Sunday, June 29, 2008

One week later up pop the yellows


To Mow Or Not To Mow

A Study In Contrast
Save The Bees --Save the Gas
Quit Polluting ---Stop Cutting the Grass.



Sunday, June 22, 2008

A Special Garden For The Honey Bees




Hi folks. Are you tired of your lawn... all that mowing... that fertilizing... all that combustion, all that boring green order? Well, here is an answer. Do like we did at Blue View lane with our Wildflower meadow.

Here we have ferns and flowers, Rye grass and playground mix, Daisies, Lupine, and multi colored Phlox.... all wild and wondrous. And we have tossed away the lawn mower, that polluter of air and sky, that noisy bane of sensibility. And while it pollutes a bit and makes some noise (but nothing like a mower) our landscaping tool of choice is a Huskvarna string trimmer. We use this to sculpt the grasses, to slash the ferns, and judiciously preserve our myriad wildflowers. A push here, a high slash there, and voila we sculpt our hillside into a giant undulating bouquet. With this device you become a sculptor of the fern and fauna. Much more fun, and way more creative....
So, go out and get those Wild flower seeds from Zeeland Michigan, toss them about, then watch as your yard turns into a wild garden that will stretch through the summer. First blues, then pinks, then reds, oranges and yellows until late summer when you will see the wild Cosmos and Gloriousa Daisy.Your lawn will become history. Hopefully the bees will come, and you will enjoy a benign wild garden just outside your window.

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Save The Bees: Raise Money for Your Cause.

Here is an excellent program designed to Save the Bees and support your environmental cause and organization. See The Information Page

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Our Beautiful Wild Flowers







We have planted these wildflowers to attract the bees, to observe and wonder, measure their number study and, as the blog says, Save The Bees. And with every passing day the Lupine spreads and grows larger, along with daisies and flowers too myriad for me to name. What can I say, our wildflowers are coming up this year better than I ever would have imagined.

This is in large measure because of the excellent advice we received from Stacey Konant of Grulers Pet and Farm Supply- Charlevoix Michigan. 231-237-0893. She told us it would take a few years, but even the first year by August we had a sea of wildflowers, reds and golds and yellows so dense that we could not walk the two acres we seeded without floating on flowers.

You have only to look at these pictures of our hillside seeded with Debruyn seed company of Zeeland Michigan's wild flower mix to understand how easy it is to have a wild and varied garden.

So all you gardeners out there who wish to attract the bees, and or measure their survival. Plant a field as we did... You too can make your evening walks a balance of the flowers.

Friday, June 6, 2008

Pictures from Blue View Lane

We planted wildflowers at the edge of the meadow four years ago. Hurrah with summer...Soomer is a coomin in loude Sing Cuckoo. First the Lupine, the blues, then the Daisies will arrive and later in August
this hillside turns to yellow gold...Flowers so deep and wide... walking
the hillside becomes a balance of color.