Week #19: Rhubarb, Bee Garden, Blossoms, and more!

Our bees are becoming more active as the weather slowly warms up this year.  We decided to give them a helping hand in planting perennials that will successively bloom throughout the seasons. This includes sage, sedum, bee balm, butterfly weed, butterfly bush, black-eyed susans, coneflowers, and lavender to name a few. After mowing the grass, spraying it with herbicide, mowing it again, rototilling and raking, our patch that we set aside for the bee garden was ready to go.  We went to the Glasshouse in Chatham for river rocks twice to line the garden, laid down weed mat and began planting.  Aaron's sister was a big help in this project, and besides a short rain delay, we got it all planted and mulched in a day.

Finished Bee Garden.  Butterflies also welcome!  Photo by Marianne Balkwill

Marianne's Mom came over this week and picked the first of the Rhubarb.  We expect pies and pastries in the following weeks :D

The blossoms on our fruit trees started to come out. The pinkish hues of the Red Haven Peaches are especially pretty.

Red Haven Peach blossoms. Photo by Marianne Balkwill

A pleasant surprise this week was this somewhat late Yellow-bellied Sapsucker.  Their migration peaks in mid April, though this has been a late spring overall. This woodpecker species will just be passing through, though you can always see the neatly lined rows they made in our tamaracks.

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker on our Red Cedar.  Photo by Marianne Balkwill