October 23, 2014

Bees and Sunflower

I've been planting as many bee attracting plants as I can. This year the garden included seven varieties of sage, as well as rosemary, lavender, calendula, anemone, cilantro, three types of thyme, two types of yarrow, borage, dill, alliums, etc.... Last month while the sunflowers were at their peak, I took some shots of the bees in action.

I planted several types of sunflowers, some unlabeled, in order to use up old seed, so don't know what this was that grew. It was a branching type about 7 to 8 feet tall that produced multiple flowers 3 to 5 inches across. The bees loved it.

I've got a couple types of crocuses to put in the ground this fall (including the sativus variety that produces saffron) and hope to include rudbeckia, hollyhocks, and poppies in the flower garden next spring. I'm on a quest to continue to increase the varieties of herbs in my collection so also plan to add more varieties of sage and others. And at some point I'd like to keep honeybees.