What does my garden grow?

[libby]

Sounds like a great idea. My sister in Bluefield, VA grows vegetables here and there among her flowers, and tomatoes in a pot. I just hope I can get enough sun in my back yard. My house backs up to trees, and my crape myrtle is at least 12 feet high. I also have some figs that my son brought to me from Mt. Vernon, where he worked. They need some attention -- last year they didn't do well at all.

[libby]

Read something disturbing in today's Washington Post: another pollinator is on the endangered species list:

10 January 1017
The Washington Post
Energy and Environment

This bumble bee was everywhere. Now it's on the endangered species list.
By Darryl Fears January 10 at 4:22 PM

A rusty patched bumble bee is pictured in Madison, Wis. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed the bee as endangered Tuesday. Photo courtesy of Rich Hatfield/Handout via REUTERS

For the first time in American history, a bumble bee species has been placed on the endangered species list. It probably won't be the last.

The rusty patched bumble bee was so prevalent 20 years ago that pedestrians in Midwest cities fought to shoo them away. Now, even trained scientists and experienced bee watchers find it difficult to lay eyes on them. "I've never seen one, and I live here pretty close to where there have been populations documented," said Tamara Smith, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist stationed in Minneapolis.

Fearing that the striped black and yellow pollinator with a long black tail could be lost forever, Fish and Wildlife designated the animal as endangered Tuesday. The designation triggers protections such as regulations against knowingly destroying the bumble bee's habitat and habitat creation. It also raises awareness about the plight of the bumble bee and requires a detailed, long term recovery plan to restore its population.

Why was the rusty patched bee selected for the list and not others? The answer, Smith said, is its former abundance and astonishing plummet. Around 1995, "researchers were out looking for it in places where it was everywhere, and assumed it would be there," she said. "All the people interested in bees started talking to each other, and they said we haven't seen this bee for a while." Soon the rusty patched bee was nowhere to be found in places such as Madison, Wis., and Minneapolis, cities that were once buzzing with them.

The list of suspected causes for the disappearance, according to the agency, reads like an environmental most wanted list: farm pesticides, household herbicides, human development over bee habitat, disease and climate change.

Although rusty patched bumble bees are the first to be considered endangered, and the first bee species on the U.S. mainland to get the designations (the yellow faced bee in Hawaii became the first overall in October last year), they are likely to be joined by others. "This bee is kind of like the canary in the coal mine," Smith said, an indicator that many pollinator species — bees and butterflies — are in deep trouble.
www.washingtonpost.com

I plant things that attract bees and butterflies in my front and back yards, and so far, as of last summer, they're still visiting me. The bumblebees never bother me; they just dodge me as I come and go.

[Locutus]

Growing a garden this year Libby?  It's about that time. 

[libby]

Growing a garden this year Libby?  It's about that time. 

Yes, I'll grow something new in at least one spot in the back yard, probably garlic because what  the grocery store nearest me sells is  grown in Russia.  Last Sunday I spent a lot of time carefully raking leaves from my little front yard. Was delighted to find underneath, already budding, my rose bush, a lavender plant, beautiful blue ground  cover and an unknown plant I brought from  my mother's front yard after she passed away a long time ago. I think of her every time I find it again.   

[Locutus]

Yes, I'll grow something new in at least one spot in the back yard, probably garlic because what  the grocery store nearest me sells is  grown in Russia.  Last Sunday I spent a lot of time carefully raking leaves from my little front yard. Was delighted to find underneath, already budding, my rose bush, a lavender plant, beautiful blue ground  cover and an unknown plant I brought from  my mother's front yard after she passed away a long time ago. I think of her every time I find it again.   

Ah!  A bit of garden serendipity. 

[The Troll]

Yes, I'll grow something new in at least one spot in the back yard, probably garlic because what  the grocery store nearest me sells is  grown in Russia.  Last Sunday I spent a lot of time carefully raking leaves from my little front yard. Was delighted to find underneath, already budding, my rose bush, a lavender plant, beautiful blue ground  cover and an unknown plant I brought from  my mother's front yard after she passed away a long time ago. I think of her every time I find it again.

  Libby, did you know that it take 2 years to grow a bulb of garlic.  One year isn't long enough.   

[libby]

  Libby, did you know that it take 2 years to grow a bulb of garlic.  One year isn't long enough.   

No, I didn't know that. Guess I'd better get started. There is a Farmer's Market about 15 minutes away that I've been meaning to check out, so will check them out this weekend. ... and thanks, Troll for the information. 

[libby]

Ah!  A bit of garden serendipity.

Ah,yes. That could wake up a whole new window of thought, but I would not know where to begin except to say  your comment made me think of something: as far as I can remember, I have never dreamed about relatives who've passed on, but fairly recently I have been waking up wondering "where's momma? She must be upstairs."