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Provide food for bees, birds, and butterflies by incorporating plants that offer them nectar, seeds, berries, and pollen. The first thing to think about is adding flowers; flowers are not only beautiful, they also offer food for native pollinators, birds and butterflies. Flower shapes that attract pollinators include: Compositae - daisy-shaped flowers - because the center of the blossom is actually several individual flowers that they can gather nectar from all at once. The flowers in the picture below are Layia platyglossa, commonly known as tidy tips.  Flowers with “landing pads,” known as a Umbelliferae, are similar to Compositae in that they have many small flower clusters to drink from. “Landing pad” flowers include yarrow, lantana, verbena, and milkweed. The picture below shows several varieties of yarrow.  Pollinators also like the umbrella-shaped flowers from plants such as dill, parsley, carrots, and Queen Anne’s lace.  Trumpet-shaped flowers like Penstemon and Mimulus allow butterflies, bees and hummingbirds to seek nectar from deep down in the throat of the flower.  
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  The focus of our next few posts is on pollinators and how we can help them thrive. The transfer of pollen in and between flowers of the same species leads to successful seed and fruit production for plants, ensuring full-bodied fruit and a full set of viable seeds. Loss of pollinators means many plants can’t reproduce at all, with catastrophic consequences up and down the food chain. The economic cost of pollinator loss is also high: globally, the annual value of global crops directly affected by pollinators is between US$235 to US$577 billion, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of United Nations. According to the USDA, “Three-fourths of the world's flowering plants and about 35 percent of the world's food crops depend on animal pollinators to reproduce. More than 3,500 species of native bees help increase crop yields.”Most of the plants grown for food, beverages, fibers, spices, and medicines depend on pollination to produce the goods on which we depend. Just a few of the foods and beverages produced with the help of pollinators include: apples, blueberries, chocolate, coffee, melons, peaches, potatoes, pumpkins, vanilla, almonds, and tequila. Without pollinators, our plant food options would be few and dull, just grains and greens. Three-fourths of the world's flowering plants and about 35 percent of the world's food crops depend on animal pollinators to reproduce. More than 3,500 species of native bees help increase crop yields.  Human survival is intimately linked with many species of insects, especially pollinators. Unfortunately for them, and for us, huge areas of pollinator habitat have been and continue to be destroyed due to land development and large-scale, corporate forms of agriculture. As human populations grow, we eradicate crucial food and shelter sources for pollinator species in order to build homes, shopping centers, schools, industrial parks and agribusiness - the business of agricultural production, which includes agrichemicals (fertilizers and pesticides), breeding, crop production, distribution, farm machinery, processing, seed supply, and marketing and sales. The reduction in habitat areas, especially over the past 20 years, has resulted in a large decline in pollinator populations all over the world. Agricultural areas in particular have had a huge impact on pollinator populations. As small farms continue to be consumed by giant agribusiness corporations, loss of habitat occurs as corporate farms convert large areas of land from a mixed group of crops and plant cover into a monoculture where only one type of plant is allowed to grow. This lack of diversity in rural areas is detrimental to all kinds of pollinators. Finally, the increased use of pesticides, as well as the increased toxicity of modern pesticides, further diminishes the ability of pollinators to thrive. The irony of this situation is that farmers need to pay beekeepers to move their bees onto the farms in order to pollinate food crops. Bees that travel across the country to serve as pollinators tend to be weaker. These weaker, stressed bees are believed to be a part of what is leading to colony collapse disorder.  Fortunately, it’s easy to incorporate pollinator habitat into our own gardens. By adding food, shelter, and water to the garden, we can improve conditions for pollinators, and help ensure that food sources are secure for future generations. We’ll talk more about how to add these things to the garden in the next few posts. In the next post, we'll talk about ways to add food for pollinators to your garden.
Water makes up about 70% of the planet’s surface, and approximately the same percentage of the human body. Water is everywhere. In order to survive, we need it to be available, and we need it to be clean. During rainstorms, we’ve all seen our streets fill with water as it moves over the asphalt surfaces and runs into storm drains. Here in the Bay Area, rain water runs from our roofs, driveways and streets, down storm drains, and into the San Francisco Bay. Not so bad, you might think, the Bay needs water to keep it filled, right? The truth is, as the water flows over rooftops and paved surfaces, it picks up all of the pollutants that have accumulated on them, including dirt and dust, gas and oil from cars, and pesticides and fertilizers from our gardens and lawns. All of these sediments and poisons end up in the San Francisco Bay, polluting it every time it rains.  In a natural environment that water would stay on the land, filtering into the ground where it would be purified through plant roots and soil. A typical roof can catch thousands of gallons water every time there's a rainy day -- but we waste this valuable resource when we don’t create conditions that allow the water to remain on the land where it falls. And the pollutants carried in water that moves over impermeable surfaces before entering our waterways without first filtering through soil eventually affect the health of the entire local watershed and beyond - and our health as well. Fortunately, there are many ways that we can harvest the water that falls on our property, and keep it there for a more ecologically useful benefit. The first way is simply to remove non-permeable concrete surfaces so that water can percolate back into the soil and recharge the groundwater in a healthy way. In addition, the water that we keep out of the storm drains makes the soil we garden on more saturated, and most importantly reduces the need to add water. Another way is to harvest the “greywater” that comes out of our washing machines, bathtubs, and showers. Seasonal water storage is another way to harvest rainwater, and at Mariposa, we do seasonal water storage with a thing we like to call Dragonfly Ponds.  DRAGONFLY PONDS Dragonfly Ponds are one of our favorite ways to harvest water. These water features capture the rain that falls on your roof by redirecting your downspout to deposit rainwater directly back into the ground rather than piping it out to the street. By retaining this water, Dragonfly Ponds create a water source for pollinators, particularly dragonflies. Rainwater is moved to a depression in the garden that’s filled with drain rock and decorative gravel. Water collects in the depression, the pit fills, and over the next few days the water drains back into the earth. This action of filling and draining, paired with grasses planted around the pond, creates the kind of muddy grassy conditions that dragonflies like to lay their eggs in.  This dragonfly pond also serves as a fire pit. The benefits of a Dragonfly Pond include the addition of another layer of habitat to your garden, which in turn attracts flora and fauna that need it. In addition, the water that would have flushed pollution into the Bay is now recharging the groundwater table, and keeping water fresh and clean for the health of future generations.
Next up: how to make your garden a place that pollinators will love |
AuthorAndrea Hurd, founder of Mariposa Gardening & Design. Archives
May 2023
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