How to grow a wildflower corridor for bees
Step 1: Choose a spot in your yard.
Step 2: Don't mow there.
The people who owned this property before us were landscapers. They mowed and trimmed every inch of the yard to perfection. We... do not.
This is the area around the drainage ditch at the border of our property and our seasonal neighbor's:
It had dandelions and wild strawberries. Now it has buttercups and bluets. Later in the summer it will have goldenrod and aster.
I've left a 2-3 foot corridor unmowed between the yard and the woods. These ferns (interrupted fern, Osmunda claytoniana) are so tall you can barely see my nine year old's hat:
And who wants to mow around rocks and gnarly old crab apple trees anyway?
This area is on the border of my other neighbor's property:
Whatever those low lying plants are, they have the prettiest variegated leaves.
This is my favorite area:
There's a huge maple, a cherry tree that has not succumbed to black knot fungus yet, and a lilac bush. The previous owners weed-whacked under them, and planted roses. I've left it to grow up, and this flower appeared:
It's knapweed (Centauria sp.), but we call it the Magic Flower. The first year there was one. The next year there were a few more, and my child carefully collected some petals and used them in a "potion" they made in their playhouse. This year we've got over a dozen.
Choose a spot. Don't mow it. Let the magic happen.
