The Garden
Last year's honey harvest was a bit lackluster compared to the year before. We believe this is because the amount of flowers and pollen within a reasonable flying distance was probably too low. So I decided to plant a garden. Our hives are kept at our church. I recruited members of the church to help, including a Master Gardener in training. We fundraised from the congregation to cover the costs of the garden and today I was finally able to start planting.
Before this garden, the extent of my gardening skills amounted to some happy plants in my window at work and a sort of depressed hydrangea on my balcony. I didn't want to have anything difficult in this church garden as I most likely won't have the time to baby any plants that can't hack it on their own. To me the obvious choice for plants that can hack it are natives, plants that grew up in Washington and decided they liked it enough to thrive. Back in February I started plotting what kind of native plants I could get my hands on and which of those plants would be good pollinator plants. I made a spread sheet and a guidebook to keep track of my research.
In March, I sat down with my Master Gardener in training and we surveyed the land at church and figured what kind of plants could go where. We also made note of what areas of the garden needed to be worked before we could plant (all of it). We decided to start with the circle garden area on the south side of the church building. We had a few garden parties with other members of the congregation where we loosened the soil, added compost, and covered with bark chips.
I stopped by my grandma's house at the end of March and she gave me four huge lavender bushes that I transplanted into our garden. They aren't native but they are drought tolerant and bees adore lavender. I figured it would be a good addition.
This weekend I got to go to four different nurseries in pursuit of all the plants I wanted.
The first place I visited was Central Valley Nursery, which was a tiny little nursery run by a cute little old woman. We got our strawberry plants from her and she threw in a grocery bag full of starts for free.
The real star of the show is Salish Trees Nursery up in Kingston, which only grows native plants. They have their inventory listed online, which I used as my main list for picking plants. The owner was so nice and helped me find everything that they had in stock. The bulk of my plants came from Salish Trees Nursery.
I also visited Valley Nursery in Poulsbo for the first time, which was simply amazing. It's huge and had gorgeous pots (which I didn't buy but will be back for). They had lupines, flowers that I have been especially excited to plant. Valley Nursery also had Common Yarrow in red rather than the usual white, which I thought was really pretty. I bought a couple of those even if they might not be the strictly native variety.
My other love is the Bremerton City Nursery. They had trumpet honeysuckle when no one else did. It's always a pleasure to wander the rows at BCN and I'll absolutely be back to stock my own garden later this summer.
Today it rained all afternoon, but it was the only day I had available to plant, so plant I did. My faithful friends from church showed up in the rain to help as well so we made quick work of the garden. I can't wait to see how everything grows and blooms this summer.
