis.

You can see from the pictures today how we are working on the pathways. First, they are cleared of weeds. The ground is hard-packed clay so I usually pull the larger weeds first thing in the morning when the dew wets the ground enough to loosen the weeds. Next, we tack down 4 foot wide landscape fabric.  Turns are tough; you have to slice and fold the fabric like wrapping a present.

The path to the right shows you stones on fabric. The pebbles are added last.

Next, we place the slates. That’s another tough job since we bought the wrong kind of slates – we purchased the kind people use to build stone walls, not the kind for pathways. They’re all of different thicknesses.  We have to work carefully through the piles of slates and find ones of comparable thickness. Then we have to spend time placing them into a pleasing pattern.

Last, I haul buckets of pebbles from the pile we had delivered.  Originally we bought Quick Krete concrete filler pebbles, but the company changed them from the nice little white and natural colored stones to ugly dark gray ones this year. Bags were a lot easier to haul around the garden, that’s for sure. Instead, we bought a truckload of river stones from Jamerson’s in Appomattox, and had them delivered into a big pile.  My job during construction is to walk two pails back and forth from the pile up the slight hill to wherever Hubby is working.  We dump the pails, and then do it all over. I am hoping it builds beautiful biceps muscles; I hauled so many pounds of stones this weekend I must have gotten a good workout!

Flower garden is buzzing with bees!

But the lavender and the bees…I couldn’t get over the variety of bees buzzing about the lavender. Bumble bees, honey bees, wasps, hornets, yellow jackets. I know it sounds like a nightmare, and if you’d asked me this back in New York City before I moved, when I was a happily commuting suburbanite, my reaction would have been “Where’s the can of Raid?”  I hated bees. My mom used to frighten me every time I went outside to play, “Now stay away from the bees or you’ll get stung!” as if getting stung is the worse thing in the world. Well, I got stung by a yellow jacket last year when I reached into the strawberry bed and picked a strawberry the yellow jacket coveted; he stung my finger, and while it hurt like blazes, I’m alive to tell the tale. Now that I know I can survive a sting, I’m not afraid anymore.

The buzzing from the lavender patch is a living things. It pulses and soars, rising during the hottest part of the afternoon, the sound gently diminishing as dusk falls.  Last night I took a little walk around the flower garden to admire our hard work.  Even though night was approaching, there were still some bees, hard at work in the lavender patch.  I admired their industry.  “Busy as a bee” indeed.

Please enjoy the pictures of our progress on the flower garden.  All of these pictures were taken today here in my garden.

Blaze climbing rose on the hand-made trellis added this year.