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| Bee Balms - Feed them - and they will come, all creatures great and small. |
I am shy about trying to move Bee Balm around, but the rains are coming and today is my best chance.
The mint is so attractive to bees that anyone can stand inches away - and watch the bees work the flowers. I have the treasured and rare Insect Bird Passport, which allows me to be around God's creatures without being attacked.
Blue Jays guard their nests like F-15 jets, driving people away in dive bombing attacks. I used to drop off handfuls of sunflower seeds for the parents, daily - near the nest, without any threats or shrieks or alarm. Now I have plenty of food out for all the birds and four bathing areas. Blue Jays are often the first to feed on the barrels.
Birds are likely to call from a few feet away, to remind me of their need for nutritious food with their baths.
Bee Balm grows hundreds of flowers and reaches 4 feet in height. But mine grew up and around the mailbox, 5 feet tall. Last year I saw signs of a swath being cut down to make it safer for the mailman to open the box. The flowers grew back - and I tried to keep them down for the mailman, who seemed to be missing a Insect Bird Passport.
Two girls visited while their relatives worked on two lawns, ours and Ranger Bob's. They found the honeysuckle, a southern delight, and wild strawberries. Did I have bird food? The peanuts were used up, but I had the corn and sunflower mixture to fling into the grass and garden.
They said, "We want corn to grow in your garden," and I assured them it would happen. I might even see an attempt at sunflower growth.
When the sun is up, I will dig a few holes in the Butterfly Garden and move some Bee Balm over by digging some up from the front of the mailbox. Cardboard will keep down the grass that wants to engulf anything I plant - a tribute to the soil's fertility and the earthworms' virility.
I smile when I see the complaint - "No Bee Balms came up!" - in their review of the plant, probably from the same order I purchased, a bag of the roots jumbled up. I soaked mine in rainwater and planted them in cold and drizzle of an autumn day. I wrote them off in my future garden map, but they came through and expanded each year.
