The Garden Buzz

Buzzing for the Bees

It's not called The Garden Buzz for nothing! The Garden Buzz is always on alert for big and breaking news about bees; literally the buzz about bees. You know those adorable little guys that pollinate every third bite of food that goes into your mouth!

 

That's right. Without bees, no strawberry shortcake. Without bees, no coconut cream pie. Without bees, no blueberry cobbler. You get my drift.

Bees are busy despite facing threats from parasitic diseases, habitat loss and climate disturbance, but so are humans, making concerted efforts to help them out. Please make yourself aware of these worthy endeavors.

 

Check out Pollinator LIVE, a new distance learning adventure brought to you by the USDA Forest Service and their partners. A great tool for classrooms, and gardeners featuring programs about honeybees, native bees and gardening streaming live on selected dates and later archived for your viewing pleasure.

The Great Sunflower Project continues. Citizen scientists and curious gardeners (aren't we all) are encouraged to join. Their website is a wealth of bee knowledge and inspiration. They send the sunflower seeds, you grow them, then count and report the number of bees that pollinate the big beautiful flowers. I'll be giving away some of their 2011 calendars just before the holidays ( I was late last year), keep a lookout!

Finally, read this article about University of Minnesota professor Marla Spivak, who just won the MacArthur "Genius Grant" for her ground-breaking approach to bee breeding hoping to fight off parasitic mites that threaten this hugely important part of our existence. 

Know of a noteworthy or deserving bee story or project? I'd love to hear from you, or just tell me about the bees in your garden, what have you noticed lately?  BBBBBBBBBZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!

 

 

A Piece of Poetry to Welcome Autumn

 

"Autumn begins to be inferred

By millinery of the cloud

Or deeper color in the shawl

That wraps the everlasting hill"

                              .....Emily Dickinson

 

Fall Flower Arrangements: Autumnal Equinox Bouquet

 

Funny, but my favorite flower arrangements are not the fresh firsts of spring or the bright crayon colors of summer. I love fall bouquets.

It started when I used to teach herb classes in fall. I would go around my garden and find as many herbs as possible to show my students the depth and breadth of herbs; parsley and sage for sure, echinacea that's easy, but how about juniper berries and rose hips, and why not willow.

I would assemble them in a large glass jar, and then tote them across town, the combined fragrance of 20-30 herbs filling the car. I loved that by this time of year they had fruited and flowered, but also mellowed and withered a bit. I liked the sense of time and place it conveyed.

Now I go beyond the bounds of simply herbs and try to capture the essence of the season in one enormous arrangement. It's a little tradition all my own. I try to avoid some of the autumnal cliches and don't discount possible candidates for being bug-eaten or tattered. And every year, the results are different.

So don't think your garden is "over", now that frosts and cold temps are in town. Here's what I found interesting this time:

Complex fall bouquet

Fall Bouquet  www.thegardenbuzz.com

The contents...

• Sedum Autumn Joy
• Sweet Autumn Clematis
• Orange Hyssop
• Campanula seedpods
• Japanese Forest Grass
• Karl Forster Feather Reed Grass
• Hardy geranium leaves
• Viburnum branches with red leaves and berries
• Oregano blooming
• Black-eyed Susan seedheads
• African Blue basil
• Blue green baptisia foliage
• Jewels of Opar "beads"
• Signet marigolds
• Fennel seeds
• Rudbeckia "Herbstonne" flowers and seed pods
• Goldenrod

Imagine the herbal scents of licorice (fennel), root beer (agastache-hyssop) anise (basil) and pizza (oregano) all competing at once; it's actually intriguing. Add the pungent marigold too. It's feast for the senses.

Sometimes more is more.

 

The Autumnal Equinox, a time when day and night are equal for a moment, signals a shift in nature's rhythms. Not a time associated with rebirth, yet I watched newly-hatched snapping turtles seeking their first encounter with water as they marched from my flower beds to the pond. What signs of fall have you seen?

 

Growing Tomatoes on the Deck: A Delicious Success

I just wiped the crumbs and juice off the counter from yet another delectable BLT; with that perfect crispy/soggy toast to tomato-bacon ratio. While the memory, and taste is fresh in my mind, I'll give you the results of my personal tomato field trial for the summer.

Right off the bat, let me tell you the tomatoes came compliments of the plant people at Hort Couture; a variety called Black Krim, very similar in bronzy red-brown color to my favorite heirloom, Cherokee Purple. Of course, I had just planted the latter in that little wedge of shifting sunlight I deign to call a potager.

These free sample plants, ya gotta love 'em, but they always seem to show up right after you've finally made room for your purchased plants. Sometimes they sit around before you can locate a suitable site, to give them their due. In this case, Black Krim had to hang out on the porch with the succulents until I determined the right venue for their trial performance.

My garden is given to slivers of intense sunlight mixed with open shade, not the best conditions for tomato growing. The microclimates I used for the cherry tomatoes last year were taken by blooming pots for the garden tour. However I had been eying a place on the deck below the kitchen window; shaded in the morning and then blasted with hot southwest sun by noon and on.

Knowing I wouldn't have the watering discipline needed for the endeavor, I splurged on the Newbury Planter from Gardeners Supply; an attractive self-watering container with good looking Gothic Arch trellis supports. It's on sale this week I noticed, but at the time I justified it as an investment.

The following photos document the journey from plant plugs to sandwich:

Planted way late in the season, 6/10/2010. Assembly was easy (with father-in-law's help), note the water reservoir at the left.  Holds two tomato plants, third one given to FIL destined for Illinois.

They are coming along nicely on 6/26, overtaking the companion superbells.

OK, I confess. I might have added some very diluted Fertilome 9-58-8 (that I had been selectively applying to certain plants before the garden tour) to the reservoir, to just help things along. 7/17/2010  I'm worried I may have all foliage and no fruit, not seeing many pollinating insects up on the deck. Consider hand-pollinating with a brush, but too busy.

Oh my. 8/18/2010

Meanwhile my Cherokee Purple harvest in total. No more fruit setting probably due to extreme heat.
 

We have green tomatoes after all, and a little green visitor as well. 8/27/2010

Coloring up! 8/29/2010

Black Krim grows in clusters of flattened maroon globes with green shoulders. 9/01/2010

While the majority of the crop ripened at the same time, here's a view of many stages of development from tiny to mature. 9/02/2010
 

Ready for slicing and eating!

Black Krim originated on the Isle of Krim on the Black Sea in Russia. So this one was a good fit for Minnesota! It has a distinctive salty smoky flavor that makes it a new favorite.

My average tomato weighed 8 oz., while my FIL's, grown in the ground was a whopping 1.1 lbs. There was cracking due to the hot site and extreme heat, I found I was watering (adding to reservoir) almost daily through end of July- early August. Some vine stems became so long they folded over the trellis supports.

Container growing of vegetables can be rewarding, although limited in yield. But for many, putting up bushels of produce is not the goal. For fresh eating for the here and now, it's an easy way to get a bit of that great taste of summer.

My total harvest so far is around 20 lbs, with little effort involved. I am anxious to see how many more ripen before frost, with the protected deck area helping this along. Did it work? The proof is in the sandwich.
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

 

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day: September 15

When you get a message from the hotel valet parking guy, you kinda know it's not going to be good. Especially when they say the manager wants to speak personally with you. "We tried to move your car but it shakes and says 'reduced engine performance', maybe bad gas?"

So it looks like I get to spend some extra time in Dallas, when I was sooo looking forward to making my way home. Yes, I drove. I was visiting old friends along the way.

Garden Blogger's Bloom Day will have to be about what's blooming in OPG. In case you haven't heard that term before, that's "Other People's Gardens".

Fresh from all the fascinating garden tours during the Garden Writers Association 2010 Symposium. The gardens at this time of year were less about blooms and more about foliage, hardscape, structures, garden art and whimsy. But here's a few flowers...

Okra flower with ants at the Stonewall Jackson Elementary School Garden where every child has a plant of his or her own!   The Garden Buzz
 

Yellow water lilies in the fountain at the Rister-Armstrong residence where they were not only gracious enough to let us tromp through their unique, charming, lovely, (I could go on and on) garden, but their equally adorable, stylish, beautiful (I could go on and on) home, carriage house and pavilion.  The Garden Buzz

It's very early as I post this, gotta be ready to call the dealership about my little red rover. I hope my sad story falls upon sympathetic Texas ears. Texas has been great, but for now, I wanna go home.

Special thanks to Carol of Maydreams Gardens for hosting GBBD, yet again. Hey Carol, I didn't realize who you were when I met you the other day! Well, I am a "first-timer"...
 

2010 GWA Symposium: It's Not All Fun and Games...

Here at the GWA Symposium in Dallas, I discovered another gardening season...the silly season. But it's not all fun and games. There's so much to see and do and think about my head is exploding. There's still two more days of learning and networking to go. Yikes.

I thought I'd share this hot pink woodland sprite I encountered at the Novalis booth. I believe that is their Hydrangea paniculata "Mystical Flame" adorning his crown. And to think I had hot flashes!

Here's just one of the exciting new plants that they are stuffing in our swag bags. Definitely eye candy for the gardener. This one is from Plants Nouveau, it's Echinacea "Hot Papaya".

I'm having a great time imagining all these sample plants sitting in the hotel room bathtubs of all the garden writers.

Here's another good sport from the same company.

Next we are headed to the Dallas Arboretum. The heat index is 105. Wish me luck!
 
 
 

Designing for Beneficial Insects: Buggy Chic

Isn't this homemade "bug box" cute? Wouldn't it make for an attractive vignette near a potting shed or work table in the garden? Yes, and yes, but first the serious business of biodiversity...

The International Year of Biodiversity is more than half over. I know! Gosh, I didn't even put up any lights. All joking aside, it's not to late to celebrate or support a cause that's near and dear to everyone of us, even if many people don't realize it.

Biodiversity is the rich web of life that makes our existence possible. Here's a quick summary of the "goods and services" rendered to us by ecosystems all over the planet.

• Food, fuel and fiber
• Shelter and building materials
• Purification of air and water
• Detoxification and decomposition of wastes
• Stabilization and moderation of climate
• Moderation of floods, drought and wind
• Generation and renewal of soil fertility
• Pollination of plants, many of them crops
• Control of pests and disease
• Maintenance of genetic resources for crop varieties and medicine
• Cultural and aesthetic quality

Yet we are losing that diversity at greater rates than ever, much of the cause, man-made. Overwhelming, I know. But there is potential in single individuals joining together for the great good. Close to home, creating habitat corridors is a simple way to help nature along.

Gardeners are more in tune with these issues already. One way is to encourage and support beneficial insects. These "good bugs" prey on "bad bugs" eliminating the need for pesticide and increasing crop yields. They in turn attract more birds and frogs and other animals that make up the vast food chain. Examples of good bugs are to name just a few; bees, ladybugs, parasitic wasps and lacewings.

Faced with more and more vast manicured landscapes and tidy yards, these insects find it hard to find suitable habitat to survive.

Constructing habitat where these insects can overwinter and reproduce is as simple as leaving brush or woodpiles around. However some of us, (and our neighbors) would like something a little more deliberate and well-designed. This "insect tower" features holes, hollow tubes and cavities where nesting can occur. With a little woodworking ability or a handy husband, using recycled lumber and scraps, this looks plenty doable. Art and habitat all in one.

Thanks to my favorite newspaper, The Times and The Sunday Times, of London for the photos!

Not Quite a Corpse Flower, My Stinky Stapelia's Still Pretty Cool

It's not like it's never bloomed before, but this is my first time to actually see the funky flower. My Stapelia gigantea usually waits for me to leave town and then flowers for everyone else to see; the dry cleaner delivery guy, the pot-watering guy and specifically the flies that are attracted to its putrid perfume for pollinating.

 

This succulent plant sometimes known as starfish cactus or carrion flower, started as a spiny nub, a passalong plant rooted for propagation class in my previous Master Gardener program in Kansas. For years I kept him outside in summer and overwintered him in my greenhouse. And while he grew, producing leathery spiked stems and like a starfish acquired and lost many an arm, he never flowered. After the move to Minnesota, a change in routine was required.

 

Stapelia now stays inside during the winter, sitting in the sunny window of the laundry room. Around the end of May he joins me on the porch to watch the world of birds and blooms and assorted wildlife go by. This new regimen must agree with him as he produces a large balloon-like bud around Labor Day.

 

I, too have a new routine for the Labor Day weekend.

I might have mentioned that my husband's hobby is car racing. Yeah, ten years ago, I told him he needed a hobby. You see, he's kind of intense, a get up and go kinda guy. He's not into relaxing and watching the world go by. And if I wanted peace and quiet to do that, he would have to find something more exciting to occupy him. Driving a stripped-down sports car at high rates of speed was not what I had in mind.

When it comes to this car racing stuff, I'm Switzerland. Neutrality is my stance; I don't encourage, I don't discourage. Last year was the first time I watched him race.

Most tracks are dirty, dusty and hot and dirty and dusty and..did I mention hot? They are short on restrooms and shade; generally located far from civilization because, oh, I forgot, they are deafeningly noisy too.

Anyway, it turns out that one of the 'up north' tracks is near Elkhart Lake in Wisconsin, a lovely resort town with lovely hotels, gardens, shops and such. So here I am, blogging with a water view, several miles safe from the track and all that racecar-related jabberjawing. It's a win-win. I'll go over tomorrow and watch him whiz by for awhile at speeds of which I prefer to remain ignorant. 

Back to the bloom! This year, on schedule, the bud appeared, but the day before we left, voila! Hard to describe, the starfish shaped flower is like a cross between a 1920's shimmy dress and really dry skin. Yet Tim Gunn would be proud, Stapelia makes it work.

 

A native of deserts in South Africa, this is definitely a novelty to have around. The pink-purple fuzz has that feather boa look while the petals are wrinkled and textured. It is supposed to mimic carrion, or dead rotting flesh. The smell, unnoticeable outdoors, is described as somewhere between dog poo and hamburger gone bad.

And never thinking I would use those words together in a blog post, I'll just end now while I'm ahead.