The Great Sunflower Project

Here at Countryside we are very concerned about the bees. There was an article last year in the Tribune detailing the decline in the bee population and what is thought to be a virus that kills entire colonies of bees. Any one in agriculture, and that includes all of us who eat, should be aware of how important bees are to food production. According to the USDA, roughly one-third of the food we eat is a result of pollination by bees and animal pollinators are responsible for the reproduction of 90% of flowering plants. Domestic honey bees pollinate approximately $10 billion worth of crops in the US (North American Pollinator Protection Campaign.)



So, what can the average homeowner do to help this situation? One thing we can do is reduce our use of pesticides, since according to the NAPPC pesticides kill $14.3 million worth of bees a year. When using pesticides follow the directions carefully, don’t spray on windy days, and try not to spray near flowering plants when bees might be present. NAPPC also recommends planting "bee" friendly perennials, such as foxglove, monarda (Bee Balm), and eupatorium (Joe Pye Weed) in our gardens. You can encourage orchard bees, which are solitary, as opposed to hive type bees and are non-aggressive, to live in your garden by setting out bee tubes.


The other thing you can do is participate in the Great Sunflower Project. Researchers at San Francisco State University want to learn more about urban and suburban pollinators and their impact on urban home and community gardens. It is very simple to participate. Go to their website to learn more about the project. Registering is very easy and once registered you will be sent a packet of sunflower seeds. Plant them and when they flower do a bee inventory. An inventory sheet and instructions are on the web site. One of our customers, who is also a friend of mine, is participating and she is going to keep me appraised of her results. This sounds like a great project to do with your kids this summer. Let us know how you do.

The Birds and the Bees

I have always enjoyed watching the wildlife in my garden. I don’t mind sharing (too much) with the rabbits and deer and seeing what else wanders through. When I lived north of Crystal Lake we had deer, racoons, possums, the occasional coyote and, of course, birds. One year for a brief week we had a scarlet tanager at the feeder. As the weather breaks and we get busy with gardening and other activities, let’s not forget the birds. Even if you fed the birds during the winter, with the decline in habitat, they still need supplemental feeding.

Some birds to stick around all winter, such as the goldfinches and the juncoes. Some of the migratory birds have already returned. I’ve seen robins since February. The oriole will be returning shortly. The male arrives first, usually around mid-April, to scout out food sources and nesting sites. If you hope to attract these lovely birds to your garden, put out food now. They will eat from a nectar feeder similar to a hummingbird feeder with orange flavored nectar or you can use an oriole feeder designed to hold an orange half.

Other guests to our garden that we should encourage are bees. Bees are the workhorse of the garden because without them we would have no fruiting crops or seed production of other ornamental plants. Bees are responsible for pollinating over 100,000 species of plants and 130 commercial crops. The best bee pollinator is not the honey bee or the bumble bee but is the orchard mason bee. This is a non-aggressive bee that does not produce honey, live in a hive or take care of its young, therefore they have nothing to be aggressive about. They lay eggs in holes in wood. You can provide bee nesting holes and even buy the bees to introduce into your garden. They do their pollinating in the spring so it is not too late to get them. If you have fruit trees in your garden, this would help in increasing the yield.