How to improve cross-pollination
It’s easy to enhance and improve cross-pollination for your target species. These different tips will help you cross-pollinate plants.
Pollinators
Pollinators are crucial to our existence: barely any of the fruits and food we eat would exist without them! In our gardens, they’re a big help, too.
Impact of insecticides on garden butterflies and bumblebees
Large scale impact of pesticides on butterflies and bumblebees in private gardens in France.
11 plant-me-now melliferous shrubs for pollinators
As appealing to us as they are to pollinators, melliferous plant species are where pollinator insects reign as kings. These beautiful flowers are gorged with pollen and nectar offered up for pollinators to feed on, a trade-off that 80% of all flower-bearing species sign up for in order to reproduce.
Cute and generous, the common honeybee
These days, the domesticated honeybee often makes the news for sad reasons: populations are dwindling and environmental consequences are dire. Indeed, an individual honeybee is able to pollinate over 700 flowers an hour. This extraordinary performance makes it a precious ally in the vegetable patch and orchard.
Cross-pollination, when genes mix to breed new plants
Cross-pollination is when pollen from one plant variety fertilizes flowers of another variety,
Predator wasp, a voracious feeder… of pests!
As soon as the word wasp is mentioned, we all shudder at the thought of that insect that somehow always finds ways to turn a nice family picnic into a frenzied gaggle of panicked people! But did you know there were a great many wasp varieties? One of which is particularly interesting: the predator wasp.
Beneficial insects that lend us gardeners a hand
These feed on pests, help plants reproduce, and give the soil better structure. Beneficial insects really give us a real hand in the garden!
Permaculture main principles and definition
Ready for your first steps in permaculture? Whether your garden be big or small, laid out already or still in the planning stages,
How to avoid cross pollination
While it’s difficult to keep microscopic pollen from flying around, there are a few things that will reduce cross-pollination. Quick read: what is cross-pollination? Promote cross-pollination instead of blocking it All our posts to understand cross-pollination Increase distance to other varieties Pollen may travel far, but in many cases having several hundred yards or meters […]
Hoverfly: looks like a wasp, flies like a hummingbird, works like a bee!
The hoverfly: even if the name doesn’t ring a bell, you’ve probably seen them before and wondered what kind of insect this was. In spring and summer, one often sees them flying around, hovering at a standstill around melliferous flowers and trees.
Green lacewing, the genesis of aphid lions
Green lacewing also goes by more dramatic and telling names: golden-eyed fairy, aphid lion, aphid wolf… and each name reveals how much of a beneficial insect this is to a gardener trying to control pests. Larvae from this insect family seem to have a single goal in life: to devour aphids.
An eco-friendly hive in the garden
Why not set up a couple hives? Some hive designs recreate the natural nooks bees make their homes in. They will provide you with a little organic honey and will increase pollination for your fruits and vegetables.
Mason bee, a solitary worker bee that burrows in the ground
Mason bee, Osmia, solitary bee… all these names designate the same pollinating insect. And don’t be fooled by its tiny scale! It is indeed able to pollinate as many flowers as its more famous cousin, the common honeybee.
Bumblebee, bumbling along and heavyweight pollinator
A voluminous body, a louder-than-usual buzz, and colorful fuzz all around – the bumblebee is easy to identify! A particularly active beneficial insect in the garden, it is a diligent pollinator that runs in the same class as the common honeybee: the heavyweight class!
