THE HILLS ARE ALIVE.......
.....with the sound of bees in the plum blossom.
The French Garden is on the boundary of Lot et Garonne and the Gironde; two departments in Aquitaine. The Gironde is known for its wine - Bordeaux red and white - plus, in this area, a white wine known as Entre-Deux-Mers. The Lot et Garonne, while also growing some really good wines, is world famous for its plums. The plums are gathered each summer and dried to create 'prunes d'Agen' which are a delicacy (go to Waitrose for example, if you are in the UK, where they sell them 'mi-cuit' or semi-dried).
At the moment the plum trees are in full blossom and the sight is spectacular with acres and acres of orchards full of white blossom. From a distance they look like drifts of snow. The weather is also, finally, starting to pick up so the bees are flying and professional beekeepers are able to practice transhumance - a process whereby they move their hives to food sources. So you see rows of beehives, each with a super on top to collect honey, in the orchards surrounded by trees in blossom. The bee keepers are paid by the plum farmers to provide their pollinators - plus they get the benefit of spring honey to sell.
Here in the garden we have four old plum trees which really are on their last legs. There is some blosson, but as they die back I am planting climbing roses up the old trunks. We have replaced them with one traditional plum tree (the variety is Prune d'Ente) and other stone fruit such as mirabelles and greengages (called Reine Claude here in France). We also have several cherry trees which are starting to flower. So our bees can happily buzz around our orchard and pollinate the fruit trees - but they also nip across a couple of fields to the big commercial plum orchard on our door step and gorge themselves silly!
It is probably time to put a 'super' on my own hives.
The French Garden is on the boundary of Lot et Garonne and the Gironde; two departments in Aquitaine. The Gironde is known for its wine - Bordeaux red and white - plus, in this area, a white wine known as Entre-Deux-Mers. The Lot et Garonne, while also growing some really good wines, is world famous for its plums. The plums are gathered each summer and dried to create 'prunes d'Agen' which are a delicacy (go to Waitrose for example, if you are in the UK, where they sell them 'mi-cuit' or semi-dried).
At the moment the plum trees are in full blossom and the sight is spectacular with acres and acres of orchards full of white blossom. From a distance they look like drifts of snow. The weather is also, finally, starting to pick up so the bees are flying and professional beekeepers are able to practice transhumance - a process whereby they move their hives to food sources. So you see rows of beehives, each with a super on top to collect honey, in the orchards surrounded by trees in blossom. The bee keepers are paid by the plum farmers to provide their pollinators - plus they get the benefit of spring honey to sell.
Here in the garden we have four old plum trees which really are on their last legs. There is some blosson, but as they die back I am planting climbing roses up the old trunks. We have replaced them with one traditional plum tree (the variety is Prune d'Ente) and other stone fruit such as mirabelles and greengages (called Reine Claude here in France). We also have several cherry trees which are starting to flower. So our bees can happily buzz around our orchard and pollinate the fruit trees - but they also nip across a couple of fields to the big commercial plum orchard on our door step and gorge themselves silly!
It is probably time to put a 'super' on my own hives.
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