Bring the bees!

Bring the bees!

We bought several flowering plants so that the bees come to enjoy our garden early and often. Jon and I chose firebush, African Blue basil, and Purple sage from our local nursery.

Jon likes to plant deeply. I would've used the gardening trowel to make a nice resting place. He uses the post hole digger! Each spot was carefully located and "posted". Then a bit more of the rich dirt we trucked over from the landfill is added. I sprinkled cotton seed meal then the unpotted plant is lovingly nestled in. Jon mounds the soil up around each important plant!

We read that unlike most basil plants, leaving the flowers on the African Blue basil is beneficial to it's life. The one we bought last season attests to that. It more than tripled in size! Hundreds of bees drank the purple colored nectar. There were so many bees on that beautiful plant we couldn't count 'em right up until the day the first freeze hit us in January 2010.

It is warmed up now here in Central Florida. We're ready! Come on bees!!