Bees released from their cocoons seemed very attracted to the sweet-smelling lilacs, and there were primulas and tulips nearby. One of the most wonderful things I discovered when I started studying pollinators was that butterflies and moths love heavily scented plants. Greetings fellow gardeners It has been an interesting few days. Rain and sun and…
Bees need water and this water is a good source for the bees in the hotels. My pond has some cattails that need to be cut so the new growth can flourish. Another native plant I have near the pond is a bog plant called Arrowhead (Sagittaria latifolia). Greetings fellow gardeners I have been staying…
Judith makes observations, including on bee and wasp diversity, as part of research done by a PhD student, as the bee hotel is dismantled for the season. While the weather is still incredibly mild, I am seeing many of the signs of autumn. Most of the trees have lost their leaves and the chickadees are…
This week, Judith shares how she prepares her roses for winter, including the use of netting and the importance of snow cover. The temperature today is confusing. It is nearly Halloween, and the temperature is in the high twenties. It does, however, give me more time for my garden cleanup. I haven’t finished cutting back…
Monarch butterflies are superb pollinators, and if they are fed plants they enjoy, they will pollinate your entire garden. Butterflies require two kinds of plants to survive: host plants and food plants. Plant a monarch butterfly garden because their populations have been progressively dropping in recent decades, mostly due to habitat loss and pesticide usage….
Pea seeds are also placed in cardboard tubes, which keep them safe even after they’ve been planted out. Greetings fellow gardeners, Bee and Bee Cocoon Study This Saturday Lydia Wong, the PhD student who was conducting an experiment in my yard, returned with her two bee hotels and temperature gauge. Last year she collected…
I never realized how much I did not know about bumblebees. And, this week I started going through the seeds that I collected and chose several that I want to test. I really wanted to test the pepper seeds that I collected to see if the seed was viable. Greetings fellow gardeners, Bumblebee Photo…
Butterflies need two types of plants to survive: the host plant and the food plant. Attracting butterflies to your garden takes more than just planting a few flowers for nectar because most people only focus on this one thing. One of their worst mistakes is planting alien, non-native plants that are often promoted as being…
The need for wasp removal is directly proportional to how often they bother you. Or a wasp nest in a bad spot is “Wasp stings waiting to happen”. This summer, I discovered a nest in our compost bin, they enter their nest through a small sliver in a side vent in the bin. Time to…
You will need milkweed for a Monarch Waystation; however, I know of people who are allergic to milkweed and find it difficult to be in close contact with the plant. In that case, grow native nectar plants that the butterflies can feed on, and the monarchs can go beyond your property to lay their eggs…
We often wonder about how smart certain non-human animals are, including bumblebees. There are numerous creatures whose intelligence is on full display and has been observed and analyzed to a very significant degree. We see dogs get talked about quite a bit. Dogs respond to commands and recognize patterns and exhibit quite a bit of…
I’m not exaggerating when I say that creating this pollinator garden is one of the best decisions I ever made, and that it has changed my life. You can read about why and how I created my garden in a blog post I wrote for the Wild Pollinator Partners. Perhaps you will be inspired to…
Keeping an urban beehive in a town or city may seem like a strange idea, as our first thought may be that bees would thrive best in the countryside, with lots of clean air and plants for the bees to pollinate. But it’s a fact that bees in an urban environment can thrive and are more healthy and productive than bees found in the country.
The relentless march forward of ‘progress’ damages our 56 species of butterfly and 2,500 species of moths who are sensitive to change – but your garden can help them find food and shelter.
Abundant and healthy populations of pollinators can improve fruit set and quality, and increase fruit size. In farming situations this increases production per acre. In the wild, biodiversity increases and wildlife food sources increase. A guide for farmers, land managers, and gardeners. Guide des agriculteurs, des gestionnaires de terres et des jardiniers.
With a year of conferences, tests, trials and garden visits under our belts, we’re excited to tell you about the big ideas we think will be influencing the gardening world in the months ahead. Beyond popular colors and new varieties, big-picture themes always emerge on the world (gardening) stage that prompt designers and plant breeders to shift their work towards our changing needs. This year, most of what we see heading your way has to do with population, technology, cooperation over competition, and plants that solve problems. Keep reading to see what we’ve been taking note of!
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