honey bee sanctuary

in our current location, we have a big lawn. if it was our own place, i imagine a big chunk of it would be tilled up for vegetable gardening, and another spot would be devoted to native grasses and flowers. as it is, we have quite an array of plants mixed in with the grass. clover dominates one whole section, and this year, it started blooming before we got around to cutting it. we noticed a few honey bees buzzing around the flowers. carl does all the mowing and he decided to leave the clover for the bees. in no time, the framed clover field was in full bloom and all abuzz with honey bees and bumble bees.



since then, i read a suggestion in organic gardening, to leave some of your lawn long, and heard that there was a piece on NPR about not mowing clover so the bees can access it. that's my carl--always cutting edge. a trend-setter, really. don't you think?


here you can see the line, where the clover stops, and the mowing starts.

we recently visited the hilltop garden and nature center, which is a wonderful spot for gardeners. they have a few bee hives, and when we went to check them out, a bunch of them were gathered on the outside of the box. cosmo informed us that the bees were "dancing, to show the other bees where the food is." while i know he has heard about this phenomenon several times, it always surprises (and delights) me when cosmo shows that he has retained knowledge.