Got Bees?

The top photo is of a Leafcutter Bee structure. Bees are essential for the health and success of our gardens and thus for the production of our food. I'm sure many of you have heard of the problems that our bee populations are having. It would be an understatement to say they are struggling. To help these little pollinating powerhouses out try putting up a bee house. Leafcutter bees are native throughout the United States. I bet your County Extension office can help you if you'd like to research this further. I first learned about leafcutter bees when I was working towards my masters. The University of Maine was conducting extensive research on them and their use as pollinators for the blueberry and cranberry crops. My work study was helping with this research. The holes of this structure are just the right size for leafcutter bees to deposit their eggs. They then insert a substance they create from the leaves they chew and then plug the hole with a thick mud substance which keeps the eggs safe. So give your local bees a hand and put up some leafcutter bee structures!

To make your very own simple leafcutter bee structure and to learn more interesting information about them visit:
http://www.dry-ideas.com/2008/05/make-your-own-solitary-bee-house.html

Back to this week's gardening; today was a beautiful day. Still a little chill in the air but warm enough to enjoy being outside. And the best part is that it's still too early for blackflies! I planted spinach, beets, lettuce, carrots, radishes, and chard outdoors. Also took down old fencing that was beat and put up new taller fencing. We have seen 3 young deer in our yard so we put up tall chicken wire fencing to keep them out of the garden. My pac choy isn't ready to plant outdoors yet so I put a light weight agribon row cover over the beds to prevent those pesky flea beetles from decimating the young plants once they emerge. To see what this product looks like visit another great local seed supplier, Johnny's Seeds:
http://www.johnnyseeds.com/catalog/subcategory.aspx?category=292&subcategory=334

Indoors I transplanted my broccoli, lettuce, cherry tomatoes, and fennel. They all have a set of true leaves so it was time. Here's a picture of the broccoli. See the tiny leaves in the middle? Those are the true leaves. The other leaves are not really leaves; they are what are called cotyledon (cot-ol-e-don). They contain the food reserves from the seeds that the plant needs until the true leaves appear. Once the true leaves appear they become the structures that take over food production through photosynthesis. I also started several varieties of tomatoes, tomatillos,and some flowers.


Here is picture of a Phlox plant just starting to come up.