Earthly Garden

Mornin’, earthly gardeners…

I’ve been watching the disappearing bee story carefully. Seems that reports are coming in that colonies of *organic* bees are not being affected as much as the non-organic hives. Huh. Can we say “I’m not surprised”? Anyway, I just ran across this story written by Dan Sorenson in the Arizona Daily Star. It seems that Dee Lusby, the owner of Lusby Apiaries, has 900 hives of “free range” organic bees. She’s only lost several hives since this whole mess started. Fascinating story! (BTW, it seems that the Africanized “killer bees” are also immune to whatever’s bothering the domestic hives.)

The experts now are agreeing that it might be a number of factors causing the disappearance….pesticides, lack of organic (as in, non-genetically modified) crops and plants, or perhaps some mite that has spread among susceptible bee populations.

It never occurred to me that my bees—actually, they aren’t MY bees, but I like to call them that–are a free-range organic hive. That has a nice ring to it! They’ve been BEEzy (groan) this week with the native yaupon holly, which is starting to bloom.

In other news, I’ve been working on a short piece about how you can build your own easy, inexpensive raised bed garden using plain old cement blocks you can buy at any home center, garden center or hardware store, and I hope to run that tomorrow with photos of some of mine.

Until then, dig it!

bobbi c.
Copyright©2007 by Bobbi A. Chukran. All rights to photos and text reserved.

disappearing bees, freerange beehives, free range bees, organic bees

Just ran across this quote about the disappearing bees in the My Dog’s Nose blog. Experts have a name for the disappearing bee thing now….Colony Collapse Disorder. The blog author has an opinion that the bees don’t like the genetically modified plants out there. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if that’s not a correct assumption.

“Every third bite we consume in our diet is dependent on a honeybee to pollinate that food,” said Zac Browning, vice president of the American Beekeeping Federation. Every three bites….think about that for a minute.

Many people have written to me, saying that they’d keep bees if they weren’t allergic to them. This can be a problem for many folks. As far as I know, I’m not allergic to bee stings (although I am allergic to everything else in the world), and I will truthfully say that I work amongst them everyday in the garden and have never been stung. Honeybees are usually docile creatures, unless you happen to disturb their nest. One thing to remember, never swat at a bee!

This story is “burnin’ up the wires” so to speak, and it should. It’s an important issue for all of us.

We’re getting lots of nice, soft spring rains. We need it badly, although it’s too wet in the garden to plant much. I get around that by digging a hole, filling it with slightly moist potting soil, then smoothing that over. That way, the roots aren’t over-saturated. That’s one advantage of growing in raised beds; they drain fairly fast and are a bit drier than the surrounding soil.

dig it!

bobbi c.
Copyright ©2007 by Bobbi A. Chukran. All rights reserved.

Colony Collapse Disorder, bee stings, allergic to bee stings, food pollination, gardening in wet soil, raised bed gardening

Mornin’, friends!

It seems that I was one of the first to report on the disappearing bees story, a few weeks ago. Since then, the story has blazed across the ‘net like wildfire, and many experts are getting worried that there might not be enough bees to pollinate all the food crops in the US. This is a serious matter!

I’m getting news items from all over the US. It seems that garden groups, and beekeeping groups, are urging home gardeners to keep a hive or two of bees. I’ll admit that the idea crosses my mind every once in while, but I really didn’t want more chores to do around here. As is, it’s a full time job taking care of the garden, house, cats and Husband . But now it might make sense for me to do so.

Sure, I have a swarm of honeybees that stay around my garden. They love the rosemary, especially, and were “on the job” with my blooming fruit trees. I’m not sure where they live, though…perhaps in a dead tree on the property. A friend suggested they might live in the walls of my house. Eeek. Of course, I’m really curious about where they are hiding the honey….

All I know is that the swarm has gotten larger over the last five years when they appeared here. I hope they stick around, and I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure they do. Which means being extra careful in the garden. We never spray anything in or near our property, but I also want to make sure they have a good supply of blooming plants for them to forage on. That, and a good water supply.

I’m not suggesting everyone rush out and start a beehive, although, if you can, that would be great! But you can do other things….do not spray pesticides in your gardens, make sure there’s at least a small water source (see my previous article about the low cost birdbath), and plant things that bees love. They really love the rosemary, that would be a good start!

Until tomorrow,

dig it!

bobbi c.
Copyright ©2007 by Bobbi A. Chukran

disappearing bees, beekeepers, beekeeping, bee plants, water source in garden, inexpensive birdbath, low cost birdbath, rosemary

As ya’ll know, I’m very fond of watching the birdies out my office window. That’s one reason I was distressed when I read that the month of March is the hardest of all for birds. According to an article by George H. Harrison on the eNature.com website published by the National Wildlife Federation, birds have a tough time in March because there just isn’t enough native food for them to eat–not many seeds, berries, insects, etc. So it’s doubly important to keep those birdfeeders filled. As I mentioned before, the longer we keep seed in our feeders, the more different varieties of birds we’re attracting to our gardens. And birdies in the garden is a great thing for Earthly Gardens!

I’m celebrating the arrival of thousands of bees to my garden. They are busy with the nectarine tree that is gorgeous and dripping with blooms. The irises are blooming, and the one lonely tomato plant I put out in the garden yesterday is still alive this morning. That’s a reason to celebrate! I can almost taste that salsa now!

dig it!

bobbi c.
All photos and text copyright ©2005-2007 Bobbi A. Chukran. all rights reserved.

birds in garden, birdfeeders, National Wildlife Federation, nectarine blossoms

Somebody asked about the rosemary bush that was attracting all the bees. Here’s a photo of it, in my garden. It’s happy here in this Hill Country soil that is so much like the Mediterranean soil where rosemary is native.
This bush is about 8 years old, and is only one of over a dozen I have in my garden area.

I also got a shot of the first bulb to bloom here, a grape hyacinth. It was planted four years ago, and comes up like clockwork every February/early March.

dig it!

bobbi c.

rosemary, herbs, bees, honeybees, grape hyacinth, spring bulbs

Something a little more serious this morning….In more than 24 states across the country, bees are disappearing at an alarming rate. According to Ann Johansson of the New York Times and other journalists across the country, this is not only threatening the livelihood of beekeepers, but is also a threat to many of our important crops, such as the almond industry in CA. Not to mention our entire food supply!

Researchers aren’t sure where the bees are going. Some hives have died off, some have simply vanished.

For sure, widespread pesticide spraying of agricultural crops can kill bees, as can small doses of spraying, such as a homeowner might do in their gardens or yards. That’s just another reason that organic gardening is friendly to the environment.

Our entire food supply relies on pollination by bees and other such insects. There are many alternatives to synthetic pesticides on the market today. Next time you’re at your local garden center, look for the natural or organic section…see what’s there, and follow the directions on the label.

dig it!

bobbi c.

disappearing bees, pollination, insects, natural gardening, organic gardening, food supply

After years with my office in the back of the house, I convinced Husband to switch rooms with me. His office was at the front of the house, overlooking the gardens; mine was at the back overlooking a rocky gray hillside covered with scrubby cedars. I can’t tell you how much difference that move has made to my mood everyday, my level of inspiration and general well-being.

I’m convinced that looking at flowers and plants releases endorphins in our system, much like smelling good food cooking does. And for sure, smelling the fragrance of an antique rose HAS to do something good to our physical bodies.

My garden comforts me. When I see the heirloom onions popping up that a friend back in Austin gave me years ago, or when I see a plant bloom that was just a tiny seed just a few months before, or when I hear the chirping of birds at the birdbath or the buzz of bees in the rosemary bush, I’m comforted.

Take comfort in a garden. Doesn’t matter what size, shape or form. Plant a few herbs, attract some bees, plant one tomato plant and when it fruits, stand out in the garden in the sunshine and eat one off of the vine, and let the sweet acid juice run down your chin.

I guarantee you will be comforted.

dig it!

bobbi c.

gardening as inspiration, bees, birdbaths, snapdragon photo, tomato plant

I’m sitting gazing out the window to my garden, and am happy to see that my little swarm of wild bees are back! They disappeared for a few months, and I was worried about them. I have no idea where they live, but a beekeeper friend identified them for me soon after they appeared here a few years ago…turns out they are honeybees! He told me he’ll help me capture them and put them into a hive, but I’m not sure I want the responsibility of tending a beehive. The bees seem to be doing fine on their own.

One surprise…they LOVE rosemary! My rosemary plants bloom off and on year-round here, and I never thought about that being a good source of pollen, or nectar. Apparently the bees think otherwise. I see a handful of them swarming the plant this morning, but last August there were thousands out there. The idea of rosemary-flavored honey is intriguing, I will admit.

I was glad to see the bees in the garden because they help the plants with pollination. One reason I have a totally organic garden is so that the beneficial insects can thrive in it and aren’t killed off by pesticides and synthetic fertilizers. Too many of our native pollinators are disappearing because of widespread spraying of crops. For me, that’s reason enough to go organic.

Until tomorrow….dig it!

bobbi c.

insects, herbs, rosemary, bees, honeybees, beekeeping, pollination, native bees, native pollinators, nectar, organic gardening