Monday, May 21, 2012

Seed Harvesting and Pollinator Gardening

"I used to visit and revisit it a dozen times a day, and stand in deep contemplation over my vegetable progeny with a love that nobody could share or conceive of who had never taken part in the process of creation.  It was one of the most bewitching sights in the world to observe a hill of beans thrusting aside the soil, or a rose of early peas just peeping forth sufficiently to trace a line of delicate green."  ~Nathaniel Hawthorne, Mosses from and Old Manse 


Hello Gardening Friends,

I hope everything is going well with your gardens and that you all are enjoying their beauty and bounty.  We have finally got warm weather in or region and I am enjoying it immensely.

I had a chance to go through my garden journals for past seasons and reminisced about hand-pollinating squash blossoms one year because I didn’t plant enough flowers and herbs to entice pollinators to my garden. It was a very time consuming experience. I know, silly me.  So of course, the next year I planted flowers like cosmos, sunflowers, daisies, yarrow, asters, alyssum, lupine, phlox, zinnias, Sweet William and Black-eyed Susans to attract bees.  I also planted several types of milkweed, ironweed, dill, oregano, parsley, fennel and lemon mint to draw in butterflies and wasps.  I purchased all the seeds at end of season sales from two seed companies for only $8.60.  It was a great deal for me because I harvest the seeds from those plants every year and take advantage of the added benefit of having a beautiful, heavily-pollinated garden.

Well, I have to close for now.  Thanks for dropping by and happy gardening!

Angela

12 comments:

  1. I always come away inspired when I pay you a little visit. Your garden quotes from by-gone days are wonderful too.

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  2. That makes me very happy. Thank you so much. :-)

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  3. oh, good to know i planted some bee-attractors! thanks for posting, and happy gardening to you as well!=)

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  4. I need to buy some more bee loving plants this year aswell.......you've given me a few ideas from your list.

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  5. What a lovely butterfly photo. I'd love to see some photos of your garden and plants. Isn't' this a great time of year! All the best, Kelli in Northern Ireland.

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    1. Hi Kelli. I will post some soon. Yes, this time of the year is wonderful.

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  6. ...lovely, and a beehive helps too. I have two hives native bees, trigona carbonara, they are tiny, no stings, wonderful little companions in the garden. There are lots of different native bees to introduce if you give or make a place for them to live, many are solitary and need just a little hole in some wood. It is a fun project and easy!

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    1. Titania, thanks for the advice. I will put something together and hopefully they will like it!

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  7. I was quite fascinated, the other day, watching a bee flit from flower to flower on my sage plant. I'd better figure out what I'm going to do with all the sage leaves! Your butterfly photo is just stunning!
    -Karen

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    1. I love sage! I typically dry the leaves and give them away in gift baskets.

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