Pollinator Paradise - May 2018 Edition

By now, those who read the blog of the Genuine Faux Farm are familiar with our intent to provide better habitat for our pollinators and, by extension, places for those who will eat the pests that bother our crops.  And, if you are not familiar with this, you can check out this link that takes you to all of the posts that have the "pollinator paradise" label on our blog. After all, you had nothing else to do today except read a wonderful blog written by a silly vegetable farmer.

Eastern Borderlands Slowly Taking Shape
We put in most of our Eastern border bush planting in May of 2015, though we started the project in November/December of 2012.  Part of the motivation is to provide some vertical profile to our buffer zone between our production fields and our neighbor's corn/soybean field.  While we are aware that bushes won't prevent all chemical drift, nor will they catch every wayward item form our farm that might blow around in a 50 mile per hour wind, they will help.

This, of course, does bring up an issue that I think Iowa (and other agricultural states) needs to address: the need to begin encouraging buffer zones on all properties, certified organic or not.  But, that's a post for another day.

Ninebark is finally getting some size on it.

 The other reasons for the border plantings is to protect our pollinators and to provide additional habitat.  If you are curious about what we are hoping will happen, check out the picture at the right.  This is our much more mature Ninebark (with Nanking Cherry on the other side) that runs through the middle of our property.  They are just now budding out and turning green.  It's a little later than usual, but it will soon be a beautiful hedge.

This bush line provides us with a wind-break and habitat for birds... and rabbits.  Ok, the rabbits aren't such a wonderful addition, but we deal with that as part of the whole.  We have seen Eastern Goldfinch, Cardinals, Indigo Buntings and numerous other birds in this bush line.  We are also able to hide our irrigation supply line under this bush line so it won't accidentally get mowed over or otherwise damaged by farm activities.  It's now about eight feet tall and we suspect that's about all it will do for height.

If you look closely, you will also see another thing we like to do for our pollinators.  See that yellow in the path, especially towards the top of the picture?  Yes!  The dandelions are beginning their bloom!

Frankly, dandelions are an incredibly easy weed to deal with in our vegetable plots, so they do not worry us at all.  In fact, their root zone is so different than most of our veggies that we will often leave them in the plot as long as they aren't too numerous.  They grab micro-nutrients from deep in the soil and bring them to the upper soil regions.  And, the native bees love them.  That's enough reason for us to like them.

Unplanned, But Not Unwelcome
We did plant wild plum on our northern bush line back in 2005 and we have had to deal with additional wild plums showing up throughout the farm.  Sometimes, they land where we really don't want them, so we cut them out.  But, if they are in border or fenceline areas, we aren't seeing any good reason to remove them.

If you look towards the old barn you will see white flowering trees that would be our wild plum volunteers. 

Or, I can just take you a bit closer to see some of them.

 We also have mulberries here and there on the farm.  The berries provide some decent food for some of the wild-life.  Sadly, they also attract raccoons.  Once again, if the raccoons would just eat berries, we could get along with them.  It is their tendency to get into buildings and eat chickens OR get into buildings and destroy things inside those buildings that bothers us.  But, it isn't fair to blame the mulberries.

If you look from the Nanking bush line towards the northeast, you can see Valhalla (our newer high tunnel) and the northern bush line just beyond it.  That bush line was also established in 2005 when we put in the Nanking bushline in the center of our property.  The north line has wild plum and Highbush Cranberry.  If you look closely, you can see the white that indicates the wild plums are blooming.  The Highbush Cranberries will bloom a bit later.

 

We are also pleased that some of these bush lines produce fruits for some of the wildlife we would like to encourage on our farm.  The late Winter and early Spring birds get both shelter and a bit of food from our efforts.  We'll take that.

Encouraging Pollinators = Food for Humans Too

The way we see it, if we make our place as much of a pollinator paradise as we can, our friends will be there to pollinate things like our melons, squash or APPLE TREES when they flower.  This year is looking pretty good for us because the apples have been slow to bloom.  As a result, the pollinators can start getting moving with our wild plums and dandelions and they should be fully active by the time the apples are in full bloom.

Two apples are just starting to open their flowers.

I wish I could report that we see amazing amounts of pollinator activity on our farm.  Of course, we do see activity.  But, it is not what I remember seeing at prior points in my life at other locations.  I suspect part of the issue is that we are surrounded by land that has been corn and soybeans for years.  The other part has to do with our industrial ag practices that are rapidly depleting our pollinators in the state of Iowa.

Until we can convince more people in our state that it is important to allow our pollinators to do the great things that they do, we will try to provide a small haven for them as best as we are able.  Perhaps you should think a bit about what you can do as well?