“Plastic hive is the bee's knees - Manila Bulleting Online” plus 4 more

Plastic hive is the bee's knees - Manila Bulleting Online
Recycling: It's what's at stake in your garden - Tracy Press
Volunteers transform Galesville tennis courts into garden - La Crosse Tribune
Community garden grows food, knowledge - Winona Daily News
Local Stop | St. George, Staten Island - New York Times

Plastic hive is the bee's knees - Manila Bulleting Online

Posted: 06 Aug 2009 12:17 AM PDT

LONDON, August 5, 2009 (AFP) - A new plastic beehive was launched in Britain on Wednesday to encourage people to keep bees in their gardens or on rooftops to help boost declining honeybee populations.

The bees seemed to like their ultra-modern home as they buzzed happily in and out of the postbox-like slot in the grey and yellow 'beehaus' on the roof of state-backed conservation agency Natural England's London offices.

The agency's chief scientist Tom Tew said if more urban residents kept honeybees, it would increase the insects' numbers and make them more resilient to attacks from disease and pests which threaten their survival.

"We need to recognise that if we want plants to flourish, we need healthy populations of insects to sustain them," Tew said.

"There's no reason why our towns and cities should exist as wildlife deserts -- wildlife can thrive when we design our urban areas with nature in mind and the 'beehaus' is a great example of how easy it is for anyone to bring the natural world closer to their doorstep."

Its makers Omlet claim that at one metre wide and 0.5 metres high (three feet wide and one foot eight inches high), the 'beehaus' is twice as big as a traditional beehive, giving plenty of room for the colony to grow in comfort.

The hive will produce an average of 50 pots of honey in the summer, in return for just an hour's attention a week from the owner.

The number of honeybees in Britain has dropped by up to 15 percent in the past two years, according to government figures, as they face a growing range of diseases and wild flowers they feed on are wiped out by urban development.

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Recycling: It's what's at stake in your garden - Tracy Press

Posted: 06 Aug 2009 04:38 PM PDT

Recycling ordinary items in your garden that you might otherwise throw out saves material from landfills and saves money too.

There are lots of materials that can be reused in the garden. Recently, we cleared a closet of some worn out mops, but rather than trash them, I cut off the handles for garden stakes. I do the same with worn out brooms.

Since I have a large garden, I use a lot of stakes so I also saw stakes out of old boards that have no other practical use. I also have 30-year-old seedling flats made from lumber scraps.

Milk cartons and quart plastic containers are useful for planting seeds in the greenhouse. Food trays with plastic domes make good little seed starters for those requiring humid environments.

Toilet rolls and halved towel rolls are useful for starting seeds. It is a container that will decompose when planted directly in the garden and also helps protect plants against cutworm damage. Also garden containers from 4-inch to 15-gallon pots used in the nursery trade can be reused to pot up plants for friends or yourself.

Plastic lids, soda containers, milk jugs and old aluminum flashing can be cut up for plant labels. When it comes to container gardening, I have used old boots, a Victorian bathtub, recycled cook pots and various metal containers. You just have to provide for drainage.

Plastic milk containers can be modified, by cutting out the bottoms, into cloches to protect young plants from frost, wind or bugs after being planted. I have used metallic Starbucks coffee bags, after adding the grounds to my compost pile, for cloches to cover peppers and tomatoes in frost season.

They can also be used for storing plant materials like bulbs, provided air holes are punched into the bags for air circulation.

I annually string up my pole beans on an ancient swing set which I converted to a trellis many years ago. Some of my tomato cages are from fence wire that used to surround sheep pasture while other wire for trellising and cages was gleaned from a scrap pile. Used baling twine and string can be recycled as garden tie material as can nylons and panty hose.

My garden tool shed was built from lumber salvaged from an old barn and it looks like it was always there with its old red barn patina. A greenhouse was built using old patio glass doors salvaged from my neighbor's remodeling project and it turned out fine once I figured out how to install the glass.

Wonder what to do with newspapers that accumulate? You can use them or cardboard to mulch the garden and control weeds or smother lawn as you convert a turf area to a veggie garden or flower bed. I also use newspapers to suppress winter weeds by planting my garlic and onions in the fall through holes punched through multiple layers. Old carpeting can be used to suppress weeds in walkways.

Used wood shingles, plastic lids, or mesh berry containers can be placed under melons to prevent rotting. Old pallets can be salvaged to make compost bins by wiring them together at the corners and this allows for easy disassemble and reassemble for turning compost. If you need to buy a compost bin, look for one made from recycled materials.

The ultimate in garden recycling is composting which is akin to reincarnation as kitchen scraps, weeds, lawn clippings and leaves get turned into a rich soil amendment that will help you produce a new crop of vegetables and flowers. It is recycling carbon from life to death and back again.

Another way to recycle and save energy and fertilizer is to grass cycle when mowing your lawn. Using a mulching mower you can leave your clippings to feed your lawn instead of bagging them for the landfill. It will make your lawn healthier, save energy, time and money.

Avid gardeners no doubt recycle in a variety of ways beyond those mentioned here, keeping landfills free of useful stuff.

Lee Miller is a San Joaquin Master Gardener. Master gardeners are available to answer questions about your home garden between 9:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday. They can be reached by phone at 953-6112, or by e-mail at mgsanjoaquin@ucdavis.edu.

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Volunteers transform Galesville tennis courts into garden - La Crosse Tribune

Posted: 06 Aug 2009 08:56 PM PDT

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Community garden grows food, knowledge - Winona Daily News

Posted: 06 Aug 2009 08:41 PM PDT

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