Category: Uncategorized

There is still much work to be done to help our dwindling monarch butterfly populations. Just in the US, 150 million acers have been lost to Roundup ready crops. We are probably looking at the same acerage here in Canada. It is obvious that huge amounts of milkweed need to be planted back to the environment.

But we must always look to planting diversity. Did you realize that Ontario was home to 7 different types of milkweed? These diverse plants covered many terrains and made milkweed widespread to the breeding monarchs. Now the horticultural industry only supplies 3 types of milkweed.

We are determined, at B Sweet Honey Nature Company, to offer all the milkweeds native to Ontario. Our first new addition to our milkweed trio is the whorled milkweed. In September, we hope to have a massive milkweed sale and offer whatever has germinated and is ready for planting.

Be sure to check our inventories for the milkweeds. And happy planting.

We launched our ancient tree program several years ago. This program realizes the need to save the genetics of these old trees. The longevity gene, in itself, is a mystery. Why are some individuals long lived and healthy and others not? A mystery. Whatever the explanations, we need to bring these genes forward to the present day plant populations in order to help them be more resilient.

Though we launched this program long ago, it takes time to find these trees, find their history and grow up their progeny. Factor in the fact that many trees are periodical in seed production and you are looking at many years before we could actually offer saplings for sale.

Last year was very sporadic for seed production but we managed to get some good quality, though not abundant, seeds from many of our ancient trees. We now have many 1 year old seedlings from the following:

The Niagara Treaty white oak

The Toronto Carrying Trail white oak

The Niagara Necklace Black Oaks

The Jordan White Oak

The Point Abino Red Oaks

Dundas Driving Park Oaks

We have most of the histories of these trees on the website. Happy reading.

This time of year we yearn to be gardening and feel the soil around our hands and the sun on our faces. But remember that the leaf litter carries this years pollinators and butterflies. By removing leaf litter, and disposing of it, you are disposing of this years pollinators. Be patient, my rule of thumb is, ‘ When the dandelions start to bloom, we can start tidying up our gardens.’

Usually by the time the dandelions start to bloom, the weeds try to take over. Here is an organic spray recipe for unwanted garden plants.

WEED BE GONE Natural Weed Spray Recipe

1 Cup of Vinegar
1/2 Cup of Epsom Salt
1 Tbsp of Dawn Dish Soap (Blue Original)

Happy gardening

This was the perfect fit for us. We are a pesticide free honey producer and support the bees and pollinators by growing needed plants through our organic nursery. It is an integrated business where the nursery provides the much needed native, organic plants for the needs of the bees and the bees provide the pollination services for the nursery to continue.

When we discovered about Bee City, it sounded like a wonderful opportunity. We are so glad to be part of the Bee City family.

We’ve adjusted the nursery opening season date. It seems that spring is being a wee bit tardy! We will be performing our winter damage assessment on all our nursery stock the 2nd week of April and then we will fling open the doors by April 15th.

Be sure to contact us ahead of time as to when you would like to visit the nursery. Spring is always a rush between spring cleaning bee hives and emptying out the greenhouse.

Looking forward to seeing you soon.

FARMING FOR POLLINATORS

So we have been reading endless articles on sustainable agriculture, agricultural cover crops, wildflower meadows, bee biology and leading bee trends. We realized that the backbone of any pollinator friendly program is to become organic. No spraying!

The first article in our series is that of becoming organic and why this is so important. We all need to work together to save our precious pollinators.

Last year, we moved our native plant nursery forward by introducing our mixed provenances and assisted migration program. Now it is time to let it settle with the public and the plant industry.

This year, we want to move our honey based farm forward. We will be taking some conventional agricultural methods and using them in an unconventional way – to farm for pollinators. As we restore the land from marginal status growing invasives to pollinator friendly, we will blog and post articles on the science behind it all.

These articles will provide information that can be used no matter what the scale, from agricultural sized tracts to the backyard. We are hoping that by blogging of our experiences and lessons learned we might encourage all people to try a similar journey.

Really looking forward to spring!

Why do people want pawpaw? The answer is simple, uniqueness. In every aspect, pawpaws are unique and are like a crown jewel in anyone’s garden collection. Even the name, Asimina triloba, sets the plant aside. Asimina translates to ‘ food of the gods ‘ and refers to the strange mango looking fruit produced. Triloba refers to the strange three lobed flower.

This tree was a hugely popular tree for the native inhabitants of North America and when the Spanish started to explore the Mississippi valley, back in 1541, the Conquistadors named the fruit ‘ pawpaw ‘ after the Spanish word papaya. This tree, native to North America, produces the largest edible fruit. It was the major source of fruit for the native American since the present day apple was brought from Britain in 1625. Hard to believe the cultivated apple tree is not native.

In the wild, these trees grow in thickets in the forest understory and along woodland edges. They prefer fertile soil that is well drained. The amount of sunlight will determine the shape of the tree where dense growth is typical of sunny conditions and a more open growth is indicative of shady conditions. They have moderate growth rates and will attain heights of 15 – 20 feet and widths of 15 – 20 feet.

Unfortunately, people stopped seeking out pawpaw in the forest when apple tree cultivation became popular. At the same time, massive deforestation for land colonization happened which vastly decreased populations and left only scattered remnants of pawpaw. Finally, this tree is coming back to popularity. There is renewed interest since there is potential for organic insecticides from its ground up bark and leaves. Also, extracts from pawpaw can overcome the ability of some cancer cells to reject chemotherapy.

You would assume, with this renewed public interest in this tree that propagation and growth of pawpaw would be embraced by the horticultural industry. – Nope.  To see the full story please follow the link.

But no matter what the difficulties, be sure to plant these trees. Once established, they are self sufficient. They are generally pest free, drought resistant and will multiply by suckering to create a lovely thicket. Even though pawpaws look exotic and have beautiful flowers, I planted them for the butterflies. The pawpaw is the only larval plant for the zebra swallowtail butterfly. Since there are few pawpaw we now have few zebra swallowtail butterflies.

Whatever your reasons, be sure to plant the lovely and unique pawpaw.

We have been very busy scoping out the Lake Erie shoreline looking for southern seed sources.  With the launching of our assisted tree migration program we needed southern seed sources to bring northward so that we might be able to offer mixed  provenances.

We have been blessed this year to see many new places in Ontario as we go exploring.  What a great job.  I really can’t consider this work when we get to travel to so many beautiful and fascinating places and meet great people.

I think the only red oaks that produced any meaningful amounts of acorns was at Crystal beach.   Wow – these oaks were already present when the lake shore cabins were built around 1904.  What an incredible view as these red oaks arch over the roadway and extend to Lake Erie.  So glad work took us there!

We have done a great deal of research to try and get the principles of assisted migration correct. Luckily, we were able to contact some of the authors of the research papers we used. Generally, they all agreed we had the right data. Some were glad to see their research being implemented and some were much more cautious.

We wanted input from the MNRF about our program. In a nut shell, the MNRF is focusing on updating the seed zones and in the future they may be able to deal more directly with assisted migration.

For us, Phase 1, has been to get articles and information available and getting a conversation going. We need to have all industry and government talking. And we need to keep talking. This is not an easily resolved issue nor is it a static program. As climate changes we must reevaluate our targets and watch how our transplanted forests respond.

We will be starting Phase II, this spring, where we will vastly expand our seed collection sites. We need to start growing more southerly originated stock in order to start blending provenances.

We have also created genetic maps for our clients to keep track of seed sources used. In every planting we want to create the broadest genetic base possible. Irregardless of assisted migration, the key to any resilient forest or small planting is genetic diversity.

We will gladly dialogue with all interested parties and government and update our program accordingly.

This is just the beginning…we are going to have so much fun!