Veggies and the Bee's Knees

I'm going to put my gloves on and spend the day tomorrow turning the "weed patch" into the "veggie garden". My oh my am I late getting this together this year. Since January I've been nursing San Marzano and heirloom tomato seedlings and they are screaming to be put in the ground. And of course I can't do that without putting in basil, lettuces, herbs, peas and on and on and on. It's gonna be a busy but fun day!

Sometime in the afternoon, when the soil is turned over and the planting beds are ready, I'll be dropping some very special seeds in the ground - magic seeds - and I'm hoping I can convince you to join me and do the same. I'm participating in The Great Sunflower Project, one woman's attempt to learn more about the decline in the bee population and what effect it was having on our gardens. This one woman, Gretchen LeBuhn, had an idea, sent out 20 emails to see if she could get people to count bees in their gardens, and within 2 weeks the idea went viral and 15,000 people were on board. This year 100,000 have signed up to help.

It's fun and easy to help out – after you sign up and give them information on your garden (here), you plant Lemon Queen sunflower seeds (everyone gets the same variety so we know we are comparing apples to apples).  Then once your sunflower blooms, you watch your flower for 15 minutes and record the number of bees that visit. That’s it!  It’s easy and fun to see the variety of bees.  You can immediately compare your yard’s bees per hour to state and national averages and understand how well your bee community is doing.

If you would consider helping, that would be the bee's knees! 

(beautiful photo of glove above credited here)