This blog post was written by Christy Erickson, a guest blogger who has written a great post. Thanks, Chirsty!

Bees may seem like a nuisance to some individuals in the spring and summer, especially to families with young children who are afraid of being stung while they play outside. However, bees play an essential role in our country’s food production, and unfortunately, they’re dying off at an alarming rate. 
Many of the foods we enjoy, such as blueberries, cherries, pumpkins, and apples, are made available to us because of bees. The critical role they play in pollination--in the case of cherries and blueberries, almost 90% of their survival rate depends on bees--cannot be ignored, and it’s difficult to fathom what the world’s crop system would become without them. Even if we could manage to use manpower to cross-pollinate to save our crops--and scientists aren’t sure we could if the bee population were to die out in the next few years--the process would be extremely expensive and would drive up the cost of fruits and vegetables to an unsustainable rate. That’s why it’s imperative that we do everything we can to stop the bee population from dwindling any more than it already has; fortunately, there are several things you can do at home to help out. Here are a few of the best. 
Plant a garden 
Even if you’ve never considered yourself to be someone with a green thumb, you can start a small garden in your backyard that will be beneficial for a multitude of reasons. If you’re a city dweller, no problem; simply create a small box garden that will fit on your balcony or patio. Some great things to plant that will draw the bees and keep them fed include lilacs, wisteria, sunflowers, lavender, and several herbs such as sage, oregano, and rosemary. If you have the room, consider adding pumpkins, squash, and tomatoes. 
Some of the biggest considerations when starting a garden for the bees include making sure you don’t use chemicals on the plants and planting a good amount of the same type of plant together; bees enjoy having several blooms to choose from. For more information on how to start the perfect garden at home, read on here. 
www.redfin.com/blog/2016/04/how-to-start-your-own-urban-garden.html

Don’t be afraid of those weeds 
It can be easy to get caught up in keeping your lawn perfectly manicured, especially if your neighbors are always the first ones to mow every week. Don’t be afraid of those weeds, however; clover and dandelions are wonderful for bees and will give them a great place to forage, especially if your neighborhood doesn’t keep them around. 
Avoid pesticides 
Neonicotinoid pesticides are the most commonly used insecticide, and yet it is slowly killing the bees. Dissolving in water, it makes its way into waterways via agricultural runoff, meaning flowers that weren’t directly treated, as well as the unsuspecting bee visitors, are at risk. Pesticides are not only lowering bee survival rates, but negatively impacting their natural defense systems, causing widespread disease. 
Knowing this, what are your alternatives in order to keep a healthy, thriving garden? Although it sounds simple, the key to a pest-free garden is to prevent them from coming in the first place. Pull out weak plants, minimize insect habitats by consistently clearing debris and weeds, and interplant and rotate crops to avoid reinfestation and spreading. In addition, nature has its own natural defense against harmful insects. The ladybug and praying mantis are just two of the many garden heroes, consuming known garden pests without causing any harm of their own. 
Support the beekeepers 
A great way to keep the bee population going is to talk to local beekeepers and support their businesses. Go to the farmer’s market on Saturday and find out more about what they do. Buying raw, local honey not only helps keep these hardworking beekeepers in business, it can be beneficial to you as well: eating local honey has been shown to help with allergies. 
Adopt a hive 
Do a bit of research to see if any local beekeepers offer an “adoption” program. This allows a regular citizen like yourself to sponsor a hive for an annual fee, which supports the owners and gives you the chance to help the cause without having to don a head-to-toe protective suit. Some beekeepers might even throw in some perks for your money, such as jars of honey. 
It’s estimated that bees are responsible for one out of every three bites of food we eat in the U.S., making them an integral part of our lives. It’s important to do what we can to help them thrive, and to spread the word about how others might do the same. Talk to your family about how you can support the bee population by planting a garden, advocating against the use of pesticides, or adopting your own hive. Share information with others in your neighborhood and start making a difference.

​(Dear reader, know that "place" can be a piece of land, an idea, or a new way of life.)

Who are pioneers? They are the first people. They are the hardy builders who can do anything or who believe they can, which with time becomes the same thing. They run from a too-civilized, soulless place, or they run to a new and dreamed-of place where they will live freely. Freedom is what pushes or pulls all pioneers toward a new place. Freedom from and freedom to. They do not fear the feel of dirt beneath their feet or fingernails. They run to and embrace it, leaving behind the paved and fortressed cities. Pioneers want to live close to the land. They provide the labor to build the infrastructure for all who come after them.

Who comes after the pioneers? The artisans. They have a bit of the pioneer's spirit but need the comfort of the basic infrastructure that the pioneers have built. They need this infrastructure so that they can do something other than toil to grow their own food all the days of their lives, which the pioneers love to do and take pride in. The artisans come but despise what they first see as isolation and too much work to supply the daily basics, and they abhor the lack of amenities. They either return to whence they came or they set about building a community for themselves to supply what they long for--goods, services, schools, diversions, music, art, and beauty. Because of their discontent and effort, life in the new place becomes more pleasant and lively. A community develops to knit people together and the quality of life is enhanced for both the pioneers and the artisans. 

The pleasantness and liveliness attract the  doctors and lawyers as well as the captains of industry, who supply services, work, wages, and markets to the growing populace. But the artisans begin to feel the strain of competition with the captains of industry, who can do everything cheaper, faster, and to grander scale--but not better. Cheaper appeals to the majority of those who move in after the artisans. The pioneers continue on as they always have for the most part, relying on themselves and oblivious to the changes that encroach.

Such a lively, wonderful place with all its small shops, arts, crafts and quality of life attracts those who have made their fortunes but are now looking to live out their days in ease, in clean and pleasant surroundings uncorrupted by their past business exploits. These are the gentry. They buy up space for their beautiful houses. They buy up space to provide prestigious addresses for their online and global businesses. They just buy up space. 

Because of their rampant appetite for property and space, those who have provided the labor and the quality of life for every blessed thing that the gentry needs are pushed out to the ramparts, but kept close enough to render their services after a long drive for smaller and smaller wages.

Then, finally, come the dissatisfied hoards who have heard what a little gem this wonderful new place is. They all want a piece of it, bringing their dissatisfactions with them. They do not know that they are too late. They do not know that the soul of this place is being sucked from it even as they unload the moving vans. The artisans must leave, some to become pioneers in a new place. The few, old pioneers continue on oblivious, their way of life never changing. They continue to work the livelong day to set food upon their own tables and don't expect anything else. But for the rest, life in this new place becomes difficult.

Nashville, you've just been gentrified.

​It's mid-July and the garden demands as much attention as it did in early spring. The heavy, frequent rains have brought a deluge of green beans, tomatoes, peppers, summer squash, and other fresh vegetables to be harvested and put up for winter. Most days, either the water-bath canner bubbles away on the front porch or the stopcock of the pressure canner rocks and sizzles the afternoon away--a propane tank hooked up to a two-burner device keeps the heat outside on the porch and out of the kitchen. 

Even so, I have grown way too much food for one person. I can. I freeze. I incorporate the bounty into potluck dishes and share it with friends and family. Still too much. I try to give it away, but everyone I know who appreciates fresh vegetables either grows their own or buys from a reliable CSA source--which I totally support and would never interfere with! Others look askance at the little green, yellow, and red beauties and don't for the life of them know what to do with a fresh, uncooked vegetable in their own kitchen. So be it. The damned stuff can rot in the garden or be chicken food.

Thanks to the rains, my farm is greener than I've ever seen it this time of year. My circle of trees has grown close and fully leaved to cradle and cool me in my little house. Despite global warming, and yes I do believe it is real, I am spending less on energy this year thanks to all this lush greenery. Letting nature have her way toward permaculture is paying off in other ways too. On my morning walk, I saw walnut-sized pawpaws developing--a first since I began stewarding this place ten-plus years ago (thanks Patrick Gilliam for your tutelage on pawpaws!). A burgeoning crop of black walnuts and persimmons also have made themselves evident. Speaking of pawpaws and persimmons, I have mead recipes for both! I have perfected my persimmon mead but have not yet attempted pawpaw mead. The recipe that I found for pawpaw mead in Mother Earth News says it's liable to come out a bit "funky"? Aha, a challenge!

The crop that is not doing so well and that I miss this year is the wild blackberries. I usually pick enough for jams and pies and for mixing in with my morning oatmeal. But this year, my growing goat herd has beat me to them. So I have planted a tamer, thornless variety within my fenced-off garden area that will begin to produce next year (ah the ever-hopefulness of a gardener). In the meantime, I will have to content myself and my oatmeal with Bernie's blueberries.

Bernie is a neighbor who farms acres of beautiful blueberries for sale and for U-picking. Bernie is a character worth the volume of writing that would fill a set of encyclopedias, but I will tell you this much. I am not allowed to pick berries this coming Tuesday as is my summer habit because, he says, they will be picked clean this weekend by all of the people he has invited to come out and pick in protest of Marsha, Marsha, Marsha Blackburn, our GOP congressional representative. I am tempted to go support the effort, but currently I am at odds with the Democrats as well as the Republicans, goddamn independent that I am.

Anyway, so goes July on Persimmon Ridge.