Second Spring in the Vaucluse

 

 

 

 Here's an overview of the "new" garden paths, which I did this year. Its called clapissette, and is the material used for petanque courts. It looks and behaves very much like decomposed granite, which does not seem to exist here.

The buis (boxwood tree) is looking quite good, that's it at night as my logo. It really a beautiful plant, and the biggest boxwood I have ever seen. Mostly they are little square hedges or silly looking balls. I may have posted in the past that this one was pruned as an egg and you could not see the trunks at all.

 

The spot of color on the left is salvia, we have quite a few of them, and all are blooming. They have done so all summer, and will probably continue into December. Very reliable plant.

One of my terraces is below, a nice sunny spot for a warm fall day.

 

Last of all, the well garden. This is a good view of the new hardscape.

Fall is good.

 BEES! BEE NESTS! BUT WHAT BEES?

We have quite a few different wild bee species here on the property, one of which is called "wool carder bees" because they scrape the hairs from fuzzy plants to line their nests. The plant in this photo is Lamb's Ears, one of their favorites, and we have a lot of it in many places in the garden. Starting last year I noticed mounds of what appear to be shredded up lamb's ears, and upon investigation I discovered they were full of bees. We are having a trench dug for the fiber optic internet cable, and this nest is right where the trench is going. There are a couple of houses on this property, and I may not be able to convince other residents to hold off. Siting it elsewhere is not an option. If these bees will move on soon, we might delay a bit, but if they will overwinter we can't wait that long.

I can't convince them to sit very still so I can photograph them. They are very docile and not interested at all in attacking or stinging me.

This last photo is of the nest that I tried to move a week or so ago, there are some bees there but it isn't as large as it was before I disturbed it. When I did, I saw some nests that looked like photos on the internet of carder bees. Groups of round nests, not holes in the ground which are ivy bee nests. So I think these are carder bees, but if anyone knows please tell me!