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Bitten by the bug
Aug. 23rd, 2011 09:22 amCombine a mother who drags most of the unwanted plants from your garden with an inspirational piece from Ursula Vernon (who has been slowly seeping my brain in a mixture of mulch, sunshine and rain, which will make anything grow!) and you'll find I've been bitten by the gardening bug. Again.
Now, my balcony has been neglected since June, at which time the stress for Drachenfest mostly prevented me from paying attention to the herbs and after Drachenfest the way to the balcony was blocked by big boxes full of arrows. I claim ... er... generic busy-ness as an excuse.
And by the way, my timing sucks because by the time I'll actually have time to pay attention to my garden it'll be November, which is off-season for gardening and an excellent time to start planning the spring re-vamping of the garden. But I'm buzzing with the bug now, so why not try and get my act together now.
What I want is to clear away the gunk of previous gardens (a pile of thorny hell that's obscuring the red rose I posted pictures from earlier this week) and have a bird-friendly, and thus a bug friendly garden. How I'd love to have caterpillars and beetles and snails skittering around in my garden, because that means that a) I have a healthy garden and b) the kittehs will have something to glare at and c) it will attract birds.
Bee-balm is the magic word Ursula used but bee-balm is also called bergamot and this is a native to North-America. Which is fine if you're on the other side of the pond, but might not be to handy around here. It's probably a common problem most people ignore when they're at gardening centers, but it's important to me that what I have in my garden is native, non-invasive, well-behaving and good for bees.
Lucky for me, my Google-fu prevailed, and googling for "inheemse tuinplanten nederland bijen" (because if I'd have translated it to English, it would probably have less results) handed me a database of native plants, that can be sorted by name (Dutch, Frisian, scientific), region, flowering months, lifetime, flowering colour and biosphere. Sadly, it doesn't have a bee-ootiful tast-o-meter to tell me exactly how it tastes to bees, but I have connections in the family that can help there.
As for helping them have a habitable place to live, Nesthulp.nl has some lovely images, movies and tips (also which plants will help).
As for butterflies, a buddleja will be sufficient, but I think the huge hydrangea that's already there will not go amiss either.
Now, why am I so bouncy about this garden all of a sudden?
EDIT: Now, if I cross-reference the native plants database with the plants that attract bees as well as the common kitchen herb list and a list of plants I can dye with, I'll be getting somewhere real quick.
Now, my balcony has been neglected since June, at which time the stress for Drachenfest mostly prevented me from paying attention to the herbs and after Drachenfest the way to the balcony was blocked by big boxes full of arrows. I claim ... er... generic busy-ness as an excuse.
And by the way, my timing sucks because by the time I'll actually have time to pay attention to my garden it'll be November, which is off-season for gardening and an excellent time to start planning the spring re-vamping of the garden. But I'm buzzing with the bug now, so why not try and get my act together now.
What I want is to clear away the gunk of previous gardens (a pile of thorny hell that's obscuring the red rose I posted pictures from earlier this week) and have a bird-friendly, and thus a bug friendly garden. How I'd love to have caterpillars and beetles and snails skittering around in my garden, because that means that a) I have a healthy garden and b) the kittehs will have something to glare at and c) it will attract birds.
Bee-balm is the magic word Ursula used but bee-balm is also called bergamot and this is a native to North-America. Which is fine if you're on the other side of the pond, but might not be to handy around here. It's probably a common problem most people ignore when they're at gardening centers, but it's important to me that what I have in my garden is native, non-invasive, well-behaving and good for bees.
Lucky for me, my Google-fu prevailed, and googling for "inheemse tuinplanten nederland bijen" (because if I'd have translated it to English, it would probably have less results) handed me a database of native plants, that can be sorted by name (Dutch, Frisian, scientific), region, flowering months, lifetime, flowering colour and biosphere. Sadly, it doesn't have a bee-ootiful tast-o-meter to tell me exactly how it tastes to bees, but I have connections in the family that can help there.
As for helping them have a habitable place to live, Nesthulp.nl has some lovely images, movies and tips (also which plants will help).
As for butterflies, a buddleja will be sufficient, but I think the huge hydrangea that's already there will not go amiss either.
Now, why am I so bouncy about this garden all of a sudden?
EDIT: Now, if I cross-reference the native plants database with the plants that attract bees as well as the common kitchen herb list and a list of plants I can dye with, I'll be getting somewhere real quick.
