How My Garden Grows: Bee Baths

If there is anything that eases my lingering post partum depression that doesn’t involve taking even more meds, it is having a garden. Maybe it is being outside, getting Vitamin D and fresh air, or maybe creating. I have had a drive this year that I can barely control – Kirk will put the boys to bed for me on nice nights, with me digging until it is so dark I cannot see. I feel so relaxed when I come in, it feels so wonderful to see my yard becoming what I had wished it would. It” never be ‘fancy-mag’ worthy, but that is OK. It is slightly messy, haphazard and it suits what I want. My little  section of land that is mine. For years going hiking filled my nature-need. I found with Walker and Alistaire that our yard offered me what I needed and even more. So instead of spending money on gas every week…I buy plants and dream at night of what will be. There is little better than listening to birds chirping, the gentle breeze and a sunny afternoon 🙂

Kirk picked me up a subscription to FamilyFun awhile back. Unlike some parenting magazines, this one is actually fun to read, with lots of craft ideas and recipes. I got inspired by a an article in the May 2013 issue on creating a bee sanctuary for our little winged friends. When we bought our house, back in 2004, it had a pond in the backyard. All that thing did was breed blood suckers and encourage raccoons to loiter. Digging it up and putting the liner out front for free was a great thing. But..while I provide a lot of blooms, apparently a small water source is a good thing.

I replicated the idea with Walker’s help, he helped me scour more large rocks from the area under his new playground, which we then hosed off. All you need is a large plant saucer (I used a plastic one to avoid children breaking it), add the clean rocks in a nice pile and fill with a little clean water. Walker added in his lawn find, a large marble that fell out of the sod a few weeks ago. We placed the bath in our main garden bed, near the blueberries they already love. Tucked in around are violas to entice the little hard-working bees. Just not so big I’ll have masked flea-bags loitering around, pooping everywhere.

Feeling even more inspired I dug out an old bird bath and cleaned it up, then hung it on the fence. I know the birds will love it, and I hung up their bird house feeder as well…which I am sure the squirrels will get back into. Oh well. It is fun watching them and the boys love it. They can look out the dining room windows now and get a front row seat on all the action!

~Sarah

PS: This spring and summer I will be doing more posts on my yard and gardens, and how I am developing it. Up next for ideas? Preserving open packets of seeds and getting your kids their own mini-garden on the cheap!