Mountain Times- Volume 49, Number 18 - April 29 - May 5, 2020

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theSilverLining 16 • The Mountain Times • April 29 - May 5, 2020 This week’s infusion of hope and positivity. A monarch butterfly feeds on the nectar of a purple coneflower. Spending time with ‘friends’ in the garden By Bonnie Kirn Donahue Spending time planning your vegetable garden and thinking about what food you will produce is an excellent way to find some stability in these unsettling times. While growing our own food is an asset, as well as a source of comfort and enjoyment, I’d like to propose that we also consider providing food and habitat to other creatures that rely on our gardens – the birds, bees, butterflies and the seemingly endless variety of insects that visit us each year. Why think about these small living things in our gardens? There are many scientific reasons to reassess these relationships and consider many of these visitors as friends. By being strategic with the plants we select, we can attract beneficial insects to the garden that will actively protect our plants from the more mischievous ones. Planting annuals such as sweet alyssum (Lobularia maritime) and yellow marigold (Tagetes patula ‘Little HeroYellow’) makes a garden more appealing to the beneficial insects that prey on common garden pests. Native perennials will provide habitat for bees and butterflies that have the incredible responsibility of pollinating the flowers and crops that provide us with visual and physical nourishment. Try planting one of my favorites, the purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea). This long-lasting bloomer can be started from seed or purchased from most greenhouses. Its serrated, dark green, ovate leaves offer a lovely, lush texture to the early summer garden. When the pink petals and bright orange flower heads emerge in mid-summer, butterflies and insects are drawn like magnets to this attractive native plant, taking turns perching on each pointy orange cone head and sucking its nectar. Leaving the seed heads up in the winter will bring winter birds to your garden as well. Easy-to-grow native shrubs provide year-round interest to people, birds and insects alike. Red-twig dogwood (Cornus sericea) has incredible red-hued stems that By Bonnie Kirn Donahue Submitted A monarch caterpillar chews on butterfly weed, a native species of milkweed. look fantastic in the late winter when planted in groups or individually. Though not overly ornamental, birds and insects are attracted to the shrub’s flowers and fruit. Winterberry (Ilex verticillata) produces amazing bright-red berries that birds love (though toxic to humans). The inconspicuous flowers are attractive to honey bees. Both shrubs grow well in full sun to part shade and can tolerate a range of soil types. Native plants have a long co-evolutionary history with pollinators, so select true native plants, and ideally not the cultivars, when landscaping to ensure that you are providing the most benefit. It’s also important to work toward constant and overlapping flowering of native plants to accommodate the most diversity of pollinators. Check with your local greenhouse or nursery for recommendations for your area and growing conditions. By inviting more beneficial birds and insects into our gardens to protect and pollinate them, we will be rewarded with endless hours of entertainment in the form of buzzing, swooping, chirping and hopping. As the earth warms, these natural visitors are friends that we can safely welcome into our lives. For more information, visit the University of Vermont Extension Master Gardener gardening resources web page at go.uvm.edu/gardenresources and click on “Pollinators.” Bonnie Kirn Donahue is a UVM extension master gardener and landscape designer from central Vermont.
The Mountain Times • April 29 - May 5, 2020 THE SILVER LINING • 17 Billings Farm & Museum celebrates Pollinator Week online May 4–8 — WOODSTOCK—Spring is here and our friends, the pollinators, are too! Join Billings Farm at Home online as they celebrate Pollinator Week, May 4 – 8, 2020. Learn about native pollinators and the vital role they play in our food supply. Where would we “bee” without our pollinators? On Wednesday, May 6, at 1 p.m., get your pollinator questions answered by museum educators as they host their Facebook Live series, “Ask Billings Farm Live.” What do you want to know about pollinators? What can you do to support bees, bats, butterflies and birds? Visit Billings Farm at Home all week for videos, kid-friendly activities, recipes and pollinator information. Did you know bees need water too? Learn how to make a simple bee bath for your garden. What did it take for Billings Farm to be certified as a “bee-friendly” farm? Find out! Make a “fairy garden” and a yarn-wrapped bee craft. Love bees, but don’t have kids? Even if you do, enjoy Courtesy of Billings Farm & Museum our Pollinator Happy Hour with daily recipes using pollinator-generated ingredients for cocktails, mocktails as well as herbal teas to make and enjoy at home. Make Billings Farm at Home your online resource for bringing the farm, history, and events home. Find fun crafts and delicious farm recipes to make, and activities to download and do at home. Meet the animals and learn about life on the dairy farm through their online videos. Connect with them at: billingsfarm.org/ billings-farm-at-home, Facebook: facebook.com/BillingsFarmMuseum, and Instagram: @BillingsFarmMuseum. The Billings Farm & Museum is owned and operated by The Woodstock Foundation Inc., a charitable non-profit institution. Billings Farm & Museum is committed to providing educational opportunities and experiences to our visitors, whether here in Woodstock, Vermont or at home wherever you are through our online resources at Billings Farm at Home. Courtesy of the Vt. Urban and Community Forestry Program Rutland Blooms plants trees Members of Rutland Blooms recently planted trees along the city’s roadways as part of a beautification project. The Vermont Urban and Community Forestry Program has recognized the Rutland group as a 2020 Vermont Tree Steward Award winner with the Volunteer Group Award. Courtesy VINS VINS Night Sky video series explores the constellations QUECHEE—Join VINS Science Educator Michelle Amato on a night sky adventure. Available on the VINS Youtube and Facebook pages, this latest video will teach you about a few constellations you can find in the night sky during this time of year and how to find them. She’ll go over some tools you can use and learn how to create your own constellation, including the story behind it! Download the Create Your Own Constellation activity page here at vinsweb.org/video-investigation-stargazing. For questions and comments, contact education@ vinsweb.org. Lattes of Love raises $2,600 for BROC RUTLAND—On Friday, April 24, the crew at Speakeasy Cafe in Rutland was whipping up lattes for a cause, namely the BROC community food shelf. In addition to crafting coffee, the baristas took to Instagram Live to inform and entertain all morning. All told, they raised over $2,600 in two hours! The money will benefit local families in need by providing food security in these trying times. If you missed the event but would still like to donate, you may do so at broc.org. Courtesy of Speakeasy Cafe Vermont Curators Group goes virtual with Vermont Art Online Staying at home doesn’t mean that you can’t keep exploring Vermont’s creative sector! Visitors to VermontArtOnline. org can virtually enter twenty-nine museums and galleries across the state, with more coming online each day. Interact with exhibitions, click on objects to learn more, or try art-at-home activities great for students, parents, educators, and the general public. Vermont Art Online was created by Sarah Briggs and Sarah Laursen of Middlebury College Museum of Art in Submitted partnership with the Vermont Curators Group, in response to the closure of the state’s museums and galleries due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Generous support to make it possible has been provided by Vermont Arts Council, Vermont Humanities Council, the Fleming Museum of Art, and the Middlebury College Museum of Art. For more virtual art, culture, and learning resources from curators around Vermont, be sure to follow @Vermont- CuratorsGroup on Facebook or Instagram.
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Mountain Times- Volume 49, Number 18 - April 29 - May 5, 2020

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