Bee Food Flowers

Scientists’ top 10 bee-magnet blooms—turn any lawn into a pollinator paradise

Botanists from the University of Copenhagen and the UK set out to find the best flower combinations for bees and hoverflies.
Danish and Welsh botanists sifted through 400 studies, field-tested seed mixes, and uncovered a lineup of native and exotic blooms that both thrill human eyes and lure bees and hoverflies in droves, offering ready-made recipes for transforming lawns, parks, and patios into vibrant pollinator hotspots
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Below are the plants recommended for European and United Kingdom uses...

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Photos: Charleston Food Forest

These pictures are from Thursday.  I went foraging at the Charleston Food Forest.  It's across the parking lot from the Coles County Community Garden.

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Photos: Coles County Community Garden

The Coles County Community Garden is across the parking lot from the Charleston Food Forest. It's not the kind where you rent a bed and grow what you want. It's tended by the community and anyone can come pick things to try.

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Photos: Dark Gardening

I enjoy growing dark-colored plants.  I have black flowers, bronze leaves, black fruits, all kinds of interesting things.

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How to Secure Trough Pots to a Bench

Today's project was filling a set of trough pots and securing them to the benches of the new picnic table. (This is from Tuesday, but it's after midnight so the date reads Wednesday. See some "before" pictures.) There are 6 troughs total, although one already had wild strawberries in it from earlier. Each bench holds 3 troughs. I got these and a bunch of other pots when Big Lots went out of business.

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Photos: House Yard

I took some pictures around the yard. These are from Monday. See the south lot.

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Photos: House Yard

Today I took pictures around the yard. It's cloudy, so the lighting is bad, but so much is happening that I wanted to capture it. See the House Yard, South Lot, Savanna, and Prairie Garden.

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Photos: Charleston Food Forest Part 1 Right Side

Today we visited the Charleston Food Forest.  I took pictures and rescued some plants that were growing in the paths so they don't get trampled. These pictures are mostly from the right side. See Part 2 Left Side.

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Photos: New Rocks

Today I planted most of my new rocks! \o/ I'm waiting to sink the pink mica rock until I get a second one to point the other direction along the road, to catch headlights from both ways.

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Photos: Savanna and Prairie Garden

Continuing the photo tour of the yard, most of these are from the savanna and prairie garden.

See all of today's photography posts:
Photos: House Yard and South Lot
Photos: Savanna and Prairie Garden
Photos: Back Toward the House
Photos: Garden Shed

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Photos: House Yard and South Lot

These pictures are from Sunday, but it's after midnight so the timestamp will say Monday. See the savanna and house yard.

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First Flower

The first flower is blooming here at Fieldhaven! :D

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American Meadows Order

I just found out that American Meadows has a 20-25% off sale going, so I scrambled to make my order.  I usually do it in January.  This place has some of the best native plants, although they also have some garden flowers like gladioli and peonies.  It's worth a look early if you're into wildlife gardening or flowers. They have a lot of hard-to-find plants.

Pocket Park in Snow

Today we went out for Small Business Saturday. I noticed that a downtown pocket park, which has been slowly developing for some years, had a small light display. (The town's main light display is in a much bigger park but wasn't turned on yet when we went past.) So I stopped to take some pictures.

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Poem: "Earthlove"

This is the free poem for the November 2024 [community profile] crowdfunding Creative Jam. It was inspired by a prompt from [personal profile] fuzzyred. It also fills the "green / yellow" square in my 11-1-24 card for the Sleepytime Bear Bingo fest. This poem is about autumn and gardening.

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What I'm Growing

Almost everything in the Charleston Food Forest is something I'm growing, would like to grow, or at least recognize from edible plant studies. So I thought it would be fun to break that down, listed in approximate spatial order moving through the lists of pictures ...

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