Dig This
The bookazine for people who love dirt!

The Bee's Knees

I haven’t posted for a while but a few random things have come to mind over the past few weeks.

Native plants attract native creatures! Who knew?  Last spring I landscaped a backyard using a lot of coneflowers, rudbeckias, coreopsis, and grasses.  It’s got a great native feel to the yard and ever since, the homeowners have stopped feeding the birds because they love to hang around the coneflowes.  The amount of bees and butterflies in the yard has jumped by great leaps and bounds as well.  We took a lifeless back yard and created a teeming metropolis of nature with just a few plants that love to grow here in Iowa.

Bees love salvia.  Little kids are scared of bees.  Little kids learn to love bugs because they can watch the bees work, ask questions, and learn.  I planted a ton of salvia in a landscape earlier this spring.  The bees have been busy (as bees) molesting the flowers on a daily basis.  The homeowners granddaughter was scared to go outside because of the bees.  They finally were able to get her to watch the bees and see what they were up to.  Now, whenever she comes over the first thing she wants to do is check out and see the bees.  Maybe this one event could lead to a lifetime of plant love? Who knows. 

I know both these stories have been short and sweet but they both had an impact on me.  The work we do as plants people influences the world around is in ways we may never even know. 

Keep it dirty.