Earthly Garden

Garden pollinators are one of the most important things any garden needs, especially if you want to grow certain vegetables and flowers. Here are some shrubs, flowers and herbs that will bring the pollinators from all around.

1. Lavender (Lavendula spp.): This is a perennials flower that is drought tolerant and once it’s established it will bring beauty and a wonderful scent that will attract butterflies and bees from a wide-range of areas.

2. Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa): This is a perennials that has bright orange flowers that attract bees and butterflies, as well as lady bugs that will help pollinate your garden.

3. Sunflower (Helianthus annuus): This flower attracts so many bees. It is annual that can reseed itself, as I learned from person experience when I had over 100 sunflowers in my garden from the following years planting of only 5.

4. Deodar Cedar (Cedrus deodara): This is a conifer that is a great backdrop to many gardens. It will attract hummingbirds as well as many other pollinators that will bring great pollination to many of your plants in your garden.

5. Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis): This is a perennial that is very fragrant and can be brought indoors for the winter as well.

6. Rose (Rosa spp.): This flowering vine can bring so many different pollinators from just one bloom and will continue to bloom throughout the summer into the fall with some varieties.

7. Russian sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia): This is a perennial plant that blooms bluish purple blossoms with slivery leaves.

8. St. John’s Wort (Hypericum perforatum): This is a hardy perennial that has golden-yellow flower and dark green leave. It will bloom in late spring to early summer and will bring bees and butterflies to help with pollination.

9. Thyme (Thymus vulgaris): This is a ground cover that will come back year after year and is a favorite of bees.

10. Pineapple sage (Salvia elegans): This is favorite by humming birds because of this red flowers. It will disappear after the first frost but will reappear to help bring pollinators for that growing season.

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.

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

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