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| Bee zooming in on Bee Balm |
Many of the plants used for medicine of some type are also attractive to bees and butterflies. Bee Balm has a list of uses, although I am not prescribing any. I can imagine tea made from its leaves and will try that.
One Facebook friend claimed that Bee Balm could be evasive, then corrected the word to invasive, after I posted a question mark.
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| Black Swallowtail Butterfly on Bee Balm |
Two methods will make a plant invasive. One is spreading through roots or stolons. The mint family is famous for this, but Horse Mint (Bee Balm) grows in clumps, enlarging its clumps without spreading all over. Bamboo (a grass) can clump or spread through stolons. Bamboo is a good example of one rule - "resist the beginnings."
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| Feverfew |
A second way to invade is through seeds. Feverfew is famous for seeding itself all over the yard. The little white flowers do not mind adverse conditions and will bloom in every bare spot. The flower earned its name for various curative powers. Like Bee Balm, Feverfew will attract a variety of beneficial creatures, perhaps more than most flowers, according to Walliser.
Maple trees and dandelions seed from above and through the wind. I have been pulling up little maple trees all over the yard and gardens. I let dandelions (another herbal) grow where they germinate, because the break up the soil and mine calcium from below.
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| Triple Crown Blackberries are thornless. |
Handy Multiplication
We like dense growth in some cases. Periwinkle is the perfect plant to grow and bloom in the shade, to hold down soil in the process. The plant is expensive to buy, but holding down the plant against the soil--using a brick or stone--will cause that point to root and spread more.
Blackberries do the same, with long trailing canes, more like vines, that easily droop to the ground and take root when held against the soil.
Raspberries push up new canes all the time. An initial planting will become dense and need thinning in short order.
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| Seed eating birds will deposit their favorites along fences, so asparagus hunters in rural areas look there for stands of their favorite spears. |
