this is a late fall but still sad.
Yes I’m bad and let things go wild .... any flower is good for the bees right? Even if it’s a weed lolol. I have mostly drought tolerant plants so not too bad here but I’m planning less pots - my cucumber died half way through because it got too hot on the deck - did amazing the year before. It was blazing hot in alberta ... zero rain too - still almost nothing it’s crazy.Blacksmith said:
My veggies didn’t do great ... I tried square foot gardening but was sore so watered too aggressively to finish and all the seeds washed together. focused more on my xeriscape in front yard which is mostly basic perennials because of the deer - but I did put an apple tree, ruhbarb, saskatoon, wild strawberries in. But the deer even ate the ruhbarb down to the ground - sighSaltedcaramel64 said:
Yah, there were gardeners around my little home town that loved sharing their produce with other folks in town. It got so bad during zucchini season that people had to start locking their car doors to keep them from sharing their cars full! There were like 127 recipes of exciting new things to make from zucchini and we still couldn’t keep ahead of them.Blacksmith said:
the weeds in my garden did not produce many flowers, it was mostly foxtailKarmaBaby said:
I still think that is a myth lololol .... I had 2 plants going and still bought the odd one from store. :/ and never baked with them. Or I just eat a lot of zuchinni .....Zeke said:
I LOVE playing with foxtail though lolololBlacksmith said:
It’s no myth in my hometown. The zucchini craze hit and everybody and their dog started planting them, and not in moderation! It seems nobody realized how prolific a producer the zucchini plant can be under the proper conditions. The area around my hometown was very conducive to raising cucumbers, in fact many of my friends paid their way through college, or bought cars or motorcycles with the proceeds from their pickle picking. Well, it seems what’s good for the cucumber is great for the zucchini and a voluminous surplus set in for the first few years of our local zucchini craze. People did return to their unlocked cars to find boxes, bags, or just stacks of zucchini waiting for them. My folks, being avid gardeners, got involved with them and we had a surplus, but with the huge diversity of plants in their garden room was at a premium so only a couple of zucchini plants were given space. Even those few had my mom trying every recipe she could find to use them up. Most of the other produce from our garden could be frozen, canned, pickled, or stored in our root cellar. Not zucchini. Fortunately, my folks and I liked fried eggplant and zucchini turns out pretty good with the same treatment. But they produce like rabbits compared to eggplants having a reproduction cycle like an elephant so we had far, far more zucchini than eggplant. Remember, few cars back then had electric locks, and none had snazzy key fobs that let you lock them as you walked away, so few people took the time to lock their cars. To add to the vulnerability of these parked vehicles, few had air conditioning so people generally left their windows down to avoid returning to a mobile oven that would stay that way for some time without AC. This meant that they were attractive targets for people that deluded themselves into believing that they were doing their neighbors a favor by sharing their abundance with them. Often the owner of the vehicle was also a zucchini grower themselves which compounded the problem of what to do with the dreaded green monsters.KarmaBaby said:
That all sounds great!! I was thinking about bees , but I have limited time and where I garden isn't where I live. Also I have wild bees that live under the ground , they come up in September and make a amazing humming noise! (Actually I find it relaxing) there is hundreds of them , they never sting and just fly in circles very low on the ground.PNW509Little said:
Surprisingly, the bees are not very time consuming. The most time consuming part is learning to be a responsible bee keeper. I have spent tons of time watching videos and reading books and still learn new things all the time. But bees are incredibly smart and self sufficient. We go in at most, once a week just to make sure the queen is laying new babies effectively, that they are storing what they need and that there are no issues (mites are one of the most common but easy to treat if caught early). Otherwise, they just need good pollen sources within 2 miles (the shorter the distance, the longer each bee lives) and a good source of clean water. Everything else they handle themselves. Honey is a more intensive process but we aren't taking honey from ours (at least not yet), as we got them just to help the bee population and pollination and we want to ensure they have enough stores for winter. But I will say, it has been one of the coolest learning experiences I have ever done and my whole family has gotten into it now.Kittyinpink said:
That is so cool! I love bee's. I grow a bunch of plants just for them. Like sunflowers and zinia's and they really seem to like the broccoli and kale flowers. I grow a couple of each and just let them flower like crazy for the bee's.PNW509Little said:
Ok thanks for the reply! You have made me a bit more excited to try! Your so right that it's not nessarily about honey . Sometimes I just try to hard and need to give myself reasons to do stuff . In reality I would simply love to have a hive of bees! I'm still quite apprehensive though like protective clothing and getting a aggressive queen that might hurt others.. but I will re look into it.PNW509Little said:
That's awesome. Zinnias are among their favorites. They also really like the flowers from most herbs, things like basil and chives where we would have pruned off the flowers in the past, seem to be hotspots so we leave them now. From what we have learned the type of flower they like has to do with their species and the length of that species tongue. So where bumblebees like things like honeysuckle and columbine, the honey bees like things with shorter flowers. The things you learn!Saltedcaramel64 said:
That’s cool! I’m gardening for my local bee population (and other important bugs)PNW509Little said:
living in Alberta - honeys do ok but constantly have issues with super cold winters/chinooks. but I have noticed they only go after large pollen/nectar sources of the same plant ... so they are all over the fruit trees when they bloom, this was the first summer they ever went near my raspberries because the patch is large enough now but rarely go near my smaller patches of different flowers. 
hover flies, bee flies, different moths and others. The native species are better at dealing with local weather and thus pollination. but I LOVE honey so very happy with the honey bees around