The goldenrod is in bloom, and that means different things to different people.
For some, it means the end of summer and the onset of fall. For some, it means happy bees. For my mother, it meant sneezing season.
“Get that stuff away from me,” she’d say, when her thoughtful children came in with bouquets of wildflowers for her. “Just looking at it makes me sneeze.”
And it was just looking at it that made her sneeze. Because goldenrod over the years has gotten a bad rap. With a sticky pollen that is not likely to become airborne, goldenrod are not to blame for your late-summer allergies. Its only crime is blooming at the same time that ragweed pollen hits the air, and because it’s more flamboyant, it ends up taking the blame for the pollens really responsible hay fever.
I was never able to convince my mother that she was not allergic to goldenrod, and the best I could hope for was that she’d perch my bouquets on the railing outside the kitchen window, where she could view them from indoors. She still got the sniffles.
For beekeepers, the few that are left, goldenrod is a delight. The bees make a full-flavored, deep golden honey from it, and that sticky pollen is perfect for feeding their brood. The late and long bloom helps hives build a rich store of pollen and honey for winter. Along with aster, goldenrod is what gives wildflower honey its distinctive sharp taste. And it makes a good excuse not to mow.
A beekeeper we once knew in Ballston Spa explained to his neighbors that no, he did not have an unkempt field of weeds behind his barn. It was his “cash crop,” he told them.
I’m one who’s happy to see the goldenrod. I like unmowed fields, wildflowers and all the wildlife they attract. When we visited Bennington College last week, to see our bassoonist friend perform in a wind ensemble, it was nice to see wildflowers growing in unmowed sections of what otherwise might have been lawn.
“I get it, Mom,” said the now 9-year-old, who likes to analyze everything. “They mow some places so we can walk around, and leave others alone for the bees.”
That’s a trick you can do too. You don’t have to totally abandon your lawn to create areas where wildlife is happy and pollinators can thrive. You can leave patches or edges unmowed, and see what comes up. You’ll probably soon have Queen Anne’s lace, and black-eyed Susans, daisies, asters and any number of wild yellow things — cinquefoil, trefoil, snapdragons and, of course, goldenrod. The birds, butterflies and bees will thank you.
We’ve got a honeybee hive in our neighborhood, so there are plenty of bees in our vegetable gardens this year. And we let the wild things grow up on the edges to make sure they feel welcome in. We let the mustard greens grow tall, and their yellow flowers are covered with honeybees, who then wander in to pollinate the corn. The milkweed brings in bumblebees, butterflies and hummingbirds.
We tend to let our flower gardens grow wild too. Our patches of bee balm, tiger lilies, golden glow and yellow daisies are pretty much out of control, but that just makes the bumblebees and hummingbirds happy. The little birds — sparrows and goldfinches — take refuge in the sunflowers towering over the corn, which is so full of buzzing honeybees it sounds just like the window fan in the back bedroom.
It’s nice to work in the garden with all the winged creatures working nearby. And it’s nice to not work, to know that by doing nothing — not mowing everything, leaving dried flowers on the stem so the birds can eat the seeds, letting weeds grow up to flower — we’re giving something back to the other animals that live on our little piece of ground.
And all those wildflowers look beautiful in vases on the window sills. They don’t even make us sneeze.
Margaret Hartley is the Gazette’s Sunday and features editor. Greenpoint appears in the Gazette’s print edition Sundays on the Environment page.
Have a question or a topic you’d like addressed on Greenpoint? Email greenpoint@dailygazette.net.
