POLLINATOR-FRIENDLY
GARDENING

Did you know that one out of every three foods we eat rely on pollinators? Pollinators fertilize flowers, which then produce seeds, which you can find buried in that apple you eat or on the outside of the strawberry that you pick. In the non-edible world, pollinators help maintain a thriving ecosystem by continuing plant species and adding biodiversity.

As you garden, think about what you are doing in your garden to encourage bees, birds, and butterflies. And also to ensure that we aren't doing to anything detrimental to our flying and buzzing friends.

• Create a pollinator-friendly environment in your backyard. Plant flowers that encourage bees and birds, like asters, coneflowers, lavender, sunflowers, yarrow, etc. Have water dishes in a safe place for pollinators to get a drink.
• Check the labels of any insecticide, herbicide, or fungicide that you use. Be aware of spraying where the bees are and minimizing spray drift.
• Take care of the environment. Climate change not only affects humans.
• Come on in to pick up our list of pollinator friendly plants.

HERE COME THE MASON BEES
 

Now that we've hit 55 degrees (finally!), we can say it's mason bee season!

Consider setting up a mason bee house near your fruit trees or flowering plants. Mason bees are amazing pollinators. Their pollination rate is 120 times greather than that of a honey bee! They rarely sting (males don't have stingers) and are solitary (vs hive) creatures.

Mason bees emerge from their cocoons in early-mid March, when the temperatures reach around 50-55 degrees. These docile bees will immediately begin to pollinate our early flowers, fruit trees, and shrubs. (We have a table of blueberries near our mason bee houses for this purpose.)

Mason bees have a pretty short lifespan. Males die shortly after mating. Females live for about six weeks. It's at this time that they go to work, laying eggs and pollinating your plants.

How to start housing mason bees:

Basically, you need just a few things to start. A house, nesting materials, and some bees or bee cocoons.

• Bee houses should be mounted along a sturdy wall where they are protected from wind and rain, such as an overhanging eve. The house should be placed where it will receive some sun, and face either south or west. Mason bees travel 200-300 feet, so place the house reasonably close to what you want to pollinate.
• Mason bees will lay eggs in hole-drilled wood blocks, or paper tubes.
• Wild bees can find your new housing, but it helps to get things started by adding farm-raised bees to the new house. We sell tiny boxes of cocoons. Simply open the little box and tape it to the side of the bee house. A healthy colony can multiply 7x in one season!

At the end of the year:

• While you can leave the bees in their house through the winter; collecting and storing cocoons in the fall will help protect them from predators and parasites. Remove the cocoons from the nesting material and store in a mesh bag in your fridge until spring. Keep a wet sponge or cup of water near the cocoons so they don't dry out.
• Before next spring, clean the house, remove any old tubes, etc. as mason bees will only lay eggs in clean houses.

If you want to get started or would like a handout on mason bees, drop by!

APRIL IS FULL OF DAYS:
EARTH AND ARBOR

It might be confusing, but April is full of planting celebrations. Washington Arbor Day is Wednesday, April 8th. Earth Day is Wednesday, April 22nd. National Arbor Day is April 24th. Why so many days?

Well, for starters, the Arbor Day mission is get people to plant trees, which is a day that we can get behind! Earth Day is more broadly about encouraging people to get involved in environmental stewardship and educate them about the environmental movement. Yes, we support that too.

And why are there two Arbor Days? Well, states are able to choose a day that they think is best for planting trees. In Washington state it apparently is the second Wednesday in April. Okay, sure. And Arbor Day may be different in other states. Different countries celebrate their version of Arbor Day in different months.

So why should we do that? Many reasons. Trees provide beauty, shade, and privacy. They clean the air and cool down cities. They create a habitat for birds, animals, and other creatures.

So, how are we celebrating Earth Day and Arbor Day? Well, with activities and sales, of course!

On April 8th and April 24th (the two Arbor Days), all trees are 25% off. Yes, that's how much we want you to plant trees on that day!

What kind of trees should you plant?

Here are a few trees (of many) that we are fond of this year:

Japanese Maple 'First Flame' (Acer Palmatum) - First Flame (picture above) is named because the spring growth is fiery orange-red, then the leaves turn a coppery-green in the summer, and then back to orange in the fall.

Katsura (Cercidiphyllum japonica) - Katsura is great for areas of the garden that are naturally moist. We currently have the classic Japonica variety as well as the weeping Morioka and Pendula varieties. All have leaves that go from reddish in the spring to green in the summer and yellow in the fall.

Japanese Cedar 'Sekkan Sugi' (Cryptomeria japonica) - The Sekkan Sugi stays chartreuse to gold year round stays columnar even though it can grow to 20 plus feet tall.

Serviceberry 'Autumn Brilliance' (Amelanchier x grandiflora) - The Autumn Brilliance Serviceberry has small blue berries that provide food for songbirds, like Cedar Waxwings. They also bloom eraly in the spring and have orange fall color.

If you are interested in any of these trees, call us for availability. We also have many, many other choices. We can show you some if you come in!