Now that's a perennial!

When I was 17, I got a purple pansy tattooed on my leg. My dad went with me when I had it done and it was something I was happy with for years. But, this winter, I started getting the itch to revive my tired, 13 year old tattoo with something new.

So, I made an appointment with an amazing artist, Andrea, at Slave to the Needle in Ballard, waited four months to finally get an appointment with her, and endured a little over two and a half hours of pain to have this beautiful new tattoo. Sure, having a pansy on my leg as a gardener was fitting, but this one just feels a bit more like me – more grown up, more botanical knowledge under my belt, more creative and artistic. The beautiful bee design I chose is not my artwork. My dad found it on some farmers' market poster. It's all healed now and after all, this week is National Pollinator Week, so what better time to make its blog debut.

The Bee's Knees

Did you know it's National Pollinator Week? It's the perfect time to get some beautiful, pollinator-friendly blooms into your garden if you haven't already. Plants, like squash (summer squash and winter squash), require pollination to produce fruit. So far, to attract bees to my garden, I've planted nasturtium, six different varieties of heirloom sunflowers, three different types of lavender, zinnia, and tons of dahlia tubers, not to mention all of the showy blooms I planted down the wild flower path. According to Sunset, you can enter your zip code at pollinator.org/guides.htm to get a list of pollinator-attracting plants for your area.

Need some inspiration? Check out the Pollinator Pathway, a mile-long pollinator-attracting garden planted in the parking strips (the band of grass between the sidewalk and the street) along Columbia Street in Seattle.

Want to have your own hive, but not sure where to start? Check out Ballard Bee Company and consider hosting a hive. The Ballard Bee Company will place a hive in your yard, maintain the hive, and will even give you a jar of honey for your efforts, not to mention all of the bees you'll have in your yard to pollinate your plants.

You can also support our local pollinators on a larger scale by getting involved in The Great Sunflower Project, a scientific effort to understand urban bee populations. Be a citizen scientist by joining the project, planting beautiful sunflowers, and observing bees in your own garden!

Honey Bee Mosaic

After I got the flagstone path installed for my wild flower garden, I discovered that we needed one more stone to make for a smoother transition across the grass. So to fill the space and honor the pollinators that I hope to attract, I made a honey bee mosaic stepping stone with tumbled stained glass. Here is the stone from start to finish.