Cottage Wood Hill

I occasionally buy plants from Home Depot, and couldn’t pass this one up. This “Ultra” Dwarf D’Anjou pear tree was only $18 and will do well in a container. I didn’t even know they came in “ultra” dwarf. I already have a larger pear tree, but you can’t have too many pears in my book. Nectar of the gods when you can eat a ripe pear off the tree.

I just finished watching a poignant PBS video (watched the whole thing online!), Silence of the Bees, about honey bees disappearing around the world. Although I had heard about this problem, called Colony Collapse Disorder, I didn’t realize the severity of it, and hardly ever thought about how most of the world’s food supply is made possible because of the tireless work of the millions of bees who fertilize the flowers of our food crops.

Top scientists around the world are pooling their research to determine the causes of the disappearing bees, and trying to find ways to help protect and preserve them. Among the multiple factors contributing to the loss of these invaluable pollinators are pesticides, malnutrition (from not having enough variety in their diets) and a particular virus that is present in all CCD colonies.

Do your part and elminate pesticides from your garden and plant a variety of flowers that attract bees. (A couple of the many plants they love are sunflowers and lavendar.) I have done quite well in my garden by experimenting with soap oil spray…buy a plastic water sprayer, put only a few drops of dish soap in it and a teaspoon or so of olive oil, shake it up and spray. The results aren’t immediate, so be patient.

I almost gave into temptation because I had so many aphids for awhile, but I adjusted my formula, and waited. A week later I had tons of lady bugs and they took care of the aphids. I suppose when I had so many they attracted them. There is more than one way to care for your garden. Keep it natural. Here are 10 things you can do to help save bees.

To get inspiration for your own bee friendly garden, drop by the Urban Bee Gardens website. They have a handy Garden Builder Tool that will help you get started. If you really want to do your part and start your own bee colony in your garden, you can read about how one guy did it, or watch a video.

I’m always keeping my eye out for information about the safety of the food chain and the dangers of industrial farming practices, and today ran across a story on the change.org website about fertilizer—particularly manure.

Sure, we all know that milk without antibiotics is better for us (so we don’t build up resistance in our bodies), but I never thought that the other part of what comes out of the cow (manure), would hold traces of antibiotics as well.

Apparently it stays in the cow’s system and is excreted with the manure, and when this is turned into fertilizer it stays active and ends up in our garden plants. If those plants are vegetables and fruits that will then end up in our own bodies, we are thus exposed and given “low, irregular doses – just about the worst possible way to take antibiotics,” according to story.

So…it’s another reason to use chicken poop…but if you don’t have chickens I’ve heard rabbit poop, pigeon poop, horse manure and bat guano are great (any herbivore poop is good). I’ve actually purchased bat guano and felt so silly doing it, but my garden loved it! Would be handy if you could use your own. A woman from New Zealand wrote to me and said she uses watered down urine in her garden to great success. What do you use?

Butterflies are a lovely addition to any garden, and I’m thinking of planting a Dutchman’s Pipevine in the far corner of my yard to attract this lovely speciman, the Pipevine Swallowtail.

The Dutchman’s Pipevine is a carnivorous plant, and apparently the flowers can have a carrion like smell when they first bloom, so they should be in a remote part of the yard.

They like to lay their eggs on the pipevine as it a poisonous part of the leaves gives the caterpillars protection and then the mature butterflies will sip nectar from flowers like azaleas and thistle.

I imagine it wouldn’t be a good idea for them to try to sip from the Dutchman’s Pipe flower! Nearby we have a hammock and it would be fun to see these pretty butterflies fluttering by.
As it happens, they also like to be in dry shady areas under oak trees, which is exactly what I have back there beyond the hammock. Seems like a perfect match!

Thank you to Steevithak and Jim-sf and Birdgal5 for the wonderful photos.

I have a volunteer squash where my compost pile used to be and it’s becoming gigantic!

Here’s my new fuzzy kiwi vine. Well, one of them…you have to plant a girl and a boy to get babies. The female is the Vincent variety, so I’ve dubbed her “Vinnie” and the male is the Tomuri variety…so, you guessed it, he wil be “Tom.” They both bloom at the same time, which makes pollination much more likely…so I’m hoping to have maybe a fruit or two this summer.

I love the red fuzzy stems.

We’ve added trellises to the arbor and will be adding one more for kiwi to grow on. The kiwi vines will be planted in the area next to the driveway, and will have their own trellis to climb. The front trellises are for the grapes.