Future flowery forage
Yay! The bee-friendly flower mixture that I coveted is back in stock at John Scheeper’s Kitchen Garden Seeds.
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I’ve talked before about what I should do with the Swamp Bottom area. To cultivate, or not to cultivate? I should probably leave it fallow, but don’t want to “waste” the space on crops that won’t feed us. (I have a problem with decisions.)
Well, I figured out a solution! I’ll sow that whole area as a wildflower meadow filled specifically with flowers that honeybees crave. Then I will be leaving the area untilled and fallow all year like I really should to help build up topsoil and fertility, AND it will still be producing food for us in the form of my bees’ wildflower honey! |
While this seed mix is listed as a “Bumblebee” habitat garden, the flowers it contains should provide plenty of pollen and nectar to my honeybees as well: asters, coreopsist, borage, cosmos, echinacea, poppies, bee-balm, catmint, black-eyed susans, and Mexican sunflowers. I’ll mix that up with a generous helping of buckwheat, clover and vetch for soil improvement, and I can have my honey cake and eat it too!
I’m so very glad it came back in stock at John Scheeper’s. I really trust them. There were other bee-flower mixes out there, but I’d never heard of the companies selling them. Think about it – when attention to detail in seed storage can make or break the fertility of your product, a reputation for quality in the seed industry matters a whole lot.
A 1/4-pound packet will sow 1,000 sf which is exactly the amount I need. Plenty for a lovely meadow and lots of room leftover for a few beds of my beer barley and bread wheat.
Oh, bees, I can’t wait til you see what I’ve planted for you.
January 25th, 2011 at 10:53 am
My SIL is going to take a 6 week bee keeping class in Montgomery county. I told her you had bees right around the corner from me and that I was sure you would be happy to show them off come spring.
January 25th, 2011 at 1:12 pm
Sure! I’d welcome her expertise because I’m no expert! Tell her to come over after her class so I can pick her brain.
January 25th, 2011 at 2:25 pm
Do you want to take the class? I can find out when and where. I know the cost is $60 for 6 classes.
January 25th, 2011 at 5:05 pm
Hi! Well that seems inexpensive and I will certainly think about it! But for now at least – with one year of beekeeping and a few how-to books under my belt – I’m just going to focus on attending local beekeeper’s meetings. I have a good friend who is a professional beekeeper and I turn to him for help.