How do I attract bees into my garden?
Encouraging bees to our home or shared gardens.
It is likely that when most of us think of bees we smile and think of that delicious, natural sweetener, honey. It usually surprises us to find out that there are actually only a few types of honeybees worldwide that build hives collectively and store honey in those hives. Even adding species of singleton bees that produce honey (for feeding young), honey producing bees are only a small fraction of the 20,000 types of bees worldwide.
Even without the honey, the bees that visit our gardens are beneficial insects that pollinate our plants. Without this help we wouldn't have apples or pears, many of the colourful flower blossoms we treasure, or the wide variety of foods we harvest.
To encourage these helpful critters to enjoy and extend their visit to our gardens - to settle in for their entire life cycle - we need to be working on all fronts of their life cycle:
- plant a variety of plants that bloom through the growing season so adult bees and their offspring always have food sources
- plant habitat for bees ... often trees and shrubs
- leave naturally occuring rock, hillside or woodpile areas for habitat - these provide living quarters too
- build nesting boxes or structures for shelter and for bee nurseries
The latest newsletter of Seeds of Diversity Canada has a useful article with links to articles about different types of bees, how to encourage them, and "how to build" nest sites projects. The different articles outline the various types of bees and their nesting requirements and place in the natural web. All the articles are useful. The one from the Xerces site is a double-side handout that overviews the main bee types and nests. http://www.seeds.ca/int/doc/docpub.php?k=8b7776006b6924027499a34fa695ec2e00000540
Seeds of Diversity Canada "supports the work of seed saving and food biodiversity protection across Canada. Volunteers are involved with Seedy Saturdays and other events, seed growing and saving, article writing and translation, and a wide range of other project and event administration activities." Check out its website at www.seeds.ca
On honeybees and Colony Collapse Disorder
Over the last few years, there's been much press coverage of die-offs of honeybees, a syndrome called Coloney Collapse Disorder. Much evidence has been found that links this to agricultural use of neonicotinoid pesticides. Other stress factors like increased parasites and other ailments of the honeybees, transportation of hives, and monocultural or un-nutritious diet all weaken the bees' immune systems. The combination has been deadly for the bees. This situation is disheartening and scary for home gardeners to read about, and more so for those involved agriculture or interested in food production and distribution.
Our comments and political lobbying is important!
Absolutely, we should be telling levels of government and research centres that more needs to be done, that organic agricultural practices need to be accepted. We want to support local, organic growers and growers we know maintain diversity on their farms. And we sure need to support local beekeepers.
Is there a way to combine a raised-bed garden with composting?
Yes! A Key-hole Garden!
The website of the Send a Cow organization which tells us :
"A Keyhole Garden is a type of kitchen garden that recycles as it grows. The design - which looks like a keyhole from above - incorporates a central 'basket' where compostable waste is placed and water is poured. They are especially useful in areas where good soil is scarce, often adding nutritious vegetables to diets. Send a Cow uses them as part of our training, and they get fantastic results; families start to grow enough to eat and sell." http://www.sendacow.org.uk/keyhole-gardens
We have seen raised bed gardens similar to this in contemporary Canadian gardening magazines during the last couple of years ... usually a stone walled, spiral herb garden, of a smaller size than the practical vegetable beds in the Lesotho example from the Send a Cow site.
An important thing about the Lesotho key-hole garden - do check the video on the Send a Cow site! - is the central composting and water cycling zone which gives a nutrient source for the growing plants, gives a small composting area, and encourages water re-use (water is used washwater - use a biodegradable soap).
Thanks to the City Farmer website (www.cityfarmer.info), for the reference to Send a Cow and its projects, which includes other lessons in appropriate technology.
What is "Compost Tea" What's it for? How is it made?
When CGL hit the books, we realized quickly that this question was more complicated than we realized! So, here's a start.
Compost is wonderful stuff. Basically, it is a mixture of materials that have decomposed together to give a combination soil conditioner and plant food. It contains billions of microbes, bacteria and fungi - living critters that make up living soil. It contains trace minerals, oxygen, nitrogen, and tiny spaces for water to be held in the soil.
One of the easiest ways to use compost is to simply spread fully or even half finished compost on the surface of the soil and leave it alone. Rain will filter through it and send nourishment into the soil below and thus into your growing plants. Worms and other critters will eat little bits of the compost and excrete it back into the soil, mixing it into the soil. Overall, the good microbial life of your soil will increase.
For many years and in many recipes, people have made "compost tea." Often, this "compost tea" has been a simple leachate made by water being poured -filtered really - through a pail or barrel of compost; the water that comes out the bottom goes into soil around the plants and provides water and nutrient for them. For example, have big plant pots half filled with finished compost tucked in amidst the tomatoes; when you are watering, fill the pot up with rainwater or dechlorinated water, and it drains out the holes and into the soil by the tomatoes. [use dechlorinated water so the good soil critters aren't killed off!]
The next type of compost tea CGL learned about is made by putting an amount of vermicompost [worm pooh!] or sifted, finished compost into dechlorinated water (rainwater or "hose water" that has sat in the container for a day) and over the next 24 - 48 hours it's stirred strongly several times a day to get oxygen into it. This mix is then used to water the soil around plants; it doesn't need to have the solids filtered out. 4 or 5 cups of finished compost in a 5 gallon bucket does for this. This mixture should be used soon after it's been made. If it sits, any microorganisms that have developed die back (actually, they keep increasing in numbers until there are too many for their little world and they eat each other ... then waste materials collect and they die).
The thinking is, for the two methods above, that nutrient from the compost is more easily taken into the soil this way. Also, that the microbial life is taken in.
The What is Compost Tea? question became much more complicated when we started reading chapter 18 from the book Teaming with Microbes by Jeff Lowenfells and Wayne Lewis, published by Timber Press, 2010 London Public Library call #631.4 low
Teaming With Microbes is basically a text book about the complex life of the soil web. The photos are amazing, beautiful. Reading it makes us wonder at the soil ecosystem - the interactions between soil organisms, plant roots and the interface between them - and how we affect this when we weed or dig in the garden. The book supports ideas of permaculture - learning about the soil, the plants, the surroundings - the design of the entire system of location, weather, gardener. How do we let everything support everything? How do we enable everything in the garden to return to the garden, to support and sustain?
From Teaming with Microbes we learned about Actively Aerated Compost Teas (AACTs). An AACT is made by putting finished compost or vermicompost (not manure) into rainwater or dechlorinated water, and having air actively bubble through it for about 24 hours. Lowenfells and Lewis say that it is this controlled introduction of oxygen - the aerobic aspect - that enables the microbes, bacteria and fungi in the compost to reproduce quickly, increasing their numbers 4-fold.
This aerated, living liquid can be used in two ways. It can be put into the soil directly around plants. Or the liquid can be filtered from the solids and the liquid can be sprayed directly onto the leaves of plants, both sides. When the liquid is sprayed onto plant leaves the billions of organisms that have been literally shaken from the compost solids into the liquid attach themselves to the leaves and both feed the plant (called foliar feeding) and give protections against various harmful mildews, moulds and smuts. The good/healthy organisms that have reproduced in the AACT protect the plants against disease organisms. Like booster shots.
The Teaming with Microbes text gives technical and not so technical information about Actively Aerated Compost Teas. For example, because UV radiation for the sun kills microorganisms, the bubbler (sort of a compost tea pot) should not be directly in the sun; nor should a foliar spray be done when the sun is high. The best temperature for making AACT is "room temperature" - so if you are wanting to make some in chill fall weather you may need a heating pad under the bubbler; alternatively, in the 33 degree celcius temperatures of July 2011 you'd probably be needing to add ice cubes to cool down your mix. Having the bubbler in shade is a good idea. And you want it in a place where things can splash out without being a problem - not on a back porch with a new indoor/outdoor carpet! The authors also advise us to clean the equipment used thoroughly after a brew, and before the bucket/barrel, and any hoses dry. They refer to what is made as "slimy." It is the slimyness that allows the AACT to adhere to leaves; it's also what will bung up your sprayer! Oh, and they recommend a concrete sprayer if you are going to be doing this on a garden scale; these have wider hoses and/or nozzles than most garden sprayers or hand held bottles.
The above is just an introduction. You might want to check out some resource books or online information, or talk with someone who has been using compost teas.
What is Permaculture? It has something to do with planting things together, doesn't it?
Most of us start our gardens by planting one type of plant in a row, or a grid area, and the next type in another row. As we become more experienced we realize little details like lettuces need a bit of shade during the hottest part of a summer day, and we plant them on the east side of taller growing plants, so they get dappled afternoon shade. Or we realize that squash and cucumbers need to be pollinated by insects, so we grow a pretty stand of bergamot or other flowers right in the vegetable bed.
Plants in our gardens interact with each other and with surrounding plants, as well as the soil. They seem to know what they need. Permaculture is a design system that will help us think about, observe, and work in our gardens. Its ideas will take most of us some time to take in, like other good things in life. The text below is taken from a website maintained by Permaculture teacher Starhawk, who lives in San Francisco. Starhawk and others have recently completed a film about permaculture - Permaculture: the Growing Edge which will be screened at the London Central Library on July 19, 7:00 p.m. The film description and a trailer are found at: http://www.belili.org
Starhawk's website links with quite a few permaculture information sites and teachers. Community Gardens London, thanks Starhawk and her associates who put together this easy to use web resource. http://www.belili.org/permaculture/more_on_Permaculture.html
The remainder of this answer is taken from What Is Permaculture? - by Starhawk - http://www.belili.org/permaculture/more_on_Permaculture.html
Permaculture is ecological design aimed at creating systems that meet human needs while regenerating and healing the environment around us. It does this by applying a set of ethics and principles that guide us in designing connections, flows, and beneficial relationships among various elements, whether in a garden, a building or an organization, and mimicking the way that nature works. Permaculture is no one technique or process, but rather weaves together multiple approaches, technologies and solutions to problems of sustainability. Instead of designing separate things, we design connections and beneficial relationships.
The word ‘permaculture’ was coined by Australians Bill Mollison and David Holmgren in the 1970’s, from ‘permanent agriculture’, but has come to encompass many sorts of systems: ‘permanent culture.’
We see permaculture as a vitally important set of ideas and practices in this crucial time. We have a very narrow window of time left in which to respond to climate change and environmental degradation. If we don’t, we face ecological and human catastrophes that are beyond imagining. No one solution or technology can save us ... Only an integrated systems approach can find effective solutions to environmental and social ills.
Permaculture has three basic ethics: Care for the earth, care for people, and care for the future—sometimes framed as “return the surplus” or “limit consumption”. It has a set of principles that direct us to observe natural systems and mimic the way they work, catching and storing the sun’s energy, using biological and local resources, with minimal inputs of fossil fuel energy, and getting multiple uses out of each element. Permaculture favors low-tech solutions that empower ordinary people to take responsibility for their own needs and impacts. Our goal is more than sustainability: we work for abundance, regeneration and healing.
Permaculture is also a global movement and network. ....
Permaculture is a set of tools for shifting our thinking—from separation to connection, isolation to interdependence.
Starhawk’s Common Sense Permaculture Principles
Everything is connected
Nature Moves in Circles ... If we use a resource, we must replenish it.
Energy is abundant but not unlimited
Do more with less
Use on-site and local resources whenever possible - Let nature do the work—if you can use a biological resource, chances are it will be cheaper, easier and more effective than chemical or mechanical means.
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it ... Work smarter, not harder! ... Observing, thinking, designing and planning can save you time, sweat and money.
Resilience is true security ... Value diversity—for diversity creates resilience. This is true for ecosystems, gardens and humans! ... Edges and margins, where two things meet, are often more dynamic and creative than either one alone, so make use of them ... Have more than one source for food, energy, income, etc.
Take responsibility ... Create the conditions that will favor the things or behaviors you want, rather than making war on what you don’t want.
Get some! Obtain a yield
Creativity is an unlimited resource
How do I start a shared or community garden?
This section links to several articles that discuss or give steps on 'How To Start a Community Garden'. There are many things to think about and do as you develop a community garden. It is important to develop and maintain good communication between members of your gardening group, between your group and the landlord, and between your group and the neighbourhood where the garden is located. There is also work to do with the physical set up of the garden. Planning will pay off!
With the work, there can be cookies! Listed below you will find advice on starting a community garden generally:(1) A short and encouraging list of things to think about written by Lorraine Johnson in her terrific book City Farmer, (2) the Community Gardening 101 guide to starting a shared garden, written by the Kingston Community Gardens Network http://www.kingstoncommunitygardens.ca/ and (3) links to several other resources like the American Community Gardening Association site, and (4) advice on how to approach the City of London to start a shared site on City land.
Also, please feel free to get in touch if you want to talk over something. One of us in Community Gardens London might have an idea that is useful. Also, we learn something from every conversation we have, and appreciate your ideas.
communitygardenslondon@execulink.com
1. Starting a Community Garden notes from City Farmer by Lorraine Johnson
Most successful community gardens start from the ground up, not from the top down. They grow and are sustained by the desires of a community to garden together in a communal space. While one person, or a small group of people, may take a leadership role, many hands are needed to make the project work. Here are some tips on how to get started:
- Gauge community interest: ask around, put up flyers, call a meeting, see who comes.
- Identify possible locations: anywhere from a neighborhood church or community center to a local park.
- Decide on a working model for the group and for the garden. Clarify how you want the group and the garden to work.
- Establish a clear plan of action: delegate responsibility for contacting the site owner with your vision for the space. Anticipate all the questions that might arise and prepare answers in advance.
- Find allies in your community – in the parks department, for example, or in the municipal government (your councillor, for instance), or within community organizations who may be able to help.
- Research what resources you can get for free – including soil or compost from the city, tool donations from local gardening businesses, and grants from social service organizations.
- Hold meetings. Hold more meetings. Recognize that getting a project off the ground (or, rather, into the ground) may take a lot of time and effort. Bring cookies to meetings – baked goods are motivating.
City Farmer, Adventures in Urban Food Growing, © 2010 by Lorraine Johnson.. Published in 2010 by Greystone Books: an imprint of D&M Publishers Inc. Reprinted with permission of the publisher. http://www.dmpibooks.com/book/city-farmer
------------------------------------
(2) The Kingston Community Gardens Network has done a wonderful service! It has produced a document titled Community Gardening 101, and it can be found through the Kingston website, via the How to Start a Garden menu title at: http://www.kingstoncommunitygardens.ca/
This 'how to' takes you through finding others who want to garden, establishing good relationships with your neighbourhood and the city, getting permissions, setting guidelines for gardeners and property owners, planning the garden, and more. It's easy to read and gives much to think about.
The Kingston Community Gardens Network is a partnership of Loving Spoonful (Kingston's Food Justice organization), the City of Kingston, Urban Agriculture Kingston, Oak St. Gardens, and OPIRG Kingston. The KCGN is administered through Loving Spoonful.
Contact information: Kingston Community Gardens Network,
Coordinator: Susan Belyea, gardens@lovingspoonful.org
(613) 546-4291 ext 1871
(3) These sites have useful sections on how to start a community garden
Edmonton Community Gardens website
http://www.edmcommunitygardens.org/how-to-start.php
American Community Gardening Association
http://www.communitygarden.org/learn/starting-a-community-garden.php
Community Gardening Toolkit - a resource for planning, enhancing and sustaining your community garden project. This is a succinct 24 page guide to setting up community gardens, with neat cartoons.
University of Missouri Extension Services: http://extension.missouri.edu/p/MP906
(4) Starting a Shared or Community Garden in London - March 9/12 notes
Starting a Community Garden on City of London land
There are many shared garden ideas happening through churches, businesses, community organizations and in neighbourhoods around London. Situations differ depending on the land owner. Community Gardens London is gathering information from various sources, including City staff, to clarify what procedures and/or bylaws and policies apply in different situations. A Western student project is looking at City bylaws and policies that tie in with urban agriculture. We will post information on our site as it becomes available - www.communitygardenslondon.ca
Vanessa Kinsley, Community Projects Manager (planning department), can advise you on evaluating a potential garden location, and on communicating your idea to neighbours: vkinsley@london.ca or ph. 519-661-2500, ext. 1871.
Ross Fair , Executive Director of Community Services for London (519 661-2500-5430; email: rfair@london.ca) oversaw London's Community Gardens Program Review. He can advise you about the City’s part in the development of City gardens.
London Community Resource Centre (www.lcrc.ca) has been selected as the Coordinating Agency for London's community gardens program for the 2012 year, contracted to work toward fulfillment of the Recommendations of the London Community Gardens Program Review http://council.london.ca/meetings/CNC%20Agendas/2011-03-29%20Agenda/Item%209.pdf
For the most accurate information about whether new gardens will be opened in 2012, or to book space in current garden locations, contact Linda Davies, Executive Director of LCRC: linda@lcrc.on.ca
Community Gardens London celebrates the shared and community gardens of London and area. We support and advocate for food producing gardens and their role in individual and urban food security, our good health and environmental health. We try to connect up people with ideas so they might develop their project ideas. communitygardenslondon@execulink.com www.communitygardenslondon.ca
Growing
Question: What is the growing season where I live?
Answer: The growing season where you live is probably much longer than you think it is.
There are different planting times for different types of seeds and seedlings. Pea seeds can go into very cold ground in mid-April in the London area; lettuce can be a surprisingly early crop. Chinese Cabbage seeds go into pots in mid July to early August, to sprout into the plantlings you will set into the ground four weeks later for late October harvest. Some plants, like Swiss Chard, can be started for a fall harvest and, especially if covered with leaves, will overwinter and come up the next spring to give an early crop of leaves and then can be left to go to seed.
You can lengthen the growing season. By covering garden areas with row covers, some things can be planted extra early; some will grow late into the fall and even winter. An excellent resource is Eliot Coleman’s book Winter Harvest Handbook: year-round vegetable production using deep-organic techniques and unheated greenhouses.
Plant Hardiness zone charts have been developed, based on geographic locale and first and last frost dates in those areas. Searching around the internet, one resource found was a page on the Vesey Seed website. It connects to several Canadian and U.S. hardiness zone maps; also, the company has indexed its seeds and plants on offer by their hardiness zone!
http://www.veseys.com/ca/en/learn/reference/hardinesszones
As we come more under the influence of climate change, and more days of ‘unusual-for the-time-of-year’ weather, we will probably rely less on the zone charts and more on the experiences we develop from 4-L gardening: looking around, learning, labour and love of what we do.
Problem Solving
Question: How do I find an answer to a gardening problem?
Answer: You could send an email to us: communitygardenslondon@execulink.com
Someone will get back to you within a day or so.
You could also spend some time at the library. Your local library will have books about gardening. Develop the habit of browsing. Take 6 likely books off the shelf and do some looking over topics and the index. Between searching for your particular problem and the related things you are bound to read, you’ll learn something about the gardening issue you’re concerned about. You can also browse online, of course, and there are some wonderful resources.
Seed Saving
Question: Will saving seeds from plants I grow save me money?
Answer: Yes, but only if you are a disciplined person who is not tempted by the pictures and descriptions of new hybrids and heritage seeds that come to you in seed catalogues or are on the seed racks in stores! Most of us gardeners save seeds and buy more!
Seed saving is a wonderful area for Learning. Saving seeds can be easy, especially from plants like kale and heritage squash that give many seeds. It is possible to save seeds, bulbs or tubers, or to take cuttings or divisions, for just about everything you grow. You can learn which plants are self-pollinating and which cross with plants in their same family, and that moisture level and temperature in seed storage areas affects the life of seeds.
Seeds of Diversity is a Canadian volunteer organization that conserves the biodiversity and traditional knowledge of food crops and garden plants. By becoming a member you are able to swap saved seeds with others. There is much else of interest on its website, including the revised 5th edition of How to Save Your Own Seeds. The $12.00 cost includes postage. http://www.seeds.ca.
Many organizations and individuals around the world are saving seeds adapted to their communities.
Seeds of Diversity, mentioned above is Canadian.
Heritage seed is sold through independent seed companies, based on small farms, such as Ontario’s Hawthorn Farm Organic Seed [www.hawthornfarm.ca] or Terra Edibles [www.terraedibles.ca].
Internationally, organizations are working to help communities save their own seeds and help their local farmers maintain independence. Two such projects are The Unitarian Service Committee’s Seeds of Survival project [http://usc-canada.org/what-we-do/sos/] and Navdanya, based in New Delhi, India [www.navdanya.org]
Along the way to Learning about seed saving, browse through some articles of Mother Earth News - http://www.motherearthnews.com/search.aspx?search=seed%20saving
