Let Your Salad Bloom

The bees love the early blooms of cold-weather salad greens.

The winter salad bed I showed you a little while back is now rapidly going to seed in our warming weather.

We planted a big mess of stuff, like usual, and we'll end up with plenty of seeds before too long. Mustard, lettuces, various unknowns... and cilantro:

There's a constant progression of insects buzzing around this bed. Wasps, bees, moths, butterflies... it's fantastic.


Being a neatnik and yanking out plants that have bolted keeps you from reaping the secondary benefit of attracting beneficial creatures to your yard.

Slow down and enjoy life a bit. Watching insects is better than having a fishtank... and lower maintenance.

Plus, the flowers are pretty in their own right.

I have a gardening friend who regularly lets her broccoli go into full bloom... just for the bees. It's a good practice to embrace.