“Asters” by Annie Watson, Thistle Hill Studio

On a recent sunny afternoon walk, I spotted fall-blooming aster flowers alive with pollinators such as wasps, solitary bees, butterflies, and honey bees, all loading up on pollen and nectar.

Aster flowers come in many colors and sizes, from the rich violet-colored New England Aster to the not-so-showy Bushy Aster, a 1 to 3-foot tall leafy plant that can be covered with small white flowers with yellow centers. While not spectacular to look at, this plant provides food and cover for many creatures. Wild turkeys, goldfinches, chipmunks, and white-footed mice, to name a few, eat the seeds, while the leaves are eaten by deer and rabbits. The flower depends on insects for pollination and in turn provides them with food. The plant’s leafy foliage also provides shelter for butterflies, spiders, voles and mice, frogs and toads, birds, and many insects. Amazing plants!

“Goldenrod” by Annie Watson, Thistle Hill Studio

As I walk in the garden, a pungent essence wafts across the back yard. This is goldenrod honey, being made in the beehives. September is the month of the goldenrod bloom, characterized by a spicy fragrance coming from the flowers and a heavy, rich, yeasty aroma emanating from the beehives as the bees transform goldenrod nectar into their winter stores of honey. Truly, without the goldenrod they could not make it through the winter. Goldenrod honey is a warm yellow color, darker than clover or mixed wildflower honey, rich with an unforgettable spicy flavor. We always save a special jar to open in January.

“Burdock, an essential plant” by Annie Watson, Thistle Hill Studio

The crickets are singing nonstop…We’ll be heading to Addison County Field Days, Vermont’s big agricultural fair, this week…Blackberries are ripe. Most days are still very warm, but there’s a chill in the air of an evening. Summer is winding down.

For honey bees, the next six weeks are crucial, for they must make enough honey to see the colony through next winter. That’s why burdock, now flowering, is so important. In Vermont in August, it’s the bees’ major food source.

If you allow a hedgerow of burdock and other “weeds” such as jewelweed and mustard to grow along borders of your property, you are providing food not only for honey bees but for all manner of pollinators. If the burdock is growing where you don’t want it to (like at the edge of my vegetable garden!), you can watch it and cut it down just after the flowers have begun to dry up but before the seeds have fully formed. That way you can still guard against those pesky burs while allowing the bees a food critical to their survival. It’s really important that we maintain burdock in Vermont! For more about burdock, which is also a very medicinal plant, click here.