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permaculture - Re: [permaculture] Sampling of bee and other pollinator sightings this year by list subscribers wherever you are.

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Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Lawrence F. London, Jr." <venaurafarm@bellsouth.net>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Sampling of bee and other pollinator sightings this year by list subscribers wherever you are.
  • Date: Thu, 24 May 2012 18:47:16 -0400

On 5/5/2012 6:38 PM, John D'hondt wrote:
I'd say about 20 % of the bumble bees we had last year at this time. No
honey bees at all and even wasps that seem to normally pollinate our goose
berries are extremely rare.
That is not all. 5 days ago three (3) swallows arrived here out of the 70 or
so that left the farm last September. Four weeks late and no others have
come back so far.
John in SW Ireland

I noticed yesterday that the barn swallows I have seen almost every year have returned. They do their aerial displays in mid to late afternoon, spectacular to watch.

The honeybees I saw earlier this Spring seem to have disappeared; maybe their next forage crop isn't ready yet though there are small white fragrant daisies in bloom that I thought they would be working on.

Carpenter Bumblebees are around in number and are constantly around my dwarf Meyer lemon in full bloom.

No till, Fukuoka farming with nature and minimum till for crops are the way to go, the wave of the future, if you can deal with the forests of weeds you will end up with. The problem weeds I have had for years are gradually giving way to less problematic plants in my fallow/notill/undisturbed arrays of gardens; little or no foot traffic, no mowing, no vehicles, no tillage. Amazing to see after years of struggling with
invasive, persistent weeds in my gardens: Bermuda grass, yellow dock, Johnson grass, rye grass, fescue, crabgrass. They are to a greater or lesser degree replaced by wild mustard/turnip, lambs quarters, wild millet, creeping Charlie, clover, sweet clover and a few other plants.

Living with more than one acre of Fukuoka Permaculture Nature Farming
is probably somewhat different from what one might expect; I mean living with it and working in it every day, all year, all seasons.





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