I will often link to products and other web pages to help add interest and information to an article. However this does not mean I endorse any of the products mentioned or the information provided. Web pages are not static or subject to any official regulation. Do research alternatives and use your own discretion always.
This blog has been slowly withering over the last few months, my posts infrequent and lacking oomph. I have neglected Zone 3b and some of other blogs in about the same proportion as I have been trying to develop in other areas. This is my last post, but I’ll let the blog remain until stray visits dry up. If you care about bugs, please visit The Bug Whisperer, where garden bugs will still be displayed and where your can find links to other blogs and other online entomology resources.
Gardening is important for our lives and for the lives of the many species that share our envoronment. Gardening is a part of life, not a fad or a bit of bling to impress friends and the neighbors. For urban dwellers, it is one of the few things that can connect us to nature on a regular basis. For that reason we will keep gardening, and I hope you will too.
Cheers everyone. Keep gardening and remember the little guys that share our lives.
Adrian Thysse
P.S. – Contact me at naturalgardens@telus.net if you have any questions, or find me on Google +.
One of the better plants for attracting pollinators and nectaring insects is the Blazingstar or Gayfeather, Liatris spicata. Even grasshoppers seem to like ‘em.
A native alternative for Alberta gardens would be the Dotted Blazingstar, Liatris punctata.
This clematis is doing extremely well this season, chock-full of large violet-blue hand-sized blooms. Besides the peonies, and some of the (overblown) German irises, the large-flowered clematis varieties are some of the few flowering plants that survive Zone 3b and still manage to provide a tropical atmosphere to the garden. H. F. Young requires a sunny location but it can tolerate morning shade. It grows to about 3m in height.
A general blanket spraying of a persistent insecticide like Doktor Doom will kill bees and every other insect it comes in contact with, whether or not it is sprayed on the flowers.
