Every spring I notice at least one or two colonies of bumble bees living
in the garden. They do a fabulous job of pollinating in the early
spring, long before the other pollinators appear. They feast on the
Pulmonaria and Vinca from early April on, and then get busy with the
myriad, sweet-smelling blooms of the wild black currant in mid-month. No
blooms in the garden wants for their attention all season long.

A big clump of ladybugs hibernated somewhere at the base of the plum
tree. They marched out one sunny spring morning and got right to it.
Their children and grandchildren have been controlling the aphids, not
just on the fruit trees and the roses, but in most of the garden as
well.

I grow an abundance of flowers for bees and butterflies on the sunny
south facing slope ... and if you grow them, they will come. The
Monarchs are starting to show up now, fluttering among the echinacea and
the butterfly bushes. Sometimes, in the fall, I see them swarming
overhead before they head south across the lake.

I leave the seed heads in the wildflower slope up for the winter. By
early spring, all the seeds have been eaten by local birds and the
hungry migrants returning from places I'd rather be.

EV