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Happenings Around the Homestead

While there wasn’t a homestead or a post about the chickens here last week, that doesn’t mean things weren’t happening.  As you can imagine, with the temperatures warming up, things are buzzing here.

Speaking of buzzing, that is the first thing of interest today.  It seems the native bees, the Blue Orchard Mason Bees, did not decide to make the bee house I put up home.  There is no sign of them nesting there at all.  This doesn’t mean they aren’t around, they just aren’t there.  Even so, there is plenty of bee activity.  I think, looking back, I messed up by getting them delivered too late.  That’s okay though – you live and learn.  I still have one more shipment of native bees coming, and they are set to arrive around May 15th.  These are Leafcutter Bees.  I’ll post more about them as we get closer.

One thing that has happened in the last couple of weeks is the arrival of my Goldenseal plants.  Goldenseal is an herb that is native to the US and widely known for its medicinal properties.  One of the really cool things about it is that it grows natively in hardwood (preferably oak) forests in the shade.  That makes it a perfect plant for one of the flower gardens here.  Let me show a picture of it:

Young Goldenseal Plant

Young Goldenseal Plant

I have already planted three of the six of these I ordered, and the other three are ready to be planted now.  I might be able to set them out today.

Regarding the rest of the garden, I am debating letting most of it rest this year.  There is more to come on that later.