Envision a Meadow...

It looks a little brown right now, but with any luck, it'll soon be greening up with emerging little wildflowers.  This little spot of the yard has been growing nothing for years, aside from clumps of dying grass, the occasional weed, and a lot of bare, dry dirt showing.  Apparently, a couple minor construction projects and a herd of ravening dog-beasts combined with my lack of interest in maintaining a lawn on sandy soil did in any good roots.  Rather than grow another round of dust bowl weed adventures this season, I'm going for a wildflower meadow to draw in the native pollinators.  After scraping up the worst of the remaining weedy clumps, I put down a six inch deep layer of compost.  Sure, some weeds are going to grow back through that, but the heavy sowing of native wildflowers, all of which are hardy and sun-loving, should give them some competition.

It's a little hard to see, but against the west wall of the Bunny Barn there's a series of bamboo canes.  At the base of each cane, I planted three scarlet runner bean seeds.  These are seeds that were raised right here on the Farmlette, so they should shoot up and grow strongly.  By the time summer heats up, there should be a natural screen of bean vines to shade the rabbits during the long hot afternoons.  The hummingbirds absolutely love the bright red flowers, too, so combined with the irresistible lure of a profusion of wildflower blooms I will hopefully be over-run with hummingbirds, native bees, and butterflies galore.

I plan to make some bunting to swag over the mini-picket fencing, just to make it even more precious. Because, really, butterflies and hummingbirds just cry out for fluttering flags in a summer breeze, right?