Accent on Natural Landscaping

Donna VanBuecken

It’s Pollinator Week!

This week, June 22-28, 2020, is when we celebrate pollinators. This is the week we celebrate the special species in our lives – the bees, birds, butterflies, bats and beetles. It is a special time to pause, celebrate pollinators and focus on what we can do to help pollinators thrive in this world of global climate change and global warming.

Reprinted from my blog, here is Gardening for Pollinators.

Ecosystems

It all starts with ecosystems. The Earth is made up of naturally occurring geographical areas with similar climate, geology and soils. Typically, within each of these ecoregions, there are a number of ecological regions referred to as ecosystems made up of plants, animals, birds, butterflies, insects, organisms and the physical environment or habitat in which they live. Typically, all these elements in the ecosystem develop a mutually dependent relationship that becomes a Circle of Life.

Ecosystem
Ordway Prairie, Pope County, Minnesota. Photo by Peter Dziuk, Minnesota Wildflowers.

 

Pollination and the Circle of Life

Pollination is a very important element in the Circle of Life. Why? Because the Circle of Life starts with plants, and most plants depend upon pollination to reproduce.

  • Plants absorb sunlight energy through photosynthesis – solar power.
  • They use that energy to produce more plant material from water, carbon dioxide in the air, and nutrients from the soil.
  • In the process, they give off oxygen – thank goodness.
  • Herbivores (primary consumers) eat the plants and use the nutrients to produce more herbivores.
  • Predators (secondary consumers ) eat the herbivores and use the nutrients to produce more carnivores.
  • When death comes, a vast suite of soil organisms (bacteria and fungi) decompose the material, returning the nutrients to the soil.
  • This makes the nutrients available for plants to take up again, completing the Circle of Life.

Pollination is a reproductive process. Flowers offer food (nectar) to pollinators in exchange for reproduction. It occurs when pollen is transferred from the anther (male part of flower) to the stigma (female part of flower). And, it’s very important, because without pollination, we would not have vegetables and fruits to eat, and plants could not reproduce from season to season.

What Role Do Pollinators Play?

Although some pollen is dispersed by the wind, birds, butterflies, bees and other insects and animals are the main transporters of pollen between flowers, hence the term pollinators. They carry the pollen, which is a fine powdery dust found in the male part of the plant (anther) and contains the plant’s sperm, to the female part of the plant (stigma). Some pollinators have special structures by which they carry the pollen – like the native bees. Others, such as butterflies, bats and other insects carry the pollen from one flower to another when it affixes itself to their bodies, legs and wings.

Gardening for Pollinators

Flowers and pollinators co-evolved, developing features that make the exchange of pollen and nectar successful. To support native pollinators, we need to grow the native plants with which they evolved. Because they evolved together, native plants have the “right” features. Here are some examples.

Native habitat is disappearing rapidly as fencerows are being destroyed for crop farming, and land is being developed for residential, commercial and manufacturing use.* It is important to support pollinators by growing native plants to provide nectar and pollen throughout the seasons, and to make sure host plants are included that provide food and shelter for larval development. It is also important to provide access to clean water and to create variable heights for shelter and nesting. Most importantly, use insecticides sparingly, if at all.

Last, tolerate a little mess – leave dead snags and leaf litter, keep some areas bare for ground-nesting insects, and tolerate non-noxious, non-invasive weeds that provide food and shelter for pollinators.

*According to Doug Tallamy in the film Hometown Habitat, only 5 percent of our land remains as native habitat. 42 percent is being used for crop framing, and 53 percent for development.

See also A Naturally Landscaped Yard and A Living Landscape Mimics Nature. Although focusing on birds, these yard designs are appropriate for pollinators as well.

For more on the Gardening for Pollinators, see Part 2, Pollination continued.

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Why Do Bees Dance?

In their search for food, honeybees and bumblebees fly far and wide searching for the best flowers (loaded with nectar) – and when a bee finds what she’s looking for, she returns to the hive to share her find with the other bees by performing a complicated “dance.”

WAGGLE DANCE

Why do the bees dance? In the 1940s, Austrian biologist, Karl Von Frisch, devised an experiment to find out. When the bee arrives back at the hive, she draws the attention of the other bees, and begins moving her body, especially vibrating her abdomen, in a specific set of movements. This “dance” resembles a figure eight as she moves back and forth, over and over. The duration of her dance indicates how far away the flowers are, and she indicates the direction to the flowers by the angle of her dance related to the sun. (The Waggle Dance of the Honeybee)

STOP SIGNAL

Honeybees also can warn their nest mates about dangers they have encountered. If a bee is doing the waggle dance, another bee who had previously encountered danger (such as a wasp or spider) at the location being “described” by the waggling bee, will often approach the dancing bee and butt her head against the dancer to cause a momentary “freeze” – which is seen as a warning by the other bees. Learn more about this discovery by James Nieh, a professor of the University of California-San Diego at The Bee Dance.

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Two of My Favorite Train Vacations

People were sweeping sand from the sidewalks, just as we do with snow.

Saint Joseph, Michigan

My friend Karen Syverson introduced me to this lovely place when we were returning from a meeting of the Wild Ones board in Midland, Michigan, hosted by the Flint River Chapter in 2008.

Saint Joseph is on the east side of Lake Michigan, and we were there in May, before the tourist season began. We toured the lake side and saw residents sweeping off the sand from the sidewalks, just as we do with snow. The hotels were full, so we had to sleep outside the city. We ate at a great little pizza restaurant right on the beach. There was a carousel, which was closed, and a train along the lakeshore.

In the summer of September 2018, my friend, Kristin Kauth, and I went to the Wild Ones Gibson Woods Chapter Annual Conference in Indiana where I was a speaker. I suggested a ride around the east side of the lake and that we take the ferry across the lake. I knew she was in agreement to go to Saint Joseph.

Mount Baldy, the living dune that wanders every year, dwarfed Kristin Kauth with its 126 feet of height.

We stopped along the way to look at things and took a long walk by the lake shore. The Indiana Dunes State Park is a primitive place, just beautiful, with its historic landscape. This is where Henry Cowles, known as the “Father of Ecology,” noted that the dunes hold the opportunity to explore an exciting and ever-changing landscape.

The Tuskegee Airmen Memorial is at the Maher Beach House, designed by George W. Maher, who was one of the leaders of the “Prairie School” of architecture. This is one of the first buildings made of concrete blocks, which developed a unique “T” block construction. The Prairie School architects not only changed the way things looked, but radically changed the way things were built.

Surrounded by the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, there is a wonderful lake view, marvelous dunes and the historic Maher Beach House. All are wonderful to behold.

Then we were at Saint Joseph. We got to the city right about dark, so we checked into the hotel where we booked a suite – just perfect for me to check out the train while Kristin slept. It was three floors from the lobby and facing the beach. The train came alongside the hotel and parallel to the streets below – and the carousel was right beside it and directly across from Silver Beach Park. It was heaven.

We left again to explore the city. There was a walking plaza, with the streets closed to traffic. It was too late in the summer, so everything was closed, but we toured the Tiscornia Park, with the decommissioned Saint Joseph North Pier Lighthouse and the Coast Guard Station at Saint Joseph, which was established in 1876.

We returned to the hotel and freshened up for dinner. The dining room was so elegant. We had Old Fashioned rye whiskies (or two – they were so good!), and for dinner, Kristin had walleye and I had catfish. The Tiramisu was so, so decadent! After we returned to the room, I stayed up all night listening to the trains.

Leaving behind the North Breakwater Lighthouse. The tilt can still be seen as we leave Ludington, Michigan, behind.

The perfect way to go home was the ferry. The S.S. Badger, the Lake Michigan Car Ferry, is a holdout from the vanished era of steam-powered passenger ships. In the boat’s intended role, it no longer carries loaded railroad freight cars, but it does carry tourists, their cars, trucks, and buses across the lake. The S.S. Badger ferry is so extra special.

Fort Madison, Iowa

Another item on my bucket list was the time I spent at The Kinsley Inn at Fort Madison, Iowa, on the Mississippi River, in October 2019. We had a room on the second floor of The Kinsley Inn, facing the Mississippi below, with a train coming alongside the hotel and parallel to the streets below.

We were heading out of the parking lot of The Kingsley Inn and right before my eyes were two trains passing in opposite directions. Notice the Mississippi River across the way.

In addition to viewing the barges and trains, I watched the two-story swing-bridge, with the upper tier for cars and trucks, and the lower tier for the railroad. The kicker is, I read all through the night and watched the trains for five days as they were traveling back and forth, up and down the Mississippi. It was a very special time!

Note the barge crossing the swing-bridge at Fort Madison, Iowa – with its two tiers – the lower tier for trains, with the car lanes up above.

 

This is a very long barge train going through the open swing-bridge at Fort Madison, Iowa. The four-engine train led by diesel engine No. 6656 crosses the lower tier of the swing-bridge before Fort Madison, Iowa, with the upper tier being for cars.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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“S” Is for Soil!

A friend helping me with the blog has written a review of “S” Is for Soil!. In the book and the companion teacher’s guide, Digging into Soil: A Garden Practicum, we are to encouraged to see a perception of soil as a limitless resource. It is the most important natural resource on Earth. I read the book, and it was a good place to look – the soil beneath our feet.

By Kristin Kauth

I recently read and highly recommend the new book, “S” Is for Soil!, by ecologist Steven I. Apfelbaum, founder of Applied Ecological Services, Inc. The book explores the importance of soil to all life on Earth.

Only 38 pages long, the book is written for the layperson and includes an easy-to-read narrative on a complex subject. The whimsical graphics by Rob Dunlavey kept me smiling with the turn of every page, and I found the book both educational and delightful.

“S” Is for Soil! is divided into two sections:

  • The Basics – What Is Soil? (Don’t Call It Dirt) and
  • Expanded Understanding – Digging a Little Deeper (Whole System Thinking).

I can’t do better than the press release, so here are some excerpts:

As this simple primer begins, “…It has been said that we know more about the moon than the soil under our feet.” Today, with growing concern for dwindling resources, there is a new sense of urgency to better understand and care for soil (what many of us misguidedly call “dirt”) and our very real connection to it. In fact, “our lives may depend on it.”

Written for high school and older students, and lay, business, and professional audiences, “S” Is for Soil! and its cast of soil characters guides readers with clarity and humor through the essential and often complex understandings of soil, employing a conversational narrative. The book reveals the remarkable story of the abundance of life – from billions of microscopic organisms to burrowing animals – that occupies the thin layer of soil on the planet, and that represents 95 percent of all terrestrial life on Earth.

It explains the role healthy soil can play in addressing the challenging problem of climate change.

  • Touching upon the historic role grasslands have
    The sketch was courtesy of Rob Dunlavey.

    played in storing large quantities of carbon deep in the ground – think of bison moving quickly over landscapes until it recovered.

  • Other soil-building practices like adding organic fertilizers, and innovative ranching and farming practices that are now being employed to “regenerate” or build-back soil health.
  • Building back to wetlands and the crucial role soil plays in the water cycle, and its importance in keeping our water supply clean.
  • By the putting all those “unemployed” soil microbes and deep-rooted grasses back to work, we help rebuild the lost carbon stores of the past and maintain healthy soil.

“S” Is for Soil! was produced in partnership with the Lower Sugar River Watershed Association (LSRWA). The book can be purchased individually or in larger discounted quantities online at LSRWA or by contacting at 608-897-8641.

A companion teacher’s guide titled Digging into Soil: A Garden Practicum has been created by KidsGardening in cooperation with the authors and LSRWA. It is available to download.

A good friend, Kristen Kauth is a member of the Wild Ones Fox Valley Area Chapter and Coordinator of the Toward Harmony With Nature Conference.

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