All the Dirt on Gardening

Horticulture Magazine has a new article with ideas for how gardeners can help bumblebees survive and thrive. This is an important topic as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service added 7 species of bees to the Endangered Species list, providing protection for the bees. Here are some things the Xerces Society recommends that we all do to help bumblebees in our neighborhoods: Provide them with pollen and nectar from late winter through early fall. Plan your garden to start blooming early and finish late. Choose flowers that welcome the bumblebees. Plants native to your area are a good choice because the bees have evolved alongside them. Exotic (but not invasive) species can work, too. Just be sure to use the straight species, or pick cultivars that retain the general look of the species’s flower. That is, avoid cultivars bred for double petals or other fancy forms that make it hard for the bumblebee to access the pollen. Bumblebees best like purple, blue and yellow flowers. They c...

Andy Qualls speaking “Conservation, organic methods and cover crops in the home garden” Muskogee Garden Club Feb 26, 9:30 to 11 Kiwanis Senior Center 119 Spaulding BL Information – Susan Asquith 918-682-3688 -------------------------------------- The first slide of Andy Qualls’presentation at Muskogee Garden Club next week says that deficient soil can only produce deficient vegetation, deficient vegetation can only produce deficient nutrition and deficient nutrition will always produce deficient crops, livestock and wildlife. “Healthy soil has sufficient nutrients to produce healthy plants and crops,” said Qualls. “It also has the necessary biological, chemical and microbiological balance and physical properties that allow the plants to have access to soil nutrition.” Qualls is the technician and information coordinator for Muskogee County Conservation District. He works with land owners, growers and gardeners to help them convert from chemical-based gr...

Thomas Christoper edited an enlightening book filled with New Year's Resolutions for gardeners. "The New American Landscape: Leading Voices on the Future of Sustainable Gardening" is a new release from Timber Press - just in time to help us plan next year's garden with the world in mind, not just our own landscapes. The authors: John Greenlee and Neil Diboll on the new American meadow garden. Rick Darke on balancing natives and exotics in the garden. Doug Tallamy on landscapes that welcome wildlife. Eric Toensmeier on the sustainable edible garden. David Wolfe on gardening sustainably with a changing climate. Christopher opens the introduction with the observation that gardeners' intention is to enrich the earth. but we tend to nurture that desire by the use of fossil fuels. We tend lawns and nurse plants from outside our planting zone, neglecting the plants from our own area. Sustainability "is to meet the present needs without compromisin...

Sustainable gardening is the term used for gardening with the least. Instead of blasting the garden with chemical fertilizers and bug sprays, use the least possible. Rather than using a timed system to irrigate lawn and gardens on a schedule, wait until plants signal a need for water. Gardeners who use a sustainable approach make an effort to add back to the earth. Simple changes can make a difference. Examples include: Use sheets of newspaper under mulch instead of plastic, make a compost pile, dig a basin in the garden to collect rainwater or switch to wildlife friendly fertilizers such as composted animal waste or seaweed. Last Saturday when Dr. Gerald Klingaman spoke at the Northwest Arkansas Flower and Garden Club in Fayetteville, he added his own twist to the whole topic of sustainable gardening. Klingaman chose The Quest for a Sustainable Garden as the topic for his talk knowing that gardeners cannot resist a few high maintenance plants. Any garden we plant is destined to be sho...