Hello
Gardeners,
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Spring
has finally arrived! I’m eager to check my gardens and want to ‘clean things up’
as I’m sure all of you are eager to do as well. BUT hold on and think about that
traditional annual chore and how it will impact the critters in your landscape.
Many,
many native bees and other insects make homes in the dried stalks of your
plants. They hunker down in these tight spaces to ride out the winter, but they
are not awake yet. The nights and days are still cold and more importantly, the
plants they eat or nectar they need to survive is not ready for them.
Try
to resist cutting down all your dead plant material until later in the spring.
Or at least if you cut down the dead stalks, put them aside in your yard so these
tiny creatures have more time to find new homes later in the spring. Your
garden will be just fine and in fact some of the dried plant material will help
insult your plants when we have cold nights.
Remember
it takes 6,000-8,000 caterpillars to feed one brood of chickadees! Yes, adult chickadees
eat seeds, but chickadee babies need high value protein such as caterpillars!
I
want to share a wonderful newsletter, The
Butterfly Effect. You can subscribe and get this gem four times a year for
free.
Please read the
article by Heather Holm about native bees. Most of the press about bees and
their decline concerns non-native honey bees. And yes, they are at risk, but
more importantly, some of our native bees are in peril! Please, please plant
bee friendly flowers, don’t use pesticides of any kind, leave your yard a bit
messy, have some bare patches of soil for nesting ground bees and remember all your actions have consequences. Make
those consequences beneficial to our earth.
“Let us be the
ancestors our descendants will thank.” – Winona LaDuke
Update on my germination experiment: So far nothing. I dug down and checked some of the larger squash seeds and they are still there, but not a sign of any germination. I guess seeds between 10 and 40 years old, and not kept cold are not viable. I'll continue to watch for signs of life for another week or two.
Exciting news about future Seed Talks. We will have Master Gardeners attend both the June and July Seeds talks on the 2nd Tuesdays of the month. They will contribute to our discussions on tomatoes and fruits! More info will follow.
Sustainable a film on sustainable food production. This is a great documentary on sustainable food production. It really opened my eyes to some agriculture practices I was unaware of. It certainly makes me think about the food purchases I make and I vow to buy locally as much as I can. I found myself rooting for Marty and other sustainable farmers as I watched this film.
"The narrative of the film focuses on Marty Travis, a seventh-generation
farmer in central Illinois who watched his land and community fall
victim to the pressures of big agribusiness. Determined to create a
proud legacy for his son, Marty transforms his profitless wasteland and
pioneers the sustainable food movement in Chicago."
You can watch the film here: https://sustainablefoodfilm.com/
Or it is on Netflix.
Pam
Upcoming Events:
April 25 – 6:45 -8:30 pm, Big River Big Woods Wild Ones Meeting,
The
Universe Beneath Our Feet: Restoring Soil Ecosystems - Kassie Brown
Soil
is one of the last truly uncharted territories. It is also the key to
solving most of the problems we face today. Healthy soils clean and hold water,
re-mediate pollution, sequester carbon, and grow resilient plants. Healthy soil
is built by countless microbes working 24/7 – and they need our help! This talk
is for anyone interested in learning more about the vast and complex ecosystem
beneath our feet. It will be led by Kassie Brown of Renaissance Soil, a St.
Paul based non-profit dedicated to regenerating soil through education, outreach,
and action opportunities.
Place: Autumn
Grove Park, 1365 Lydia Avenue West, Roseville, MN Map
Big
River Big Woods Wild Ones chapter is also doing a plant sale. You can order
plants now. See their website above.
May 10-12 Friends School Plant sale. All neonic free vegetable, annual,
perennial, native, tree, shrub, bulbs, seeds and indoor plant sale at the State
fairgrounds. See http://www.friendsschoolplantsale.com/ for more details.
May 14 – Seed Talk, Raingardens, White Bear Lake
library, 6:30 pm
May 18 – Ramsey County Master Gardeners Plant Sale,
8 am-2pm, “The Barn”, 2020 White Bear Ave, Maplewood, MN
Sale
of plants not treated with neonics. Proceeds benefit the Master Gardener
program.
May 18 – Seed Your
Dreams - Como Community Seed Library Gathering
11am-2pm,
Historic Como Streetcar Station, 1224 Lexington Pkwy N., Saint Paul 55117
Yes,
we can finally believe Spring is here! And with that it’s time to exchange our
excess seeds, plants (perennial devides and plant starts) and extra,
serviceable garden hand tools with our neighbors at the Como Community Seed
Library’s annual gardener gathering. Join for all the family fun, art making,
bee finding etc. Volunteer and
receive a thank you for your generosity. See: https://comoseedsavers.geopoi.us/
Jun 1 – Landscape Revival Plant sale, 9:00 am - 1:00 pm, Shepherd of the Hills
Church,
3920 Victoria St N, Shoreview, Minnesota (MN) 55126
The
Shoreview Native Plant Expo and Market offers gardeners one convenient location to
shop for Minnesota native plants from 6 local native growers and learn how to
use the plants from conservation organizations. The goal of Landscape Revival
is to promote the use of native plants by educating about their benefits for
wildlife habitat, pollinators, water quality and landscape diversity. Plants
sold at the sale are neonic free.
Jun 9 – Landscape Revival Plant Sale, 9:00 am - 1:00 pm, Oakdale City Hall, 1584
Hadley Ave N, Oakdale, MN 55128
The
Oakdale Native Plant Expo and Market offers gardeners one convenient location to
shop for Minnesota native plants from 6 local native growers and learn how to
use the plants from conservation organizations. The goal of Landscape Revival
is to promote the use of native plants by educating about their benefits for
wildlife habitat, pollinators, water quality and landscape diversity. Plants
sold at the sale are neonic free.
*Why is neonic free a
good thing?
Neonicotinoids
are a widely used family of insecticides which adversely impact pollinators as
well a song birds and aquatic invertebrates. One problem with neonics is that
they persist in the plant and the soil for many years. The Friends School Plant
sale has an excellent webpage on this topic here: http://www.friendsschoolplantsale.com/blog/post/neonics
