Give Carpenter Bees a Break? Not Bloody Likely

I was working with a good friend and garden client, Ann, yesterday. We were digging out a big space in her backyard to make way for a new little pond she wants to put in. During our digging and chatting she said carpenter bees had moved into her trellis system. She's waiting for the painter to come and help her paint, which will help keep them from feasting on the wood. But in the meantime, she said she feels odd about killing the loud bees. They do pollinate, and she is very worried about killing any pollinators. What do you think, she asked me.

This is the kind of question I love, partly because I think it is great people are pausing now and not just automatically reaching for insect killing sprays at the first sign of any insect. We are slowly learning to respect and understand the species around us, even those that might sting.

I don't know much about carpenter bees. My dad says he used to catch them when he was a kid and tie dental floss to their legs and fly them like a kite. This is odd, but also evidence that these bees rarely sting. In fact, I think the males are physically unable to sting. (This is also a bit of insight into how the mind of a future biologist works: he learned which bees stung at a young age in order to impress the other kids in his class, apparently.)

Still, all that said I would opt to kill them if they moved into my outdoor woodwork. They will eat at quite a voracious rate. Searching around on google you find stories of people who had to replace entire decks which were tunneled to smithereens by these bees. I don't think the pollination services which they can provide do not outweigh the damage they can do.

When I see these bees at the park or playground, I love listening to my kids tell other kids: don't worry, they don't want to hurt you. They just want to eat the jungle gym. I just hope no one has any dental floss on hand at those moments.

What's Blooming: Sweet Betsy, also known as Carolina Allspice

We've been getting tons of rain, and before each big storm, the humidity has been just awful.

There is one reward in the swampy weather: the smell from these bushes is really fantastic.

Some people call this plant Carolina Allspice. My dad and, ironically, all of my Carolina cousins, call it Sweet Betsy. Either way I think that the Latin name, Calycanthus floridus, sounds particularly nice when said by someone with a southern accent.

The smell given off by these flowers is really unusual, kind of a cross between blueberries, bubble gum and cantelope. The blooms actually look like tiny pieces of sculpture, carved out of wood. The odor is powerful; sometimes my neighbors want to know what it is and come from next door to find out. But it is not overpowering. Some days, if the humidity is low, I can't smell it at all. It seems to come in waves, but not permeate the air.

I've been told by pollination researchers that the red color combined with the strong odor probably attract flies to pollinate this one. This inspired me to plant it next to the trash cans and the recycling bins in our yard. Other than flies, the wildlife seems to ignore it in my yard, but I've seen warblers nest in big ones growing down south, especially in more rural areas.

Even without the wildlife value, this is a great urban plant for warm weather areas of the south like DC. Sends out suckers, which you can dig and give to friends or trim and mow to keep the bush's size in check. In my yard it gets about five to six feet, although I've seen it reach seven or eight feet in more southerly places where the soil was full of red clay. Will make a hedgerow if allowed to do grow unchecked. The thick lush leaves, which disappear in the winter, shade out all the weeds below, so this is a good one for the non-gardener as well.

See some more fantastic close up photos here.

Urban Bees Find a Champion

Another good article in the Post today focused on the efforts of Toni Burnham, who wants urban bee keepers to come out of the closet, or off the rooftops as the case may be.

Check out her blog. Its is way cool. I am totally in awe.

http://www.citybees.blogspot.com/

Bag the Bags, the Struggle Continues

Alert: the battle against the bags continues in Washington, with things looking very good indeed for those who wish to Ban the Bags.

A couple of months ago I blogged about this... now it may become a reality.

Check out the Wash Post story from today's Metro section for more details.

For those of you without a subscription or online access to the paper the details are as follows.

The DC Council voted unanimously.... can I write that again.... UNANIMOUSLY... to place a five cent tax on paper and plastic bags. The goal is to discourage their use and encourage the use of canvas or cloth reusable bags, while at the same time reduce a huge trash problem in our city. And, even better, a significant chunk of the money raised by this new tax will go towards helping the floundering Anacostia River here in the capitol.

According to the Anacostia Watershed Society, "plastic bags make up 50% of the approximately 17,000* tons of plastic products entering the river system each year."

A similar bill was introduced in MD earlier this year. I am not sure what happened to the MD bill, but if I find out I'll post details.

Yellow Crowned Night Heron Babies

Just got back from one of the best bike rides of my life. Not that the cycling itself was that great (those hills still kill me) but the nature lovers were out in full force and I felt as if I had stepped onto the set of some David Attenborough documentary and any moment he'd jump out from behind a bush and say, "Let's take a look."

The most exciting view of the day was brought to my attention by CS, a woman who has been photographing a very active nest of Yellow Crowned Night Herons alongside the creek all month. The babies have hatched and are growing into robust little birds. You can actually stand at the creek side, very close to one of its more travelled spots near the road, and watch the babies being fed by mom and dad. She told me one of the coolest things was that these little big birds were already flexing their crowns, even though they were only about three weeks old. I could have easily stood there all day watching with CS, but had to fly back to get some work done.

Very cool. I urged CS to post her photos to the Friends of Sligo Creek website. If she does I'll make a link. I snapped her photo.... my crappy little camera doesn't do the nest justice but at least you can get the idea of how close this nest was to the trail. Amazingly, five babies seem to be in there.

Also, came upon a nice dad and son who had discovered the wonderful barn swallows out under the Beltway bridge near Forest Glen. I have a story about those same birds coming out in a couple of days in the Voice; when that's published I'll make the link to that one, too.

In the meantime, enjoy the day. Hope you get out there to see the sights, too.

Rare Whales' Song Heard Outside NY

Okay, okay, I try hard to write about our own little watershed here outside DC in this blog.

But great googly moogly I get tired of bad environmental news and reading about all of our ecosystem's troubles is a bit depressing. So when this happy story ran across my screen this morning I just had to share the link to this release from the Cornell bioacoustics research team.

Check out the quotes of the researcher, Chris Clark who comments on the wonder of these whales singing less than 10 miles off Broadway... enjoy a smile and watch the video, too.

What's Blooming: Virginia Sweetspire and Clematis

This week the air in the garden smells really sweet. The Virginia sweetspire (Itea virginica) is in full bloom. The thing is a magnet for butterflies and native bees.

This is a great plant for urban gardeners in the mid Atlantic region where I live. Especially if, like me, the bottom of your garden is the bottom of a hill or slope. The water runs down during big storms, keeping this shrub very happy indeed.

Over the weekend we had painted lady butterflies visit it for some nectar, which was wonderful.

The clematis, in the background, is not native but also a great choice for urban gardeners. Here I use it to soften a hard fence line. Also, it grows well under or next to the sweetspire... it likes a hot head but cool feet. The shrub keeps it cool below, and fence allows it to grab the sunlight it needs up top. I have the classic Jackmanii clematis, which is really easy to maintain and has plentiful blooms.