Bee Box builders in action...

Bees Need Your Help!

  Armed with hammer, nails, hooks and hollow tubes, 22 people cobbled together bee boxes they hope will become home to native bees. The production line took up every flat surface in the Environment Hamilton offices.

  “We can’t keep up with the demand,” says Jen Baker with the Hamilton Naturalists’ Club. The club, along with Environment Hamilton, and the Hamilton Community Foundation is offering the bee box building workshops, as part of the Pollinators Paradise Project (hamiltonpollinatorparadise.org). Every time they offer a class, it sells out.

    Mary Johnston is cutting the hollow tubes where bees will lay their eggs, and pushing them into the small bee box. Though she has a good population of bees on her property, she liked the idea of doing more. “I’m interested in doing anything I can to attract bees and butterflies to my garden.”  Most of the people at the workshop had noticed a sad decline in all types of bees in their gardens. Loss of habitat is an obvious reason for reduced bee populations, and bee keepers are convinced, the use of chemical herbicides and pesticides particularly systemic ones have contributed to bee deaths.

  The bee boxes are designed to attract our native solitary bees. Solitary bees lead a solitary life, do not make honey, and don’t swarm or tend to sting. What they do that’s so vital is pollinate flowering plants. If you like to eat, then fostering a healthy bee population is essential. We all know the bumble bees and the honey bee, but the native solitary bees often do their work unseen and unnoticed. A third of Ontario native bees, including carpenter bees, mason bees, and leaf-cutter bees nest in wood, including hollow stems.

  Ron Roscoe is just about finished with his bee box. The former Hamilton Fincup says he has always had an interest in the outdoors, “I’d like to see more bees than wasps in my garden.”

  The bee boxes do best when placed in an east facing location, the morning sun helps warm the bees up for flight. The hollow stems from plants such as teasel, reeds, grasses, and Queen Anne’s lace should be packed tight.  If the bees do lay eggs they will block the end of the tube-a sign of success. Then it’s important the garden is home to a diverse selection of flowering plants to feed the bees.

  As the bee box builders were told by Stefan Weber, “Native bees need native plants.”  Weber of St. Williams Nursery and Ecology Centre (stwilliamsnursery.com) suggested a variety of plants from serviceberry trees, to fall witch hazel, hepatica, lupins and evening primrose, to provide, food, cover and nesting material for native bees. St. Williams will be part of an Earth Day Native Plant Sale April 18^th at the Royal Botanical Gardens Parking lot on Plains Road Burlington. It’s just one of several more events planned by the Pollinators Paradise Project.

  It’s also important I would add, to not be a fanatic about cleaning up the garden. Leave some areas where the hollow stems of plants sit undisturbed, and even bare patches where the bees that nest in the ground can do their work.

  Jim and Angie Small of Binbrook came in for the bee box workshop, motivated by what’s happening on their land according to Angie.

  “Our plants used to just be humming with bees, now if we see one we say ‘Oh my God, there’s a bee.’”

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

Annual vines require little commitment

Annual vines require little commitment

Kathy Renwald tests drives the $120,000 Range Rover in her winter road trip to New York City to see Robert Glasper and the Museum of Modern Art

Kathy Renwald tests drives the $120,000 Range Rover in her winter road trip to New York City to see Robert Glasper and the Museum of Modern Art

I blog for Inside Toronto on cars, travel and my new subject gadgets. Just posted today: Asus MeMO Pad 7

http://bit.ly/1I0khKy

A video tour of an orchid greenhouse. 6,000 orchids in a Hamilton backyard

Orchids aren't that hard to grow

My story in the Spectator

RENWALD: If the shoe fits

RENWALD: If the shoe fits

Here's a quick snapshot of wonderful things to see in the San Antonio, and Hill Country area of Texas. I have a story in the Hamilton Spectator and a road trip story coming up in the Toronto Star Wheels section.

Kitchen garden sculpture at the J.W. Marriott in Hill Country Texas http://bit.ly/1J8iXqMKitchen

  

Carol Hicks Bolton's fabulous store in Fredericksburg Texas. Mysterious, sensuous, raw style decor

Raw linen bedding from Belgium

Taxidermy for your home

Thousands of square feet of curated decor

From the working farm at the LBJ Ranch in Johnson City

The Hangar Diner at the Fredericksburg airport, there's a retro hotel there too

Take a tour boat along River Walk to see San Antonio from the water

Happy to be there for the Tamale Festival. With 35,000 other people

A quiet moment at the Alamo

The National Park Service tours of the missions in San Antonio are moving and inspiring

There was a wedding in Mission San Jose while we were there

Like plants, dyeing, fabric and embroidery? Watch for my story in Spectator Go Thursday.

Next assignment, writing about green things that can be pressed into service for holiday decor.

Tiny Terrific Front Yards

New look for a tiny front yard

  

   
   The plants are on sale, the ground is still warm, and landscapers  aren’t as busy, that’s why the fall is a good time to start a new garden.
  Kelly Seagram just put the wrap on her new, front yard garden in downtown Hamilton. She bought a Victorian era house tw

years ago, has been diligently renovating the interior and finally had enough of the weedy, treeless front yard.  With a busy life, and what she calls “novice” gardening skills she wanted an easy-to-maintain landscape. But not just any, off-the-shelf design would do.

  “I wanted a garden that looked intentional, but not too fussy or formal. I like the elegance of green gardens and requested an understated palette of dark purples to lime greens, with no showy blooms,” she says.

  That request was answered by Janine Bleecker, owner of Rooted landscape design inc. (rootedlandscapedesign.com) of Oakville. It’s Bleecker’s first year in business, and Seagram’s 20 by 15 foot front yard was an excellent first project. Bleecker switched careers from making nautical charts for Canadian Hydrographic Service at Canada Centre for Inland Waters in Burlington (she has a B.A. in geography from McMaster University) to garden design after getting her certificate from Ryerson University’s Chang School of Landscape Design.

  The unglamorous work came first, striping the weedy lawn from the front yard and replacing about four inches of rubble filled earth with proper top soil. Seagram had taken advantage of the City of Hamilton’s free street tree program, and a gingko was delivered to the site as planting started.

 

  Seagram’s list of must haves included evergreens for winter interest. Bleecker started with a planting of three Hick’s yews at the foundation of the house to soften the architecture and frame the bay window. A grouping of Degroot’s Spire Cedars add a sense of separation from the house next door, and because of their tight, pyramidal shape, will not overpower the garden. With a solid backing of evergreens, a planting of three oakleaf hydrangeas will stand out in all seasons. They are already showing their beautiful fall colour, and Seagram loves their exfoliating winter bark. “I chose plants that require very little upkeep, some will need trimming once a year, but that’s it,” says Bleecker.

   Surprisingly one group of plants that will not be trimmed are the boxwoods, they’ll be left to grow into the natural shapes that Seagram likes. More fall colour will come from the burning bush planted near the house, and berberis and coral bells Purple Palace will add all season shades of burgundy and purple.  As the garden nears the sidewalk,  low growing creeping junipers should stand up to the rigours of their location. For a change in texture and shape, Bleecker chose hostas in shades of lime that will be able to adapt to the sun from the southerly exposure. The hostas will contrast nicely with the spiky blue fescue grass that lines the walkway to the front door. A large specimen Hinoki cypress is on a diagonal from the hydrangeas, and balances out the intense planting on that side of the garden.

  As the garden fills in, Seagram will look for spaces for some special features. “In the future I'd like to add hardscaping to the design, rocks that are native to the landscape of other places I've lived -- limestone from the south end of Georgian Bay and granite from the Canadian Shield.”

  Bleecker’s experience designing the garden was a wonderful one, working with a client with a strong vision of what she wanted and in a location that was a delightful surprise. “It was so fun to work here on Barton Street, people always stopped to talk, and people in cars driving by would yell out their windows about how great it looked. I told my husband I want to move here.”