Organicisms

[Ether St. Vying]

Every spring I notice at least one or two colonies of bumble bees living
in the garden. They emerge in the early spring, long before the other
pollinators appear, to feast on the Pulmonaria and the Vinca from early
April on. Then they get busy with the myriad, sweet-smelling blooms of
the wild black currant in mid-month. All season long, no blooms in the
garden want for their attention.

A big clump of ladybugs hibernated somewhere at the base of the plum
tree. They marched out one sunny morning and got right to it. Their
children and grandchildren have been controlling the aphids, not just on
the fruit trees and the roses, but in most of the garden as well.

I grow an abundance of flowers for bees and butterflies on the sunny,
south facing slope ... and if you grow them, they will come. The
Monarchs are starting to show up now, fluttering among the echinacea and
the butterfly bushes. Sometimes, in the fall, I see them swarming
overhead before they head south across the lake.

The seed heads crowning dried brown stalks are left standing for the
winter in the wildflower slope ... but it's not all about garden
architecture. By early spring, all the seeds have been eaten by the
resident birds and the hungry migrants returning from places I'd rather
be.

But then the bumble bees emerge ...

Ether St. Vying

[Ether St. Vying]

Post by Ether St. Vying
Every spring I notice at least one or two colonies of bumble bees living
in the garden. They emerge in the early spring, long before the other
pollinators appear, to feast on the Pulmonaria and the Vinca from early
April on. Then they get busy with the myriad, sweet-smelling blooms of
the wild black currant in mid-month. All season long, no blooms in the
garden want for their attention.
A big clump of ladybugs hibernated somewhere at the base of the plum
tree. They marched out one sunny morning and got right to it. Their
children and grandchildren have been controlling the aphids, not just on
the fruit trees and the roses, but in most of the garden as well.
I grow an abundance of flowers for bees and butterflies on the sunny,
south facing slope ... and if you grow them, they will come. The
Monarchs are starting to show up now, fluttering among the echinacea and
the butterfly bushes. Sometimes, in the fall, I see them swarming
overhead before they head south across the lake.
The seed heads crowning dried brown stalks are left standing for the
winter in the wildflower slope ... but it's not all about garden
architecture. By early spring, all the seeds have been eaten by the
resident birds and the hungry migrants returning from places I'd rather
be.
But then the bumble bees emerge ...
Ether St. Vying