Planting for Pollinators

We love the bees, and the flies and the dragonflies. The spiny bugs, the stinky bugs and the lady bugs. The small spiders (big ones scare us) and the large fuzzy bumblebees. We want them all to call Farm on 42nd home.

I try to grow a long a season of flowering things for those flying creatures who prefer flowers. I lay no claim on the big leaf maple blossoms or the douglas fir pollen that sits sticky on buds. But I do try my best with the smaller more colorful annual and perennial choices we have.

I have a special fondness for bees - native and european honey-producing. We keep top-bar beehives and spend hours upon hours admiring their botanic dances. We plant rounds of buckwheats and clovers (amongst other things) as small offerings to their goodness. All hail our humble bee ancestors.

We also plant rocks and fill water bowls. All the little creatures regardless of their pollinator status need a niche. I place logs sporadically under the fruit trees and the occasional peak reveals a rich underworld of milipedes and eggs of who-knows-what and lots of slimy, crawly things. I pile rocks for the snakes to hide in and pray that they will eat all the slugs before Lady Dog eats them. Becket fills and refills the water bowl and saves the drowning bees - two, three times a day.

None of them really need us. The arthropods will long survive the human race. But it brings me extra joy to know these creatures and to imagine that our mutual benevolences could mean something in this incomprehensible world.