National Pollinator Week!

It's been National Pollinator Week and I've had fun participating in garden tours, attending talks, and will do a program tomorrow about native plants for pollinators -- great fun for an excellent initiative.

I started gardening for butterflies three decades ago, but rapidly expanded my interest to native bees, and other flower insects.  I never studied entomology, unfortunately, but my best friend in graduate school as well my hubby (whom I also met in graduate school) studied pollination biology, so I was at least aware of the field!

But as a gardener and educator, it's been a joy to encourage people to include plants that "work for a living" and this includes pollinator-friendly plants of all sorts.  From adding nectar- and pollen-rich flowers to providing habitat for nesting and larval food sources -- we can easily support pollinators in our landscapes.

I've posted a pdf of the presentation on the sidebar.  Just click on the image to view it.

I'm glad I'll have the opportunity to plug pollinator habitat as part of pollinator week!

(The presentation is at a great local native plant garden, the Botanical Gardens at Asheville and is in support of the Pollination Celebration organized by Bee City USA.

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Native azaleas

Most of our deciduous native azaleas (Rhododendron spp.) in the mountains and piedmont of the Carolinas have already flowered (there are just one or two species yet to come).

This natural hybrid (from Gregory Bald in the Southern Appalachians) has been in flower the last week and a half on the slope below our small house in the mountains-- beautiful. 

Gregory Bald hybrid native azalea

Not surprisingly, local native plant nursery folks collected the hybrids!   

Gregory Bald is a mecca for hikers and plant lovers.

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A Celebration at Sunrise Jubilee Farm

Signs lead us to the farm at the northern border of Florida. To get there, you
need to enter Georgia for a while before turning into their road back into Florida.

This Saturday afternoon celebration was a change of pace from my other book tour events. The Sunrise Jubilee Farm, a new organically run operation, held a community-wide pot-luck dinner party.

Jennifer Asbury and me.

Jennifer and I met on Facebook where she was talking about the farm that she and her husband Joe have started. I suggested that we could create an event as an open-house, introduction to the community event where I could talk about organic gardening and sell my books.

The rest of the event, she, her family, her church, and her neighbors put together. And what a great party it was. Everyone seemed to have a good time. Plus the weather was beautiful.

A carpenter bee visits my flat parsley blooms.

This family bought a copy of my book.  I see more vegetables in their future.

Red okra: just one of the many crops growing out in the fields.

A sassy scarecrow guards the gardens.

Dragonfly.

Dragonfly.

This dragonfly visited one of my sunflowers. It was in the same vase as the curly parsley where a black swallowtail butterfly caterpillar had been browsing. I didn't get a photo of the cat, but after I'd noticed the dragonfly, the caterpillar was gone.

This lady seemed to attract the dragonflies. I saw her several times with dragonflies on her fingers.

Herding geese!

A water slide serves to entertain the kids.

The baby bunnies were popular attractions.

What a great cake from a neighbor!

Everyone brought a covered dish to share. There was a wide choice of food from fried chicken and watermelon to cole slaw and various fruit salads plus this fabulous cake.

Three Christian bands provided music throughout the afternoon.

At the end of the day, as a surprise for Gramma, Jennifer had arranged
for one of her coworkers to perform a belly dance!

The hayride had a lot of takers. Here the sun sets through the Spanish moss on the pecan trees.

And so, the sun set on a wonderful afternoon.  I wish Jennifer, Joe and the rest of the Asbury family all the best in their endeavors on the farm.

Green Gardening Matters,
Ginny Stibolt

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Spigelia marilandica (Indian pink)

Along with Silene virginica (Fire Pink), Spigelia marilandica (Indian Pink) is one of my favorite "red" flowers of late spring.

The striking tubular flowers are remarkable -- I'd imagine ruby-throated hummingbirds would visit them, although I've not seen that.  This plant was at the Botanical Gardens of Asheville - a robust specimen!

Spigelia marilandica (Indian Pink)

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Swiss chard

I've grown what I thought was OK Swiss chard in the past. Certainly, I've managed to enjoy the harvest enough to post about it.

But this year's cool spring and abundant rain has produced leafy robust red chard that's been amazing.  Now maybe the extra mushroom compost (the real thing) along with fresh doses of organic fertilizer have helped, too.

But, transplants from seeds this winter that I moved around to various spots in my raised beds have been remarkably productive.

This was just a quick cutting for tonight's dinner!

Swiss chard

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A Chunk of Lawn Becomes a Native Garden

The showy tickseed coreopsis decorates the edge of
the front meadow. Native bees & butterflies love it!

The view from my office has been improved dramatically since I removed a 12 x 14-foot section of lawn and added native plants.

"Last September I began this set of garden adventures with the purchase of some Elliot’s love grass (Eragrostis elliottii) at a native plant sale. I knew I was going to reduce the tongue of lawn out into the front meadow and wanted to have the grasses to set the area off.

A well-managed edge hides or distracts from a weedy interior.

It was recommended that the grasses be placed three feet apart so they’d have room to grow. So I began, yet again, to remove a large chunk of lawn. I started by clearing the space for the grasses and then creating a nice gently curved line for the lawn’s edge so the lawnmower could easily make one single turn to get it all. I removed the St. Augustine grass over the next couple of weeks and then I covered the bare areas with a thin covering of pine needles. The holidays came and went before anything else happened."

Continue reading over on the Native Plants & Wildlife Garden blog to learn about the next two stages of this project: Adventures in Creating a Native Garden.

The end result of the native garden for now. 

One advantage of timing planting projects at this time of year is that Mother Nature might pitch in on the supplemental irrigation. Sure enough, my back lucked out because the rains have come and I won't be hauling heavy watering cans out to the meadow!

The Official Wet Season Begins in June

rainfall

Tropical Storm Andrea on June 5, 2013

Unlike most of the east coast, which receives 3 or 4 inches of rain each month on average, Florida has a five-month wet season starting on June 1.  During the wet season, we average almost twice as much rain as during our seven-month dry season.

Right on time, a tropical system has been dumping oodles of rain on us. We've already received more than six inches of rain in June, which is above the average total for the whole month. Plus in May we had more than ten inches of rain and that's normally a dry month.

Be sure to turn off your irrigation system, when it's so wet!

Green Gardening Matters!
Ginny Stibolt

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Spiderwort and carolina rose

I've been busy doing other things, aside from gardening, but have been enjoying the lush green of spring, without the hot dryness that summer will bring.  My gardening companion and I had an opportunity to talk about wildflowers and gardening with native plants last week on Your Day (listen to the archived show), aired statewide on SCETV radio -- lots of fun! It's always great to encourage people to learn more about our Southeastern natives.

I'm still in the midst of harvesting the last of the cool-season greens and sowing warm season squash, amaranth, and cucumbers, and still am putting in peppers and tomatoes. It's been slow to warm up in the mountains, even with the stone raised beds.

Standouts in the pocket meadow right now are Penstemon digitalis and Golden Alexander (Zizia aurea) with lovely purple Verbascum and Verbena flowers echoing the color of the phlox nearby.

The recently planted Carolina Rose (Rosa carolina) is loaded with flowers, which are actively gleaned of their pollen by sweat bees.

In the bed below the house, a lovely spiderwort (Tradescantia) with lime-colored leaves has been visible from the studio door. 

Individual flowers are open only for a day, but are quickly replaced by fresh ones!

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