And luckily the flowers are starting to bloom just in time to give the bees something to eat.
This lovely bee house was a gift from an online friend named elsietheeel who sent me this wonderful bee house out of the blue in winter. The edge was slightly damaged but it is perfectly usable. I slapped a little sugru on the rough edge, and on the split on top that was 100% my fault (dropped it oops).
The paint was 100% optional and 100% necessary.
It’s the excelsior bee hotel!
I found a spot for it on the back fence with enough sun for the bees to be comfortable.
I screwed a small screw into the fence to help keep it steady, and hopefully I’ll have plenty of bees soon to pollinate the tomatoes.
Because the tomatoes are ready for bees.
This is the sun gold and it’s in full bloom even though it’s not that big yet. The sauce pot is also obnoxiously flowered for April-but I shouldn’t complain!
My brand new chamomile plant is also ready for bees- you can really tell it’s a member of the extended daisy family when it’s in full bloom.
But what I’m really excited about is my larger blackberry vine.
Its flowering already! Look at it it’s so pretty! I’m super thrilled. I’m hoping this is a sign that all the effort I put into acidifying the soil and mulching so heavily did the trick.
Of course not all the food for bees was intentionally planted- this is the gorgeous scarlet pimpernel that showed up in front of one of my back beds. It’s just so nice to look at too.
Of course there’s also the neighbor’s flowers contributing to food resources. They do a wonderful job with their roses, and they’re also growing fava beans this year, very popular with our buzzing friends.
Anyways I’m just glad after a whole winter stuck inside it’s finally dry enough to be put outside. Got to support your local pollinators!
The Neanderthal Gardens 
What a cool bee hotel. Re your scarlet pimpernel; a client of mine is an organic garlic grower, a very difficult thing to crop commercially without herbicides. He mentioned being interested in living mulches – something invasive without harming the crop to suppress other weeds;but not too weedy; that doesn’t take too much water; and that allows safely working with bare hands. He’s considering chickweed (Stellaria media) and I’m also suggesting scarlet pimpernel (Anagallis arvensis). White mustard is another possible – anything to save time in the garden and reduce weeds.
Did you happen to plant your cane berries without cutting them back to a low bud? If not, don’t worry about doing so now. They will take specialized pruning from here on out. Otherwise, they grow into minimally productive thickets. Whit proper pruning, all canes that remain each year will be productive. Do not worry if they produce nothing this year. Their priority is dispersing roots and producing new canes. Next year, you will cut out the cane that is there now.