All the Dirt on Gardening

In study after study, we are learning that the volume of insects is greatly diminishing worldwide. From Yale Environment 360: According to data on more than 400 species, there has been a 45 percent drop in global invertebrate numbers over the past 40 years. In one annual survey in Germany, the average biomass of insects caught between May and October has decreased from 3.5 pounds per trap in 1989 to just 10.6 ounces in 2014. Scientists say various factors — from monoculture farming to pesticide use to habitat loss — are to blame for the plight of insects, which are essential to agriculture and functioning ecosystems. Schwägerl writes that researchers are racing to improve monitoring of these disappearing species. In Germany, only 37 insect species are closely tracked — a mere 0.12 percent of all species. “There's a risk we will only really take notice once it is too late," one scientist warns. There is more. Berlin based journalist Christian Schwagerl reports in GEO that...

In a university study, an entomologist found that experienced bees prefer not to share with newly hatched bees. You can click over to http://news.uoguelph.ca/2016/03/experienced-bumblebees-wont-share-newbies-study/ and read the article. It's fascinating that anyone figured out how to study the phenomenon! Here are some excerpts: “Understanding how bees find and compete for flowers in the landscape is a critical first step to conserving these insects and the essential pollination services they provide to crops and wild plants,” said Raine, who holds the Rebanks Family Chair in Pollinator Conservation. Like other pollinators, bees face complex routing challenges when collecting nectar and pollen. This includes learning how to link patches of flowers together in the most efficient way to minimize travel and distance, the study said. Figuring out an optimal route takes time and experience. The researchers wondered whether bees copy others’ flower visitation sequences in the...

Di ck & Bridget Strawbridge On the blog Permanent Culture Now , Brigit Strawbridge reminds us to leave some messy places for wildlife and maybe even make some for them. I've written about this before and you will recognize some of Strawbridge's key points - (full article and more links at the Permanent Culture Now above & Bridget's talk at the link under her photo). Mason Bee Sabka.org * Although some of our main crops are wind pollinated, over three-quarters of our staple crop plants and most of our fruit and vegetables rely on animal pollination. Animal pollinators include birds, butterflies, moths and hoverflies, as well as lesser-known creatures such as wasps, flies, bats, beetles and even some species of ants. Bees , however, are without doubt our most important pollinators; being responsible for one third of all the food we eat and at least half of all the wild flowers on the planet.  * The extent of the bee’s role within any permaculture system ...

Bees are responsible for the pollination of every third bite of food you take and sip of juice you drink. Other insects such as flies, moths, butterflies and beetles pollinate the rest. We help ourselves by providing nectar for bees and protecting them from harmful gardening practices. Intuitively, we can assume that pesticides and other insect poisons used on and around plants will kill bees. But, in fact, herbicides and weed killers do just as much damage to North American native bees and bee colonies. North America’s bees range in size from one-twelfth of an inch to one inch long. Some bees live in colonies; others live alone. Some bees live in hollow plant material and others dig tunnels in the ground to make nests. Five of the seven families of bees are common in American gardens. Altogether, there are around 20,000 species of bees in the world; and, 4,000 of those species live in America. Warm, dry climates such as CA are home to 2,000 species. But the rest of us have more t...

Late Summer Flowers is the name of one of my favorite garden books. If you plant enough flowers for this season, it will become your favorite, too. Just outside the livingroom door we have comfortable chairs where we have our first coffee in the morning. Then, late in the afternoon we return for something cold to sip and watch the activity. This is what we see from our little 10-foot deck. Stepping across the "grass" (mowed weeds, er wildflowers and native grasses) this is the 7 to 8 foot tall flowering white Crape Myrtle Natchez, Tatarian Aster and a yellow flowering native that I bought from Wild Things Nursery . Marilyn Stewart is getting back to me on its name. From the side or end of the bed, you can recognize Salvia Guaranitica Black and Blue , Purple Majesty Millet, and Tatarian in the foreground. In the center in front of the tall (giant) plants - French marigolds , Sedum Autumn Joy and Salvia Lady-In-Red . A close up of Sedum Autumn Joy between the pale green stage ...

Joe Benton of Oklahoma State University Extension wrote a column about saving seeds that had some fascinating tidbits in it. Benton is an extension educator for Pottawatomie County. Benton said that we should collect seeds from non-hybrids because hybrids do not come true from their seed. The best candidates for seed collecting include: beans, broccoli, dill, corn, chives, leeks, muskmelon and garlic. They are bee pollinated except for beans which are self-pollinated and corn, which is wind pollinated. Maybe you knew all that, though I did not. Here are a other few facts that were new to me. "Most flowers are pollinated by bees, butterflies and moths. Bees can't see red, so the flowers they pollinate tend to be yellow, or sometimes blue. Some of these have ultraviolet landing patterns which they see also. Butterflies see well, and red, but have a weak sense of smell. So most of the flowers they pollinate have little or no fragrance. Moths are nocturnal, so the flowers they...

There is a lot of news of interest to nature and outdoors-types in Science Daily today. BEES - First there are new reports about the sudden lack of honey bees to pollinate fruits and vegetables. Science Daily reports that "in the United States, half a million to a million colonies out of a total 2.4 million colonies have died this winter." Habitat loss and disease in Europe together with a 50% drop in managed honeybee colonies in North America created a global phenomenon known as the ‘pollination crisis’. Cornell and other research universities are making plans to investigate the cause and the federal government is considering investing tens of millions of dollars for competitive grants to programs targeting honeybees' health. Medicare for bees but without the paperwork. SPIDERS - Entomologists at Louisiana State University report that brown widow spiders are becoming more common in Louisiana. They are as poisonous as the black widows. brown widow- Dr. Chris Carlton, Lo...