Earthly Garden

1. Install your heather plants in the spring in well-drained, acidic soil. Make sure that the water won’t just be sitting around the plants and that the ground dirt isn’t too hard.

2. Makes sure that the plants will receive full to partial sun when growing. Heather doesn’t do well and may die in shaded areas in your yard or garden. Heather can take small amounts of shade, but can’t take it all day.

3. Plant in areas of the garden where you might want to see the butterflies that heather naturally attracts. Heather also attracts other pollinators, such as honey bees and even some types of birds.

4. Mulch with an inch of two if chopped conifer bark or pine needles; this will help acidify the soil and protect the plants from chilly weather. You can even use your lawn clippings around for mulch as well. The best way to protect heather in the chilly months is with thick mulch though.

5. Prune back to below the flower line when the weather has settled in the spring, so that the subsequent blooms will be just as beautiful as the spring blooms. Pruning is something we all dread, but it is necessary to achieve great blooms when the spring rolls around.

6. Keep in mind that the warmer, humid climates such as that in the Southeast you may be able to find heather only as potted gift plants.

7. Transplant only when your heather plants as small to average size for lasting results. Once the heather is in the ground, avoid transplanting it somewhere else in your yard or garden. It is best to make sure when you first plant it, it stays there.

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

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