Tuesday, April 28, 2009, 03:18
Just Dandy (Honey Bee Habitat)
We've got honey bee habitat blooming in our lawn!
A few weeks ago, I was listening to a public radio program with two honey bee experts.
Honey bees world wide are in a decline, and experts are beginning to worry that they might become extinct. They think the honey bees are suffering from a virus of some kind. Without honey bees, we will lose about 25 percent of our food, the kind of food that provides variety in our diet. Any flower that is pollinated by honey bees will go unpollinated. That means we will have far fewer fruits that grow on trees, such as apples, plums and oranges. We also will not have as many tree nuts available, such as walnuts. Garden plants that depend on honey bees, such as pumpkins, also will have a more difficult time being pollinated without honey bees.
The experts say that beekeepers can help their honey bees fight off the virus by keeping them healthy. And one way for bees to be healthy (like people) is to have a variety of food available.
Unfortunately, the experts said, people have been making it more difficult for bees to find a variety of food by engaging in certain activities, such as eradicating dandelions from their lawns and cutting down wildflowers along the shoulders of the roadways. We have made large parts of our environment sterile, as far as the honey bees are concerned, by eliminating natural wildflowers that bees would normally visit to find food, the experts said.
So, I am delighted to see that we now have honey bee habitat growing in our lawn . I have always admired dandelions. I cannot understand the zeal with which some people go after them. Dandelions have lovely yellow flowers. They are usually the first spot of color after a long, cold hard winter here in west central Wisconsin.
And during the hot, dry days of summer, the dandelion leaves are often the only green thing growing in our lawn. The horses like to eat dandelion leaves, too, and appear to consider them a delicious delicacy. You can also make a delightful wine from the dandelion flowers. And dandelion greens are considered to be a delicacy for people in some parts of the country.
The other thing I like about letting the dandelions grow is that I am not introducing chemical pesticides into the environment to try to kill them off. It seems to me that a substance which kills off something cannot necessarily be good for any living thing.
A few years back, the power company came through and said they were going to be spraying weed killer on their right-of-way right across the road from our house. I asked how long the chemical would stay active because I planned to avoid taking the dogs out on the right-of-way until it was safe for them to be there.
The guy from the power company said that the recommendation was, for people with cattle, either dairy cows or beef cattle, to keep them off any place that had been sprayed for at least a month.
It strikes me that if the right-of-way was contaminated for a month to the point where you wouldn't want to eat the beef or drink the milk, that was a month too long.
I wonder how many people would have to speak up before the power company would stop spraying chemicals that pollute the environment and destroy honey bee habitat?
I don't have any influence with the power company. But I can influence my own lawn. And as far as I am concerned, the dandelions will always be welcome.
I am pleased to say, too, that when the dandelions are done blooming, the little white clover in the lawn starts blooming. And white clover is considered by bees to be a delicacy as well. I often see honey bees on the white clover blossoms during the summer.
How about it? Will you consider letting the dandelions bloom this year for the sake of the honey bees? And what about planting some white clover in your lawn? And not mowing that patch where wildflowers could grow if given a chance?
In Ben Logan's book, *The Land Remembers* -- Logan talks about looking for honeycombs in the woods with his brothers when he was a kid in southwestern Wisconsin. One of his brothers in particular was considered "the honey bee expert." Maybe we will never again be at the point where wild honey bees are plentiful, but perhaps, with a little care and stewardship of the dandelions and other wild flowers, we can help the honey bees that are still here.
LeAnn R. Ralph
Books have true and lasting value.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009, 13:49
Promises of Spring Flowers
Even though the day lilies on the slope by the east foundation have died out from the drought of the past few years, the day lilies down below by the garage are doing fine. Already this year, they are about 10 inches high. Whenever we get some rain, it runs off the roof and onto the day lily bed, so I'm sure that has helped them tremendously.
We did get a little rain over the weekend. It was cloudy and misty all day Sunday, rained a little bit, and felt cold enough for snow. Monday felt cold enough for snow, too, and Monday morning it was sleeting/snowing when I took Pixie outside. And it was windy. A cold wind out of the north. But out of that entire storm system, we got about two tenths of an inch of rain -- not much to help my day lilies or anything else. And then Tuesday it was very windy as well, so all the precipitation we had received was sucked up by the wind. . .
But, spring flowers must be full of hope. Or maybe it is more that they inspire hope in us when we see them starting to grow at the beginning of the season. The spring flowers are hopeful for a better year, for a year with adequate moisture. And they continue with that hope until they find out otherwise. In the spirit of that sense of hope, my irises on the south side of the house are starting to grow, too, and are progressing well. Or at least, they *would* be progressing well if something wasn't eating them. I don't think it's a rabbit. I think it's an insect of some kind. A rabbit would not nibble holes in the middle of the leaves.
You might know that something would find my irises to be delicious. They are the bearded irises, and some are purple, some are yellow and some are white and purple. They are just lovely when they are blooming.
I am seeing purple buds on my lilac bushes, too. Some of them look as though they have been bitten off by frost, but there are plenty of others that look healthy enough and may end up as lilac blooms in a month or so if the temperature doesn't dip down in the 20s at some point.
LeAnn R. Ralph
Books have added, lasting value and are always a good investment!