Don’t get too excited. I’m not talking about those birds and bees.
I’m talking about the yin and yang of the garden, the swarms taking over the strawberry and zinnia beds.
I went to pick strawberries last week and got stung pretty badly in my right hand by tiny yellow bees – we called them yellow jackets back in New York, but I’m not sure they are the same here. Those magnificent strawberry plants I got from Lowe’s haven’t stopped producing crop after crop of organic berries, and it was so wonderful to see fat, plump red strawberries in September. I just reached down to pick them and came up with a fistful of angry yellow jackets stinging me.
They’re not interested in the flowers. They are actually biting holes into the fruit and eating it!
I was more cautious this weekend when picking vegetables and fruit from the garden, but lo and behold, as I dumped a pail of compost into the pile I have in the woods, a big cloud of angry yellow jackets rose and chased me a few feet. One got into my hair, but thankfully no stings this time.
What gives? I saw them swarming my hummingbird feeder, but that made sense – after all, a hummingbird feeder is nothing more than red tinted sugar water. I had to take that down because anyone entering the garden and ducking under the archway was in danger of hitting their head and releasing a stinging swarm.
Now on to birds….we have been treated to goldfinches alighting on the zinnias every day. A pair, male and female, delights in flitting among the zinnias and picking out the flowers. They also enjoyed my Echinacea seeds but I did manage to salvage some to try to start next year.
From swarms of bees to pretty birds, it’s Mother Nature at her finest as September starts the fall season in the garden!
