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Bee and Butterfly Garden Revamp
Our fenced kitchen garden was designed with pollinators in mind. In the southeastern corner, there is a bee and butterfly garden planted with Liatra Spicata, purple Echinacea, red gladiolas and daffodils (primarily for me), and several other potted perennial flowers I picked up during the summer. The Kniphofia (Traffic Lights) didn’t blossom this summer, but I think they did at least grow plants. The real problem with the bee and butterfly garden is that its location in the corner makes…
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Flowers for Friday
If you’ve eaten okra but never seen it grow, you probably have no idea that those sometimes prickly pods have such beautiful origins. This time of year, morning walks always include picking pods and checking out the bumble bees in the okra blossoms. Last year I saved seeds from my burgundy okra using pantyhose and paint bush to prevent cross pollination with the neighbors’ green okra. Several of the plants are producing greenish pods, so my methods weren’t perfect. These…
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Discovery: Bumblebees and Sunflowers
Last summer’s garden was such a disappointment – even the bees wouldn’t come visit it. I’m not sure what happened exactly, because I had bees early in the season, but they disappeared as soon as things heated up. Even with attempting to self-pollinate the tomatoes and squash, production was abnormally low. This Spring I loaded the garden with sunflowers seeds, flower bulbs and wildflower seeds hoping to entice the pollinators with something a little better than the clover that keeps…
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Feeders, Houses, and Lily-philes
Earlier this week, both boys were sick and I got very stir crazy – half of it was waiting to see if I came down with what either of them had. A girl can only spend so much time in and around her own house while tending to too very whiney children without taking a gander to Amazon. After interrupting a humming bird at my red Asiatic Lilies, I figured now was the perfect time to hang a feeder. The…
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Spring Fling Giveaway: Bee Happy!
I’m new here at Love Sown, and I sometimes get lengthy… but I think you’ll enjoy the read! So hang in there with me…. Years ago whenever I told people I’d never been stung by a bee, I said it was because I was a “bee charmer.” (Please say you’ve all seen Fried Green Tomatoes.) I’ve never had a fear of bees so when we moved into our house in the middle of a downtown area and my horticulturist husband…
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Garden Pics
Pictured: tomato blossom, pea garden and path, corn and pole beans, row garden (tomatoes, squash and watermelon), onions and romaine, squash blossoms This is the fun time of year in the garden for me. The mosquitoes aren’t too angry, the tree pollen has subsided, and there is occasionally a cool breeze. Last year I did a lot of assisted pollination of my squash plants, but this year they seem to be setting fruit just fine on their own. While my…
