I love gardening. It is a chance to spend time outside, an opportunity to nurture seeds and grow food for our family. Over the years I have developed my skills in the garden and have enjoyed sharing my gardening knowledge with others.

We usually like to have one or two projects for the Spring and Summer season. This year my husband has requested to try to create a pollinator garden. We have lots of bee and butterfly friendly plants in our backyard now, but we wanted to extend this into the front of our home as well.

There is a large amount of available land in the front of our home. We are getting the wheels in motion and making plans to create a new garden in this space. The main goal is to make a garden specifically that will attract pollinators. It is a protected area with a fence running along the west side, with lots of sun.

On our last visit to our local garden centre, there was a great selection of West Coast Seeds. West Coast Seeds are a premium quality of seeds and they are a Canadian company. They have a great selection of hard to find seeds as well as traditional selections.

We were excited to see that West Coast Seeds had already created a Bee Garden Blend by a Master Beekeeper. In my mind this is a win for us and a win for the bees! This package contains a wildflower mix that will attract bees and other pollinators to our garden. We also picked up a xeriscaping blend that requires little moisture once established, which will also attract pollinators.

Preparation will start for the new bed in late April for direct sowing in May. We will create the bed about 4 feet wide and approximately 20 feet long. Our plan is to amend the soil with rich mushroom compost, and triple mix. We also had some inspiration from our visit last year to a local sunflower patch. So we will add in a few varieties of sunflowers with the bee blend.

I am certainly excited to see if our new project will “BEE” amazing! Stay tuned for step by step photos of our newest garden project.