Pollinate

The word that has been in my mind this week is pollinate.

All week I have been watching the bees in our gardens.  I am mesmerized by their activity.  I could watch them for hours as they move through our flowering calendula and borage in the herb gardens,or quietly buzz in and out of the cucumber flowers in our hoop house (under construction, see photo above). 

Today I saw the bees busy around me as I weeded the pumpkin patch.  Pumpkin and squash flowers only open for one day, usually in the morning.  If they are not pollinated at the right time (by bees, or wind, or birds, or other insects), the flowers wither and will not form fruit.  It always feels like a celebration when the bees arrive. 

Some gardeners pollinate their squash or even fruit trees by hand, to ensure consistent pollination.  We have hopes for local insect pollinators to be available to do the job for us.  In order to help, we planted “pollinator strips” on the edges of our gardens and throughout the vegetable field.  These long rows of flowering pollinator-friendly perennials help to attract pollinators.  The orchard we started will also be interplanted with flowers, herbs and vegetables in the coming years, to increase pollination and create a thriving “food forest'“.  The mix of flowers and herbs in with our vegetables and orchard makes the garden an extra lively, beautiful and colourful place.  We laid the groundwork, and are now starting to see the results.

In a similar way, we have also been laying the groundwork for this farmstead.  For many years we dreamed about a rural property where we could tend the land and grow healthy food for our community.  We were inspired by reading gardening books, taking courses, working on organic farms, attending conferences, talking to other farmers.  When we arrived here we immediately started mapping out the gardens, preparing beds for growing, planting trees, and seedling garlic.  Over the winter we studied crop plans, wrote a business plan, and ordered seeds.  In early spring we started seedlings, brought in compost, built a chicken coop.  And now we weed, tend, harvest and share what the gardens are producing. 

The groundwork was prepared when we started our farm dream many years ago, and those ideas were pollinated when we actually put our farm dream into action.  Now we patiently wait for the delicious beautiful fruits to come.  Fruits like the community that we hope will form around this farmstead.  Fruits like physical health and mental well-being that come from being outdoors every day, having meaningful work, and eating good food.  Fruits like a small farm business that can provide a livelihood for our family and offer our children a place to thrive.

What are you pollinating in your life?  What fruits do you hope will come of it?