DONATE

MAY

May falls in the middle of my three months of joy—April, May, June. With the pollen behind us, I can open my windows and welcome the sweet smell of spring.

My son, Aster, was born on May 1st. He is now 21. Geesh!

The end of May is the summer kick-off with Memorial Day, observed on the last Monday in May. Did you know Memorial Day was only made a Federal holiday in 1971? The holiday was formerly observed on May 30 from 1868 to 1970. Many people visit cemeteries and memorials on Memorial Day to honor and mourn those who died while serving in the U.S. Military. My Dad and Mom are buried in Arlington. My Dad for his 34 years of service to our Country, and my Mom for her adult lifetime support of my Dad while he served.

April managed to be spring-like. I’m anxious to see if May will continue.

My April is just too busy. I like being busy, but I’ve realized I’m missing my garden in Spring with a plant sale for the last two years. There is so much to do to get ready for one; my garden didn’t look its best. I would rather have an open garden to give joy to those who visit.

Next year, I plan to have an open garden on Mother’s Day. Kids need to have garden events for their Mom.





The Food Forest

The Food Forest Extension

The North Side

The Girl’s Garden

The Wildlife Pond

To read more of my writings, click HERE!

Have a Gardening Need? HIRE HELEN!

SUSTAINABLE GARDENING STEWARDSHIP: 

There are many definitions of sustainable gardening, and through my decades as a sustainable gardener, I’ve summed it up to mean…wait for it…a garden that sustains itself and the life within! By that, I mean, doing less, so much less, that it can take away the stress and much of the labor, bringing back the joy of gardening and bettering the environment.

Sustainable gardening is a concept of using gardening practices that cause no harm to the Earth and its inhabitants while working to enhance it. But there is more. To me, sustainable gardening is to have within all the aspects to sustain life. For example, having a butterfly garden it’s not enough to just have pretty nectar-rich flowers. For a butterfly garden to be fully sustainable, plants are required to sustain all aspects of the butterfly’s life cycle. That means providing host plants, specific plants that area butterflies need to lay their eggs. So yes, you will have holes in your leaves; that’s the goal!

Simply put, sustainable gardening is designing your garden to sustain itself and allows us to secure our future to make the Earth better than we found it. Think of it as organic gardening taken a step further.

Design becomes an important aspect for a garden to sustain itself, as well as providing the plants necessary to fully sustain wildlife in all respects of their lifecycle. You could just plant plants that are regionally native and provide exactly what nature does. No supplemental water, no cutbacks, no added mulch, and no pesticides or herbicide. Yet, many want more from their gardens, so we add plant diversity. What is key is the placement of these plants.

SOIL

FERTILIZING SUSTAINABLY

WATERING SUSTAINABLY

WATERWISE

WILDLIFE

CREATING A WILDLIFE HABITAT AT HOME

FOOD:

Our bird friends don’t need supplemental feed if you have a diverse garden. But we begin to heat up, keep up the feeder so you can watch your feathered friends from the inside of the home.

One of the best all-around seeds for birds is the black-oil sunflower. This seed has a high meat-to-shell ratio, it is high in fat, and it is sized perfectly for many seed eaters, including black-capped chickadees, cardinals, mourning doves, finches, juncos, jays, woodpeckers, and sparrows.

COVER:

Wildlife welcomes cover year-round.

WATER:

As the berries in our area ripen, the birds are having a feast. Keep your birdbaths filled with freshwater, changing out at least every four days to break the mosquito larvae cycle.

PLACES TO RAISE THEIR YOUNG:

Plant diversity is key!

BIRDCARE:

Do you deadhead? Click HERE to learn more.

Check out this really nice bird identification and preferred foods for each bird from The Cornell Lab! Click HERE!

Are you familiar with how we can bring the birds back? Click HERE for starters.

As long as you are enjoying seeing the birds from your window, continue to Feed The Birds!

I also fill wire suet cages with native grasses.

HUMMINGBIRD UPDATE:

The male Ruby-throated hummingbird has shown up in my garden. Females will follow in about a month. To learn how to attract hummingbirds to your garden, click HERE.

INVASIVE PLANTS:

Invasive Plants:

By definition, did you know there is a different meaning between invasive plants vs. aggressive plants? A simple definition, invasive plants are introduced species not native to our area and show a tendency to spread out of control. Aggressive plants are those native to our area, and some can easily take over. We in. The Bee Better Teaching Garden, keep an eye on both!

Clover

We don’t all think of clover as a weed. I certainly don’t! Do you think white clover is a weed? Think again. if you are one of the ones who want it gone in your turf, click HERE.

Poke Weed

You may know pokeweed as American pokeweed, poke sallet, or dragonberries. All parts of the plant are poisonous, except when the foliage is about the height of a spread hand. Then it can be boiled with two water changes and eaten like cooked spinach.

The berries are highly desired by birds in the fall, and this helps the spread of pokeweed as they drop the seeds—everywhere! After consuming the berry, the seeds are spread by birds and frequently are found around the driplines of trees, shrubs, and along fencerows, and a massive amount around the plant.

If left too big, they can be hard to remove since they have a deep taproot. Try to note and remove seedlings early for an easier pull.

Pokeweed shoots can be composted in cold piles if berries are not present. Roots should not be added to cold piles, either. We cold compost in the Bee Better Naturally Teaching Garden. Cold composting is essentially letting a pile build and decompose. It requires less effort, yet the decomposition takes substantially longer—a year or more. We have a designated area behind some shrubs where we pile our biomass to slowly break down.

I thought you might be interested in learning how the dreaded Bradford pear had its beginning.

Annual bluegrass, Poa annua

Lesser Celandine or Fig Buttercup, Ficaria verna

Chickweed, Stellaria media

Creeping Charlie, Glechoma hederacea

Greenbriar, Smilax rotundifolia

Henbit: Lamium amplexicaule

Hairy Bittercress, Cardamine hirsura

Marsh Pennywort, Hydrocotyle sibthorpioides

GOOD BUGS:

Fun Facts About Fireflies!

An Introduction to Green Lacewings

Lady Beatles

Mysteries of the Dragonfly and Damselfly

#LeaveTheLeaves

Carolina Praying Mantis

BUTTERFLY UPDATE:

I’ve seen a few, but this oh-so-nice spring, they are slow to arrive full force.

We offer Caterpillar Support to those who are in need of butterfly caterpillars rescued.  If you have butterfly caterpillars and are running out of host plants, or if you don’t want your plant defoliated, just email me at helenyoest at gmail.com. We can arrange for you to drop them off, and I will raise and release them.

Host Butterfly Plants

Bronze fennel is the host butterfly plant for the Eastern black swallowtail butterfly. The caterpillars feed on the fennel until time for the metamorphosis.

In our area, we don’t tend to see Eastern black swallowtails until a little later in the summer. But they will come. It’s not too late to plant their host plants. While they like fennel best, the caterpillars will also feed on curly parsley, dill, and carrot tops. To purchase the full list of host plants for butterflies within our Raleigh and Ecosystem 231, click HERE.

MONARCH UPDATE:

It is possible to see monarchs in the Raleigh area in the late spring/ early summer, and in fact, a friend of mine in the area has seen them, but we are more likely to see a bunch of them in the fall as they migrate south again. Have you planted your milkweed?

BAD BUGS:

Mosquitoes are out, these are buggers one never gets used to. Controlling mosquitoes with traps has been most helpful. To learn more, click HERE!

Tent Caterpillars

Leaf Miner Flies

Mosquito Control—Is there Such a Thing?

Naturally Controlling Japanese Beetles

Bagworms

Do yourself a favor and never look into the “eye” of a bagworm. Bagworms have got to be the most disgusting-looking pests ever — to me anyway.

Bagworms can be treated by removing them by hand and dropping them into a bucket of soapy water. If the bagworm infestation isn’t within easy reach, they can be sprayed with Bacillus thuringiensis or Bt for short.

Bt is a microbial insecticide that’s commonly used to control various caterpillars such as the red-headed azalea caterpillar along with many other caterpillars, as well as those nasty bagworms. But remember, it will kill our moth and butterfly larvae, as well!

Black Widowed Spider, Latrodectus mactanse

Cicada Killer, Sphecius specious

Japanese Beetle, Popillia japonica

Be sure to check them FIRST to see if they have any tanchid fly eggs on their shoulders. If they do, let them go and the flies will hatch out and consume them from the inside — and produce more flies to dispatch more Japanese beetles. If you see those opaque white dots — one or two or three or more — let them go.”

Brown Recluse Spider Loxosceles reclusa

CHECK OUT Bee Better Naturally’s HOW-TOS!

CHECK OUT our SHOP/WORKSHOPS!

SPECIFICALLY…

CAMELLIAS

LAWNS

ROSES

TREES: Check out the latest advice from Leaf & Limb!

Why Dead Wood is Good Wood!

The Art of Espalier

SHRUBS:

The best time to prune flowering shrubs is right after they bloom.

ANNUALS:

I don’t tend to plant annuals, but I’m big on direct sowing. Zinnia’s are my go-to seeds. There are tall ones, shorter ones, and even ground cover types. Some look like show mums others like pinwheels, and those that like daisies you will want to pluck to see of you if your love, loves you.

PERENNIALS:

Coneflowers

Rohdea japonica is sending up new shoots. Now is a good time to cut back old leaves. Same with cast-iron plant, Aspidistra elatior. Cut back dead leaves to welcome fresh foliage.

BULBS:

Divide irises: Did you have success with your new iris planted this year or in the fall? If not, it could be due to several factors: too much shade, too much fertilizer, too deep a planting, or crowding. Now is a good time to correct any of these problems by lifting and relocating or repositioning to a more favorable location.

Plant the iris high with the rhizomes along the surface of the dirt. They can be covered finely and lightly with mulch, but not soil. Make sure you can either see the rhizomes or have the ability to brush away the mulch exposing the root. With the exception of the Louisiana variety, irises need six- to eight- hours of sunlight to bloom and require good drainage. If you have a damp, partial sun location in your garden, plant a Louisiana iris.

Camellias

Caladiums

VINES: 

Virginia creeper, Parthenocissus quinquefolia. I find most people absolutely hate Virginia Creeper for the aggressiveness. I happen to find it extremely beneficial for birds in the fall. Did you know Virginia Creeper is a native?

Unfortunately, too many gardeners confuse it with poison ivy, Toxicodendron radicans, which is also a native and feeds birds. I get it. I’m highly allergic to poison ivy and have eradicated it from my property. I remember when I did so, I wasn’t allergic before but became so during its removal. The good/bad news was I did it all in one day, so I was affected even before the symptoms showed up! Otherwise, I may have stopped short of getting rid of it all, and being fearful my entire life in the garden! I had a rash from head to toe!!! It was then, in 1997, that I started wearing long sleeves and pants whenever gardening.

Crossvine, Bignonia capreolata; Lady Banks rose, Rosa banksiae; Carolina jessamine, Gelsemium sempervirens.

POND:

In April, I cleared the post of most of the decaying leaves. We can now see the koi.

EDIBLE FOODS and FOOD FOREST:

Bee Better Teaching Garden grows at least 30 different fruits. Learn about our Food Forest HERE!

HERBS:

How-To Harvest and Dry Herbs

What’s looking good now in the Bee Better Teaching Garden:

Parsley, Petroselinum crispum-

Rue, Ruta graveolens

Thyme, Thymus vulgaris

Oregano, Origanum vulgare

Rosemary, Salvia rosmarinus, formally Rosmarinus Officinalis.

In the Food Forest, the rosemary has spider mites.

Without looking at this plant with a hand lens, it’s impossible to be sure, but this type of mottled leaves is typical of the damage done by either a sucking insect or spider mites. The leaves ended up stippled and paled with such infestations because the insect or mite pierce the leaf repeatedly as they feed, which kills the cells in the leaf. Initially, the leaves look stippled, but over time the entire leaf can die.

Leafhoppers, lacewings, and whitefly are three insects that suck plant juices and cause similar damage. If you look closely, or with a hand lens, and see webs, it’s likely spider mites are the cause. 

Since most people want to eat their herbs, you, of course, don’t want to use systemic or other chemical insecticides. Also, mites aren’t killed by some insecticides. You could use one of the insecticide/miticides made from neem or cinnamon, however. Another good practice in such situations is to spray the plant with a hard stream of water once a week.

PERENNIALS:

Coneflowers

Salvias

Foxgloves

Phlox

CHICKENS:

SNAKES: Wondering what snake is in your backyard? Click HERE for an easy id.

Glossary

Until soon,

Helen

#WeCanAllBeeBetter!

Until soon,

Helen

#WeCanAllBeeBetter!