Gardening For the Birds and the Bees with Flowering Trees

Gardeners garden for many reasons.  Perhaps the most common reason is to get back to that part of us that belongs with nature.  We want to see the world around us come through our garden and provide for its positive growth.  How we do that can vary in thousands of ways but almost every method provides some sort of food source for nature and its creatures.  Recently I planted a few plants that will one day provide nutrition and shelter for some of nature's creatures. (The materials and plants in this post were provided as a part of Lowe's Creative Ideas!)

When providing for nature's growth natives are a great place to start.  When you think of spring flowering native trees and my state (Tennessee) one of the first trees you should think of is the dogwood.  Dogwoods show their blooms (which are really bracts) every spring to the delight of every gardener.  I selected two varieties of dogwoods to plant which will eventually fill in to replace the Bradford pear tree I removed. Dogwoods are much better choices than callery pears which are very invasive trees.  Dogwoods attract pollinators in the spring to their flowers and produce drupes (berries) that the birds will love in the fall.  I selected and planted a pink dogwood and a white dogwood named 'Cherokee Princess'.  'Cherokee Princess' has extremely large and showy bracts/blooms.  Both of these are the native Cornus florida dogwoods.

Dogwood 'Cherokee Princess'

I also planted lavender.  This herb/shrub is a great plant for the bees.  When in bloom the bees flock to it and when not in bloom the fragrance of the foliage is fantastic.  The variety I planted is 'Blue Scent' (Lavendula augustifolia).  Lowe's had these for about $13 for large pots of this variety, but I used a little trick to expand my garden.  The lavender plants were actually planted with three in each pot.  This is done sometimes to make the plant bushier for better sales.  It works but many people don't realize that you can easily separate these plants and get more for your money.  I brought home two of these and separated them into 6 total plants which I think planted into a row behind a little sitting wall in the garden.  It should make for a great place to sit and enjoy the lavender fragrance this summer!  Be sure not to plant lavender in a place with too much moisture as they really need soil that drains well.

To help provide for another of nature's creatures I brought home two hummingbird feeders.  Our old one leaked and needed replaced.  Hummingbirds love a variety of flowers with tubular shapes like penstemon, honeysuckle, salvia, and others and need lots of energy to sustain their movement.  Hummingbird feeders help to support the hummingbirds when there aren't enough flowers blooming and bring the little birds closer for the gardener to enjoy.  I generally prefer planting flowers for them but right now their favorites are not flowering in our garden so in order to see them the hummingbird feeders are one way to go.

What do you do to support nature in your garden? 

Build a Mini-Hoop House to Get an Early Start on the Garden

This winter has been cold and nothing if not unpredictable. Here in Tennessee we're experiencing a warm day every now and then followed by extreme cold. Hopefully now that March has arrived and spring is close things will be shaping up very soon. With that in mind I put together a project that will help me to get a jump start on my vegetable planting this season: a mini-hoop house. I grow most of my vegetables from seed and a hoop house is an ideal way to thwart the cold and get those spring and summer vegetables started early.  Lowe's provided my materials for this project as part of their Creative Ideas program.

A hoop-house is essentially a greenhouse. Typically a hoop house will cover a garden area to heat it up enough to extend the season.  Once warm temperatures arrive they can be taken down or covered with another material like shade cloth to grow cool season crops longer.  While a large hoop house is probably restrictive in many subdivisions due to HOA rules a small one that covers a single bed and is portable is an excellent way to get an early start on the vegetable garden!

To build this mini-hoop house I gathered some cedar fence boards (which I like to use for a variety of projects), PVC molding, 1 1/4" deck screws, Velcro tape, and 6 mil plastic.  You could make a couple of these for under $100.

The PVC molding strips were something I've wanted to try working with for a while.  I spotted them at Lowe's one day and though these would make excellent ribs for a greenhouse so I decided I would adapt them to a smaller scale.  I still may go back and gather up some 12' long pieces and put together a greenhouse later.

35"

5'

To put together the mini-hoop house I build a base frame out of the cedar planks.  Each base is made from 2 5 foot lengths and 2 35" lengths.  The fence panels are dogeared so You have to subtract about 2 inches from each plank to compensate which leaves you with two 35" pieces from each board (3 boards will make each base). I pre-drilled the holes in each side then screwed the corners together with the 1 1/4" screws.

Then I started the screws in each hole.  I've found that it's easier to stick a screw part way into each hole while it is on a table then bring the pieces together to attach them rather than screwing them while holding all the parts together simultaneously.

Next I carefully bent each 8' piece of PVC molding to fit on the inside of the base frame.  I screwed them in place from the outside.  The outer ribs (PVC) were screwed in from both sides this way the rib was attached to the small end to help relieve some of the tension it would exert on the long sides.  The middle rib was only attached to the side board.  If this were a longer mini-hoop house I would need thicker wood for the base or I would need more reinforcement between the long side pieces.

Next I used the Velcro tape to create a removable covering.  Get the strongest tape you can for this as it will be subjected to the environment.

The Velco tape  makes it easy to open up the mini-hoop house when access is needed to work in the vegetable garden.

What is nice about this hoop house is that I can start my seeds underneath it, get the plants hardened off, then move it to another location to start more. It's light enough that one person can move it around but heavy enough the normal weather conditions won't knock it over. A couple brackets on the side with some rebar stakes would probably make it even more secure.  

I hope you like this project idea.  If you have any questions feel free to post in the comments and I'll do my best to answer them!

Check here for a look back at some of my other projects for Lowe's!