ADDENDUM!!

BEES!

Today was one of the highlights of my entire summer. A wild honey bee swarm took up residence it the empty box in the bee yard! One of the P.S.A. team members asked me how much I thought it had to do with all the flowers I planted there and I (facetiously) answered: "Everything!" Truth be told, I have no way of knowing why these rambunctious bees chose that spot. My best guess is that it was a combination of things. The fact that the box was still there in the first place. The little patties of bee food that were still placed inside the hive. Maybe the bee attractive landscape. One thing I am pretty sure of...these bees would have given it a pass if it had still been a junk yard. In absence of proof to the contrary, I am taking this as the ultimate validation of my project. Yeah bees!!

The End.

(Thank you to Vanessa for the help with those final pictures!)

The project I started back in November/December 2010 draws to a close, at least for me. I don't know what will happen now to the ground I cleared and planted but it is out of my hands. This project has been a lot of fun and a lot of work but I learned a lot too.

 

The soil in Area One was heavily amended with vermicompost and the farm's windrow compost. I went a little heavy on purpose for two reasons; One, I thought that soil was in pretty bad shape having been covered by an impermeable tarp for who knows how long and Two, I intended to plant that area heavily in an effort to out establish intentional competition before the invasives had time to re-establish. In a normal back-yard setting you might not be able to get this kind of plant density. Though the plantings did seriously deter the Morning Glory (though did not eliminate it), there were some drawbacks to planting this heavily. In this picture, taken in late July, the chamomile has been cut out. It was pretty played out and going to seed and then we had a big rain storm and it lodged over on top of the purple basil. The echinacea planted between the calendula and the dill was more or less smothered. I still think it will make a showing but probably not this year. It was also hard to get in and weed out the unintentional plants.

(Thank you to Vanessa for the help with those final pictures!)