Bee Garden Archives

Posted on May 16, 2011 by Barb — 1 Comment

Garden Flowers: Geraniums are the Perfect Beginner’s Flower Study

Up until now, I have not appreciated the geranium. I usually don’t pick geraniums for my garden but after reading that hummingbirds were attracted to red flowers I decided to give them a try. I picked the reddest variety I could find at Home Depot, brought it home, and potted it right under my hummingbird feeder.

When we were deciding on a garden flower to study this month as part of the suggestions in the Outdoor Hour Challenge May Newsletter, I skimmed the list of garden flowers in the Handbook of Nature Study. One flower we have not observed closely and added to our nature journal is the geranium. I turned over to the pages to read about this common flower and I was dazzled by all that we could learn by taking a few minutes to follow the suggested lesson activities. (Lesson 163 in the Handbook of Nature Study)

1. We observed the leaves, touching them and enjoying the fuzzy texture. Mr. B said that they were thick and stiff and I would agree with that. What a great shape the leaves are and I decided right away that was going to be the focus of my nature journal entry.

2. We looked at the petals as suggested in the lesson, noticing that all the five petals are not the same shape and size. Anna Botsford Comstock says that this flower is the perfect beginners flower since you can observe and name all the parts easily.

“The geranium’s blossom is so simple that it is of special value as a subject for a beginning lesson in teaching the parts of a flower; and its leaves and stems may likewise be used for the first lessons in plant structure.”
Handbook of Nature Study, page 585

3. We read about the nectar tube and took a closer look at it after reading how the structure works.

“No other flower shows a prettier plan for guiding insects to the hidden sweets, and in none is there a more obvious and easily seen well of nectar. It extends almost the whole length of the flower stalk…”
Handbook of Nature Study page 586

This lesson was only a few minutes long on a sunny morning out on our back deck but what a lot of information we now have about this common garden plant. I love learning more about my own backyard.

We used the geranium notebook pages from NotebookingPages.com’s Wildflowers, Weeds, and Garden Flowers set….use my discount code (discount5) and get them for $7.95. If you own a Treasury Membership, you already have access to eight different designs for each of the wildflowers, weeds, and flowers included in this set (over 45 plants). Each person can pick a different design for their nature journal entry. I used the coloring page and the lined page with boxes for sketching and a photo. I was thinking that the coloring page is something you could make yourself using the Fill In The Circle idea from the May Newsletter.

Here are a few more photos of flowers on the back deck.

Can you tell I am going for lots of color this year?

Lantana for the bees and butterflies.

Petunias (Lesson 162 in the Handbook of Nature Study)

Pansies (Lesson 152 in the Handbook of Nature Study)

Gerbera daisies

You can grow a lot of different flowers in pots even if you only have a small space. I encourage you to give it a try and then complete some of the garden flower challenges listed on the right sidebar of my blog (OHC #12 through #19) Keep your study simple by choosing just a few of the ideas in each lesson, building on what you already know.

I hope you are taking advantage of the warmer, drier May weather to get out into your own backyard. I look forward to seeing your nature study adventures as you submit them to the Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival. Don’t forget to include some of the nature journal ideas from the May Newsletter: Fill In The Circles, add some poetry, and use the Know Your Own Backyard notebook page.

You can submit your blog entries for May HERE.

Posted on May 10, 2011 by Barb — 3 Comments

Garden Focus: Bees, Birds, and Color….with Veggies Too

Flowers in Pots Attract the Bees and Hummingbirds…Easy to Maintain

My goals this year for our garden are a little different than those in the recent past. I usually focus on growing veggies and accent with flowers. This year I am going to be a rebel and do the exact opposite. I am growing color and accenting with edibles. I am hoping for more of an “artist’s garden” this year, providing a space to sit with watercolors and colored pencils and oil pastels on those long hot summer afternoons. Sometimes a garden is more than just for growing food, healing and refreshing us with its beauty and vitality. Of course, you can really call it a “bee garden” since the focus has been on flowers that will attract bees, birds, and/or butterflies.

Our deck usually has some herbs and a few veggies in pots, keeping them close for the dinner time crunch. It is a great plan and I will do the same this year with two tomatoes and some basil.

We have had a lot of hummingbird traffic at our two feeders as well as the colorful flowers.

I am keeping just a few flowers on the deck and most of them will be to try to entice the hummingbirds up to the feeders. Red geraniums, bright daisies, and a hummingbird favorite lantana or two. I started my zinnia seeds and much to my surprise I found a pot full of milkweed growing already over in the corner. Seeds and seedlings are all tucked in ready to go. We are planning on studying our geraniums along with the Handbook of Nature Study (Lesson #163) this summer.

Back in the main veggie garden I am going to be growing pole beans…Kentucky Wonders. I am dreaming of the green towers of vines and the never-ending picking that will come as the summer progresses.

Lots and lots of Bee Balm growing in the butterfly garden.

What will be missing are many of the water thirsty plants that I usually have that yield very little in proportion to the effort like bell peppers.I have lots of great plants that are well established that will give color without a lot of work.

These are coneflowers, chrysanthemums, and daisies from last year. I will fill in the empty spots with seeds.

The boxes this year are filled in with coneflowers and zinnias, dahlias and daisies. The bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds are going to be having a party all summer long out there. I love having a cutting garden to fill oodles of vases indoors.

We ended up transplanting a few daylilies to the front of the box and the rest is waiting for me to come finish planting the sunflower seeds. Thunderstorm rolled in this day and I had to give up.

My new garden space is coming together and the seeds are almost all in the ground. We had a composting problem and somehow a load was dumped in the garden space with un-composted rotten potatoes so we are sifting through again to get those out before planting the Three Sisters Garden (pumpkins, corn, and beans). The pumpkins, corn, and sunflowers will also be part of our summer nature study using the Handbook of Nature Study.

Happy Squash.

I have four zucchini seedlings happily growing in their new spot and the sunflowers are all showing signs of sprouting as the garden comes alive.

Looks a little different than the last time…now the lavender is the predominant plant, along with the blooming dogwood.

I am hoping that I don’t regret our decision to shift our garden focus this year but as with anything we can always change things back next year. We have a wonderful Farmer’s Market in our town where we can put our hands on any veggies we decide we need. Still eating healthy and with local produce….an important goal in our family.

That is this week’s garden update…..next week hopefully I will share our Three Sisters Garden.

Jami’s Tuesday Garden Party meme is open from Tuesday to Thursday so there is still time for you to jump in and participate!

Posted on April 19, 2011 by Barb — 16 Comments

Creating a Bee Habitat Garden – Suggestions and Ideas

We are starting to build our new garden area to replace a huge portion of our backyard lawn area. It has been a dream of mine to take the water-hungry lawn out and replace it with color and attractive plants for birds, bees, and butterflies. My husband and I finally agreed on a plan and we started a week or so ago to build the first two garden boxes from recycled blocks that came out of our frontyard remodel last fall. We are on a limited budget for this project so we are reusing materials we have on hand and it is going to be a long range plan to add more as we have time and money. We did end up purchasing and hauling in a yard of garden soil that we added some of our homemade compost to so we could fill up our boxes. We didn’t use the complete yard of soil in the boxes but used the balance to top off our vegetable garden boxes and fill two pots for patio tomatoes.

Here is the first square which will anchor the whole project. We found some lavender on sale at Home Depot and we added four plants…..bees no extra charge. I am not exaggerating when I tell you that there are bees on these blossoms every day, at all times of the day.

We also have loads of bees in the dandelions over on the other end of the yard. I counted quite a number of bees in the yellow blossoms as I sat and enjoyed their cheerfulness one afternoon. My husband is not convinced to keep the dandelions and wants to pull them up. I asked him to wait a bit and then he can mow them over.

Mr. B is my garden helper these days and we enjoy spending time outdoors together.

The larger box is going to hold my sunflowers and zinnias. I am including the Lemon Sunflowers in this box as part of the Great Sunflower Project. I was reading on their website about their change this year and they have added quite a number of other flowers to the project so you can count bees in your area.

If you want to check it out, click over and read on their website but it looks like you can count bees on include Bee balm, Cosmos, Rosemary, Tickseed, and Purple coneflower.

The two brown piles of leaf compost that you can see in the image above are going to become part of another bee garden that we may get to this year. The link will take you to Renee’s Garden where she has collaborated with the Great Sunflower Project on a list of bee attractive plants for your garden.

The only other part we are planning on planting this spring is the Three Sisters Garden that will be a long row parallel to the sidewalk just behind where my son is working in the image above. The Three Sisters are pumpkins, corn, and beans that you plant as companions. I am excited just thinking about this part of the garden!!!

I am anxious to add in a few things as we have time and the weather warms up. My husband keeps telling me he doesn’t see my vision for the yard but I told him to have faith and see what evolves. At the bottom of the post are the seeds that I am planting in the new larger box if you are interested.

That is what we accomplished this week in our new garden project but here are a few of our on-going bee/butterfly/hummingbird habitat garden projects that are a work in progress.

We have been working on this section of the garden for a few years now and it is filling in and growing more beautiful with each passing season.

In our front yard we added some Moonshine Yarrow….this has become another favorite of the bees this spring. I am anxious to see how it grows over the summer since it says it needs very little water.

I have to share my new yard art piece that my dear husband found for me. It is a metal butterfly balanced on top of a pole with river rocks stacked. It is the perfect piece for our front yard. I love the way it moves in the slightest breeze and is a great addition to the look of the front yard. I decided it is all about movement…the grasses, the forsythia, the butterfly bushes, and now the sculpture.

I have enjoyed reading all the entries over on Jami’s blog An Oregon Cottage as part of her Tuesday Garden Party. Welcome to all who have clicked over to read my entry!
I welcome all readers to subscribe to my blog…see the sidebar for a place to enter your email.

Jami’s Tuesday Garden Party meme is open from Tuesday to Thursday so there is still time for you to jump in and participate!

Posted on November 18, 2007 by Barb — 2 Comments

Honeybee: Gardens that Help

In the latest issue of Organic Gardening, the cover article is all about bees. I had heard how honeybees had a bad winter last year and there are far fewer of them around but I hadn’t taken the time to find out what it was all about. Interesting stuff. The article brings out that scientists estimate that “more than 30% of the nation’s 2.4 million honeybee colonies died out over the fall and winter of 2006-2007” due to Colony Collapse Disorder. 35 states reported damage due to CCD. The damage was as high as 80-90 percent of their hives for some beekeepers.

What can we do to help the situation as home gardeners? The article brings out some easy steps that can make a difference. I always start planning my spring garden during the cold winter months so this article came at the right time and had lots of practical ways that I can plan my garden to benefit the local honeybee population.

Here are some ideas from Organic Gardening:
1. Plant flowers that are blue, purple, violet, white or yellow. The article suggests leaving the dandelions and Dutch clover in your lawn. Tip: Visit your local nursery and buy whatever you can find that has bees on it. My tip: Color and lots of it.

2. Skip flowers like marigolds and hollyhocks, impatiens, and salvia. The flowers are too dense for the bees to gather much nectar.

3. Try to plant for a three season bloom. The article says, “Spring is tough for bees. Common spring bulbs like tulips and daffodils aren’t attractive to bees. It’s good to have fruit trees or flowering shrubs to cover their early season needs.” Some choices they list for spring are calendula and wild lilac. For fall they suggest sedum, asters, and goldenrod.

4. Bees stay longer in gardens at least 3 to 4 feet in diameter.

5. Bees need a water source.

The article was very enlightening and will help me plan my garden to include plants and flowers that can help my local honeybees. This is a great way to tie your study of insects into your gardening time. I am planning on keeping track of which plants have bees on them. I know they *love* my spanish lavender and I have it planted in two long rows along the edge of my garden. Even now in the middle of November it has many bees in it every afternoon. I have observed bees in my cosmos that are left in the back of the garden. The plant doesn’t look as nice as it did in the middle of summer but the bees seem to enjoy it. My neighbor’s rosemary plants are always full of bees so that might be a good plant to try too.

It may not seem like each individual garden can help but according to this article about bees, we can.

Tag: Bee Garden

Garden Flowers: Geraniums are the Perfect Beginner’s Flower Study

Garden Focus: Bees, Birds, and Color….with Veggies Too

Creating a Bee Habitat Garden – Suggestions and Ideas

Honeybee: Gardens that Help

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