Hal Hopkins: Building Bee Hotels

Join Highlands Garden Club in its commitment to helping our community protect pollinators and “Bee Friendly”. This is very important because native bees ensure the growth of the food we eat as well as the flowers we enjoy. To do this job they need food, protection from pesticides and shelter. We can all help by planting native heirloom plants, avoiding the use of pesticides and:

Building Bee Hotels

Highlands Garden Club invites you to hear guest speaker Hal Hopkins, a man who is avidly involved in studying native bees.

Date and time: Wednesday, April 13 at 7:00 pm
Location: Highlands Community League, 6112 – 113 Avenue
Admission: FREE or Bring seeds to share with your neighbors

Hal has set up and monitored bee hotels at the University of Alberta Farm and has collaborated with the Edmonton & Area Land Trust on bee hotels. He shared information in an article on bee hotels in the Fall 2015 issue of Alberta Nature magazine. Hal will now share with us his experiences on what the bees prefer and what they don’t like.

Note: Bee hotels are built for solitary bees which do not sting.

Protect the Pollinators Tour - Notes and Petitions

Back on 24-March, member Audrey braved the snow to attend the Protect the Pollinators talk hosted by the Sierra Club Canada Foundation at Kings College. 

http://teesforthepeople.com/products/protect-the-pollinators

There she found from Pesticide-Free Edmonton that Edmonton is still using Dursban 2.5 G -- a neuro-toxin pesticide which Winnipeg has banned -- for killing mosquitoes.

The Edmonton Journal has reported on this outlining concerns in this April-2015 article. 

Click here to sign the online petition to the City of Edmonton to Discontinue the use of Dursban and all other forms of chlorpyrifos for killing mosquitoes.


The talk also featured John Bennett (National Program Director of the Sierra Club Canada Foundation), and Paul McKay (author of The Kepler Code), speaking on the threat of neonics and the importance of healthy pollinator populations.

Click here to download the handout "Five Reasons We Support Restrictions on Neonics".

Click here to send a message to the federal and provincial governments to ban the use of neonics (via the David Suzuki Foundation).

2015-06-12: Permaculture Design: An Approach To Vibrant Communities

Permaculture and vibrant communities - another chance to make the connections - free!  See below:

Urban Systems is kicking off the third year of the Vibrant Communities Speaker Series with Takota Coen.  Check out the website for more information on the VCSS and past events!

When: Tuesday, June 2 from 7:00pm-8:30pm (doors at 6:30pm)
Where: Yellowhead Brewery, 10229 105 Street
This is a Free Event but please RSVP

Clean water, nutrient dense food, shelter and medicine are the building blocks for vibrant community no matter where you live on planet earth. However, most of the ways we supply our basic needs come at the cost of someone else’s or the earth itself.

In this thought provoking evening with Takota Coen of Deep Roots Design and Grass Roots Family Farm we will explore how permaculture design can address our fundamental needs in a way that is regenerative for the planet. Takota will provide practical examples of how families everywhere can use the principles and design methodologies of permaculture to ensure productive backyards and farms that strengthen our local food systems and restore the environment.

Using Grass Roots Family Farm as a case study, Takota will illustrate how to design functional relationships between various elements like forest gardens, chickens, annual crops, honeybees and even elements that would only be seen on larger acreages like a dairy cow, pasture pigs, beef cattle and water harvesting earthworks. This edition of the Vibrant Communities Speaker Series will also explore our Western society’s relationship to the natural world and how Takota believes it can be transformed through the ethical use of permaculture design, education, food, and celebration. Vibrant communities can exist. But only if we design them to succeed!

RSVP (through Eventbrite)

Dustin Bajer: Permaculture Connections

As Dustin Bajer addressed the group gathered at Bellevue Hall Wednesday, it was obvious he loved to teach and he was teaching something he loved.  The audience was engaged with his enthusiasm and energy, and it became very apparent his "rock bed" childhood in Barrhead was a very fitting beginning for a permaculture designer (and teacher, and beekeeping hobbyist...), for a rock is not "just a rock"

"What is permaculture? A hundred permaculturists in a room will have a hundred definitions -- and none of them would be wrong..." 

He addressed the fact that permaculture is more widely heard of now, but most people do not know what it means.  He spoke of his definition, (which included mimicking patterns of nature in design, looking at relationships and connections), and related principles (including caring for the land and returning things back to the system).  

Pictures of complex systems filled the screen, and he spoke of their web-like nature (Muir's Web) and how interconnected an organism (or element) can be.  Ultimately illustrating an organism is "better off together in a community than on its own" because even if one connection is broken, there are others supporting it.

The hour quickly ended and bled into the next.  Dustin shared photos of transforming his yard into a sustainable and highly productive garden (along with putting the image of him as a "lettuce fairy" into our minds), while also answering a great number of questions ranging from bee keeping to the garden he's worked on with Jasper High School students in their courtyard.

It was certainly a fun and educational night.

For those who missed out on the talk, below are some notes I made of the night.  For those who attended, what did I miss?  What was your greatest take away?

Thank you again Dustin for coming to speak with us -- we look forward to seeing you again soon!

Dustin Bajer with Highlands Garden Club members.

Resources mentioned and recommendations made:
- Fungi.com for Fungi for Healthy Gardens - Used to treat roots of plants or growth medium (straw / compost)
- Mushrooms of Western Canada - Lone Pine Publishing - Mushroom identification
- Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond by Brad Lancaster - Create water cycle, use water more effectively
- Sustainable Food Edmonton - many resources (previously Community Garden Network)

Permaculture boils down to connections and relationships: 
- Care for the land and return to the system
- Meaningful connections - symbiotic relationships:
   - e.g. "Red Cap" mushrooms and popular tree - mushroom is more efficient at gathering water and helps the popular tree, which in turn feeds the mushroom by providing leaves and sugar sap
   - The link between bees and mushrooms (Paul Stamets)

* Better off together in a community than on its own

1. Connections make things more stable
2. More diversity is more manageable
3. More connections, the more sustainable.

"Great leaders align strengths so their weakness don't matter." ~ Peter Drucker (management guru)

- Ecological systems do the same 

- Muir web: A rock does "nothing" - but actually: provides a place to live on, live under, is a thermal mass that absorbs heat during the day and releases it in the night, buffers temperatures creating a micro-climate around it, will eventually erode and breakdown into the soil --> A side walk, a house is like a giant rock

Cycles are created in these systems 

- A forest during a drought looks better than a regular urban garden because of the cycles that are contained in the system (e.g. water remains in the system)

- If everything is cycled (more reused) we have multiple times more resources

- Parallel in economics: Cities are places that maximize connections

Jasper High School Urban Ag High 

- Vegetables from garden 

- Aquaponics to raise fish - which water is then used as garden fertilizer 

- Fish and vegetables used in culinary / home ec. courses

What about weeds?
- "You get the weeds your soil needs"
- Dandelions - if you wait long ehntough they'll actually imporve the sol so other things can grow there (tap roots goes through compacted soil, leaves organic matter)
Loose soil: chickweed

"YOUR GARDEN WANTS TO BE A FOREST!"
- Graph: Energy x Time
- Stored energy is high in a forest and low in a typical urban garden
- Energy to maintain is high in a typical urban garden and low in forest

Implementing a garden with permaculture principles in mind - (move closer to forest):
- Plant your water, before planting your garden
- Weeds are basically fast growing annuals - combat them by planting the same thing (e.g. lettuce) everywhere
- Weeping tile (with a stocking) to bring water directly from roofs into the garden
- No till gardening: a layer of leaves or straw, a layer of compost, then plant directly into compost
- Rhubarb under fruit trees - leaves and stems funnel water to the base of the tree

"City honey is the best honey...."

- Layers are a cross-section of the seasons (Mayday , lilacs, dandelion, apples...)

The Dirt on Soil: 2015 UN Year of the Soils

One needs good soil for growing -- that I know.  But the difference between dirt and soil - that I don't.

The thing we think of as "just dirt" we often take for granted has become big news again with the UN declaring 2015 the Year of the Soils.

While planning and making your garden soil better for this growing season, listen and learn about its nitty-gritty: The Dirt on Soil is a two part CBC Radio production available for streaming here.

For more on urban initiatives and about global soil health:  

• CBC News' related article on "Urban Soil Farming..." 
• Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations 2015-Soils homepage 

http://www.fao.org/resources/infographics/infographics-details/en/c/281883/

Edmonton Seedy Sunday 2015

My first Edmonton Seedy Sunday was a blast!

Alberta Avenue Community Hall was filled to the brim with people interested in growing plants or ready to spread to the word.


The hall had been divided into four areas: A free swap / community room, demonstration area in the lounge, a lecture room, and vendors in the main hall.  

Announcer-Flower-Fairy-Bell-Ringer -- Maryann of Goodnote Community Farm -- made sure everyone knew the schedule and what was coming up in the other rooms.

I spent most of my time in the community room speaking to friendly and helpful representatives of Pesticide Free Edmonton, Edmonton Horticultural Society, Front Yards in Bloom and many other groups.

And don't forget the seeds!

Edmonton Seedy Sunday volunteers, behind the long table covered with donated seed packets, helped us to chose among all the different flowers, tomatoes, beans and herbs available.  The selection kept growing as people dropped off more. Those with nothing to swap could also get seeds for a monetary donation.  

Neither Erica nor I picked up any of the "Mystery Squash", but did go adventurous with a few different kinds of heirloom tomatoes.

We took a walk around the vendor hall and filled any remaining seed-gaps.  All while, we were keeping an eye out on the time: The Native Bees of Alberta talk was at 3 p.m.

The speakers, Ashton Strum and Monica Kohler, are both U of A Masters students researching bees.  Their enthusiasm for the subject certainly shone through as they introduced the audience to different families of bees, their living arrangements (social, non-social), and ways to make the our yards bee havens.  

It was certainly a informative and fun time overall.  But, in my excitement, I may have picked up more seeds than I can handle... Anyone else like some seeds to start? 

Rob Sproule Talks About Bees

Last Sunday was overcast and dreary, but Highlands Club Members found respite at Salisbury Greenhouse! 

The large retail space was warm and smelled green.  There were gorgeous pieces of furniture (meant for indoor and out), containers of fairy gardens (and supplies to makes such), leading us to a welcoming Rob Sproule to talk about bees.

He went through a number of articles he's written on bees, adding details and answering questions along the way. 


What is Killing our Bees points the finger at "Neonic" Pesticides and Varroa Mites, while suggesting some simple actions to help.

Attracting Bees suggests some good ways to make the garden Bee-Friendly including planting bee-friendly plants in clusters (3 or more),  planning for continuous blooms (3 or 4 different cycles in the summer), planting varieties of flower shapes to attract different types of bees. 

YEG Bees: Backyard Beekeeping in Edmonton highlights some of the exciting grassroots movements of backyard beekeeping, while also marvelling at the wonders of honeybees and hives.

Some additional notes from the talk:

• We may consider them weeds, but dandelions and clover are some of the first to bloom in spring, making them an important food source. 
• Available (retail) pesticides are of the "contact"type - if you have to use a pesticide, never spray when flowers are in bloom. 
• Salisbury tries to Bee-Friendly by: using Integrated Pest Management (IPM) with predatory bugs to control pests; choosing suppliers that do not use neonics; growing their own plants (70% of perennials and 90% of annuals to control what pesticides are used); and using seeds that are not neonic treated.
• Some of the incentives for neonics: GMO monocrops which can be vulnerable to pests and diseases are pretreated instead of being managed

The talk generated more conversation after Mr. Sproule left: How to spread the word on what we're learning, how we needed to support local greenhouses (ones that are knowledgeable of and accountable for what they're selling)...

And, as we were in a place that sold stuff for gardens, we took a look.  Oh, how tempting it all was. 

Pretty birds...

... fairy Gardens with fairies... 

... seeds including Renee's Garden and Johnsons...

... exotic indoor plants... 

Save the Date: 8-April-2015 - Dustin Bajer!

The Highlands Garden Club is proud to announce: We're hosting a talk featuring Dustin Bajer!

Save Wednesday, April 8th from 7-8 p.m. for a trip to Bellevue Hall at 7308 -112 Avenue to hear the "teacher, permaculturalist, master gardener..." speak.  

All are welcome.  More details to come.  Stay tuned!  

Talk & Tour: Rob Sproule at Salisbury Greenhouse

Kicking off this year of Bee-Friendly learning and gardening events, we're heading out to Salisbury Greenhouse!

Rob Sproule* will be talking about bee-friendly plants, bee-friendly gardens, and pest management at the greenhouse, while giving us a tour the facilities.  

Interested in joining us?  Meet Sunday, 15-February-2015 at 1 p.m. (1 km south of Wye Road on RR 232 (Brentwood Blvd)) for the Talk & Tour, or contact us at highlandsgardenclub@gmail.com to arrange carpooling.  

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* The gardener, writer, and Edmonton Journal columnist introduced many to the problem of neonics and the plight of the bee in his 04-June-2014 Edmonton Journal article Making a safe place for the bees.

Give Bad Bugs the Boot

or How I Learned to love my Fairy Ring! 


Lorraine Taylor, Horticulturalist and Conservation Coordinator with the County of La Ste.Anne, talked to us about smart approaches to dealing with pests -- how to avoid, how to combat, and how to manage expectations. The latter being: While there are many pests, they can be insufferable or tolerable. 

As she clicked through a slide presentation of photos that showed pests and pest damage, she spoke of "smart ways to figuring out the problem".  The primary problem.  Her example was moss growing in the grass.  Before piling on chemicals to try and get rid of the moss, she suggested going deeper, considering is it too shady, the wrong pH, or the soil too compact for grass to happily grow?  To "step back and look at the big picture" and to ask questions. Finally then deciding if the damage warrants control. 



She gave a special thanks to Doug Macaulay, answered our questions and shared some stories.  She reminded us the richness and perils of internet searches (the most exotic may show up in searches, your bug is likely something more common). 

As for Edmonton next year, she predicts we'll likely see more: 
- Forest Tent Caterpillars
- Aphids 
- Apple Maggots

Unfortunately, we ran out of time to see all the specimens she brought for us.  But she did leave us with some principles of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and a list of resources. 

Thank you, Lorraine Taylor!