Clover Everywhere!

After running the cows through the side yard and the front yard, I finally mowed everything but the back.  The back yard, near our bees, is our unofficial wildflower area.  Although the cows and goats would love to get in there and eat to their heart's content, it's off limits to them.  This area is for the bees.  If you walk around in what I now like to call our "meadow," it is abuzz, literally, with honeybees flying from flower to flower.  The White Dutch clover is abundant and thick this year.

Looking from west to east

The White Dutch Clover reaches in a belt right up to the beehives.  They don't have to go very far to get the nectar they need to begin making honey.

Looking from south to northwest

Here's one of our busy bees right now.  

But what I wanted to show in in the midst of the White Dutch Clover is something that I didn't think I'd see - Crimson Clover.  This past fall, I purchased a couple pounds of Crimson Clover seeds from our local feed store.  I think it is pretty and that the bees would like it.  I simply hand-scattered the seed several months ago in the fall/winter.  I didn't work up any soil, but I did make sure that the seeds made contact with bare ground.

And then...  It didn't rain for over a month.  I thought to myself, "Well, the seed isn't going to germinate.  Maybe birds will eat it.  It will never grow."  But this week, I saw clover foliage that was a lighter green color than white dutch.  It also grows taller than white dutch.  Yep, the crimson clover is popping up all over the meadow.

I see it all over the place!  It is just starting to bloom and boy, is it pretty!

I'm not going to mow back here in order that the clover can go to seed.  It would be nice if we could get this established so that it comes back year after year.  It is a high value source of pollen and nectar for our honeybees.