Organic Green Spot Gardening

Bees have been few and far between in my Kitchen Garden this year.  I did plant some Borage, a herb known to attract butterflies with its pretty blue flowers in our Church Garden plot this year.

Borage, a natural butterfly herb

The ecological and financial importance of natural pollination by insects to agricultural crops, improving their quality and quantity, becomes more and more appreciated and has given rise to new financial opportunities. The vicinity of a forest or wild grasslands with native pollinators near agricultural crops, such as apples, almonds or coffee can improve their yield by about 20%. The benefits of native pollinators may result in forest owners demanding payment for their contribution in the improved crop results – a simple example of the economic value of ecological services.
The American Institute of Biological Sciences reports that native insect pollination saves the United States agricultural economy nearly an estimated $3.1 billion annually through natural crop production;[4] pollination produces some $40 billion worth of products annually in the United States alone.[2]
Pollination of food crops has become an environmental issue, due to two trends. The trend to monoculture means that greater concentrations of pollinators are needed at bloom time than ever before, yet the area is forage poor or even deadly to bees for the rest of the season. The other trend is the decline of pollinator populations, due to pesticide misuse and overuse, new diseases and parasites of bees, clearcut logging, decline of beekeeping, suburban development, removal of hedges and other habitat from farms, and public paranoia about bees. Widespread aerial spraying for mosquitoes due to West Nile fears is causing an acceleration of the loss of pollinators.
The US solution to the pollinator shortage, so far, has been for commercial beekeepers to become pollination contractors and to migrate. Just as the combine harvesters follow the wheat harvest from Texas to Manitoba, beekeepers follow the bloom from south to north, to provide pollination for many different crops.
Pollinators — Lawrence, KS by Dave Loewenstein.   Follow the link to view a wall mural showing pollinators in action painted by Dave Loewenstein in Lawrence, Kansas.



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This year I tried a new approach to growing our kitchen garden which is located next to our urban house.  Space has been limited and our share of sunlight is cut down to three hours a day because of the large office building which shades the garden in the morning and the house itself which shades the garden in the afternoon.

Six hay bales were brought into the space which receives most of the sun.  They were saturated with water and organic plant food for three weeks and then they were covered with a layer of organic topsoil.

Plants were selected to occupy the garden space.  Tomato plants, pepper plants, cucumber plants, and a number of herbs now occupy the space.  I did not count on the volunteer bean plants that had occupied the original soil last year but they have also sprung up.

Composting of the bales has been fast and next year I will plant on the same spot taking advantage of the new rich soil being made by the hay bales.

My lush kitchen garden resembles more of tropical jungle as rainfall has been plentiful this year. Even the giant sunflowers that were planted between the bales will soon be in bloom providing seeds for neighborhood birds.

Please visit         http://www.organicgreenspot.com

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