September is here...

Progress on the garden has been slow. Many of the plants died due to the heat and not being established. Many are coming back in a little fuller now, and the grass is finally dead. We put in an Elizabethan Magnolia, and a concord grape vine. Tonight I just planted some wildflowers and two kinds of poppy seeds. One is the native California Poppies and the others are crimson poppies which I purchased at Common Grounds in Palo Alto. You can by seeds by the teaspoon there! They also offer classes on gardening! I highly recommend them!
Last week we put out some garlic and ginger that were a little too ripe for cooking but perfect for growing. They're shooting up SO fast!
We are doing our part in recycling by getting some of the things we need from freecycle.org. I picked up a planting bench, and some cinder blocks. The cinder blocks have been turned into the base for a bench. J made a top for it out of some ply wood. It is perfect for storing garden supplies and for sitting on.
Though this is not part of the bee garden, the back yard is coming along nicely too. We put in a composting pile, and add our compost-able kitchen waste to it. We'll be putting in some more planter boxes made from recycled fence boards and plant a ton of veggies back there! I am collecting bricks that people no longer want for redoing our back patio. So far we have a fair amount.
I don't know how soon the wild flowers will pop up, but I can't wait - they'll be SO beautiful! In October I will be planting Chinese Houses! We will be digging out some of the rocks next to the porch soon too so we can grow flowers there too!

For the Bees

When we bought our home, the yard was in need of some tender loving care. We've been here for a few months now, and I decided, finally, on what to do with the front yard. Grass is hard to maintain without using weed killer constantly, and we currently cannot afford landscaping. When I was still pregnant, we went to a BBQ with some family, and I saw this metallic black bumble bee. I was amazed to learn later that California has over 1,500 species of bees, and around 81 in the bay area alone! The honey bee is an imported bee! Crazy eh? Anyway, I have decided to make a bee garden, this will be a place where bees are welcome and invited! It isn't too pretty yet, as there really is only lavender for them to buzz about, but there will be more soon.
Today I planted fever-few, forget-me-nots, Jupiter's beard, lambs ear and tossed a ton of wild flower seeds in the yard. Tomorrow I am going to put down lavender seeds and California Poppy seeds. When I was planting some seeds in starter pots this afternoon, I felt something tickling the back of my arm. I turn to look, and there was a honey bee. It sat there and cleaned itself while I examined it. They really are beautiful and fascinating little creatures! It was just the thing to make me feel that this is the right choice for our front yard!
I encourage you to check out http://nature.berkeley.edu/urbanbeegardens to read more on bee gardens. It is certainly a better choice than a plain plot of grass!