August 15
Honeybees performed a waltz in the ballroom of the elderberry.
Elderberry (Sambucus nigra) is a North Carolina native shrub. Yesterday when my husband and I visited the Pisgah Inn in Pisgah Forest, I gazed downward from the porch where the elderberry was growing. Its white flowers were dancing, not so much in tune with the breeze, but as partners with the bees, a swarm of honeybees that flew from flower to flower, as if they were negotiating a full dance card of the sweet names of the petals. Unable to get close enough to inhale any scent the bush might have to attract these pollinators, I simply watched the performance.
The bees were a happy bunch, delighted with their food source, as they worked in the hot sun, pollinating the bush that would soon develop black or dark purple berries suitable for pies, jellies, wine and other delights.
It is then I am reminded of the circle of life, how the elderberry, the bees, and us are all connected, how we thrive on one another’s existence.
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One corner of my subdivision, the “common area,” is teeming with pollinator flowers. Cosmos, black-eyed Susans, sunflowers, are filling the space with their vibrant hues of purple, lilac, fuchsia, white, and yellow. The corner from my house is a mere few feet away, and I can observe the mini garden from my porch. Another neighbor also grows native pollinating plants; her sunflowers are tall and striking this year, reminding me of my own sunflower growth in my backyard a couple years earlier.
Many of us are encouraged to grow native plants and wildflowers to contribute to the spread of our pollinating population, to which we happily oblige.
My garden is increasingly growing wild, spreading the calendula and zinnias and hollyhocks, the coreopsis and marigolds. While I realize it is taking on a will of its own, I do not view it as unkempt, though it is anything but pristinely manicured. I relish flower chaos, I decided. My entire life is scheduled, outlined and detailed and the garden is the one place I can breathe, I can be naked. If I had my way, I wouldn’t have a lawn at all, but an entire field of flowers, with stone walkways through the expansive color.
I have realized that being constantly in my garden is the purest, most natural thing for me.
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