More designs in Nature translate into awesome Urban Landscapes thru Biomimicry

Most of my inspiration when I designed layouts for landscaping came from natural scenarios I observed in Nature. For example, this picture below from Baja California.

Image - Klaus Komoss

photo is mine (June 2016)

I've previously written about both the native Baja California and Sonora Mexico Rock Figs, Rock figs (tescalama): Ficus palmeri and Ficus petiolaris. We saw examples of Rock Figs at the Arizona-Sonoran Deset Museum which we visited this past June 2016. They make great patio trees in large pottery containers or planter focal points with boulders as a center piece. Mainly, when we create such landscape art, we are merely doing biomimicry of what already takes place in the wild. For example the massive wild Rock Fig above taken by Klaus Kommoss on one of his many winter adventure trips with his wife and friends down in Baja California. I'll post the link below to he and his wife's travel adventure blog and also my post link below of what I wrote about recreating these rock fig and boulder art images below. I also stumbled upon recently something else that has captured my attenton in the plant/rock art theme where I saw these incredible boulder plant creations where holes were drilled and hollowed out through  a fire process in the huge rock and trees planted in them at the Living Holocaust Memorial at the Jewish Heritage Museum.

Image - Cornell Plantations

"Boulders harvested for Andy Goldsworthy's Garden of Stones, Permanent installation, The Museum of Jewish Heritage A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, New York, New York These granite boulders and chestnut oak trees supplement the permanent installation in New York. They were installed at Cornell Plantations in 2004, and dedicated in 2005."

http://www.cornellplantations.org

Image - Cornell Plantations

The first time I saw this planting design technique from the layout at the "Garden of Stones" display at the Living Memorial to the Holocaust, it made me think of potential for not only Desert Rock Figs, but also the major contribution potential of selected plants that the California Chaparral community could provide. California Oaks would be ideal like the example above, especially smaller scrub oaks. Manzanita would also be ideal. Can you just imagine. Really we've already seen such examples in the form of Bonsai plants created by rocky shallow soils of a California mountainside on a south facing slope. Boulders strewn hillsides themselves have already provided such blueprints for creative imaginations.

Image - Cornell Plantations

Image - Laura Allen in Modern Farmer

Many examples of chaparral bonsai exist in the mountains and foothills of San Diego County especially those rich in giant granite boulders. Mount Woodson near Ramona comes to minds as does the mountain passes along Interstate 8 in eastern San Diego county between Boulevard and Jacumba. Further north and east in Arizona in the Sedona red rock country, there are plenty of examples as evidenced by this photo on the right. Even further north up into the state of Utah and the Canyonlands would provide another excellent library for imaginative blueprints to any talented landscape designer. The point is, while we can admire the creativity of those who laid out the theme for the Holocaust Memorial, it must be acknowledged that such amazing designs are in fact existing somewhere out in Nature first. 

image from Goldsworthy "Garden of Stones"

So exactly how do these Landscape architects and construction planners do this ?

I'll provide a link to a gallery of photographs here below which will explain far more than I could even hope to do in text. But there are a few points where I will interject some personal thoughts and/or quotes from the "About the Process" page. Further on down I'll provide a couple of links on how the process works, but here are some planting examples. Interestingly their favourite plant specimens are dwarf type oaks like Quercus prinoides. For me I would choose both Emory Oak (Quercus emoryii) and/or  Engelmann Oak (Quercus engelmannii). I love the overall sillhouette and branching form of both species of oak. The leaf patterns and the fact that both are a tough survivor species of oak. 

Image - Cornell Plantation

Image - Goldsworthy

The Oak saplings were grown at Cornell under the guidance of Professor Tom Whitlow from the Department of Horticulture. His tree species recommendation was the dwarf Chestnut Oak (Quercus prinoides) and he advised on the optimum conditions needed for growth and nourishment. The Oak & other saplings were nurtured at Cornell by both faculty and students. Often the actual planting was done by holocaust survivors themselves, their children or even grandchildren. The point of all this of course is that humans can move away from the formal structural traditions of the English Garden design, etc and develop purely naturalistic scenes within their personal urban or commercial landscapes.

How the actual Stone Hollowing Process works

Andy Goldsworthy's Stone Hollowing Process

About the Company and Artists who created these landscape boulder planters

Image - Richard Avedon

Edward Monti and artist Andy Goldsworthy are pictured with one of the granite sculptures (in its early stages) that make up the Garden of Stones installation at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City. 

ABOUT EDWARD MONTI The History of Edward Monti Stone Sculpture

About the couple who took the photograph at the top of this post and their Adventures in Baja California

The photo on the right and at the top of this post was taken by Klaus Kommoss with his wife, Parvin, on one of their adventures every Winter to Baja California. I'll post their blog link down below at the bottom of this paragraph. Klaus was from Germany and his wife Parvin was from Iran. They lived in the state of Wshington in the Pacific Northwest. An unfortunate accident took place in 2012 where Klaus died in a freak accident when the SUV he was working on fell off the scissor jacks. I stumbled by accident upon their blog back in August while looking up information on Rock Figs of Baja California. Read and loved his blog, but then later found out the sad news. Still, they had some great adventures to places most of us only imagine seeing one day. I think you'll enjoy reading their blog adventures from the link below.

Photographs & Adventure Blog References

https://kommoss.wordpress.com/2011/03/06/last-canyon

Man crushed to death by SUV was inventor, adventurer

Creating Little Desert Trees as Ornamentals for Indoors & Patios

Now for a fun tutorial on how Phenotypic Plasticity works on all biological organisms, but especially here with our subject of PLANTS

Genotype-Environment Interaction and Phenotypic Plasticity

Here is an awesome video explaining things in simple terms and with illustrations from familiar situations that teach. So can you understand and graps the concept of biomimicry in developing plants within an urban landscape to replication patterns and forms found in Nature ??? The video is from Study.com and is about 7:00 minutes long. But as you watch this, please think about how you can experiment and tinker with various physical environmental factors and recreate natural designs in your backyard or where ever. Keep in mind that this video deals with the science of both genotypic and phenotypic change, and this can be repeatable if we can set up just the right artifical environmental factors in our landscape. And still somewhere there is the role of something called epigenetics in shaping the patterns of your plant subjects. But that's another subject.

Real Life "Garden's of Stone" you can visit out in Nature

Photographer - Phil Douglis - Apache Stronghold

Image -  globetrottingcouple.com

This place is Apache Stronghold, otherwise known as Chiricahua National Monument. When you visit, you can understand how tough it was for the US Cavalry to evict the resilient Chiricahua Apache. I've been to this place and it was one of the best decisions I've ever made as far as an adventure. Believe it or not it was the unique plant and animal (Parrot & Koatimundi) life that brought me here in the beginning, apart from the outstanding ancient volcanic geological formations. This is one of those classic Arizona "Sky Islands" as you can see from the top photo which looks down at the lower surrounding elevation. But the main draw for me was the Arizona Madrone, Chiricahua & Apache Pines, Alligator Juniper and some of the most humungous examples of Arizona Cypress I've ever seen. Again, it's the various features of rock (niches, slots, etc) which provide a phenotypic paradise for unique plant form and natural design.

Image - NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service

Gardens-of-Stone-National-Park-Australia

http://www.carstenpeter.com

This is Gardens of Stone National Park in Australia. The landscape here is a labyrinth of pagoda rocks with beehive-shaped formations sculpted by erosion along sandstone scarpments. This type of geological landscape not only presents a treacherous and challenging obstacle of slot canyons for both hikers and expert canyoneer exploreers, but it also provides an outdoor educational lab for those who choose to view this as a learning journey into how the environments (all of it's components) sculpts biological life (in this case plant life) into various beautiful and intriguing forms. All of which can and should be replicated into the modern urban landscape.

How to Biomimic Nature's Companion Planting & the Reasons You Should

For those keenly aware of their surroundings when you're out walking in Nature, you will always find that companion planting is very common. That's what makes various ecosystems everywhere so very unique and successful. Humans now are finding this out as they reverse engineer many of these systems through mistakes introduced by previous bad science which has allowed invasive plants to disrupt these systems. This has happened on every single continent on this planet. The early Native Americans knew the value of companion planting when they created farming systems known as "The three Sisters Farming" no doubt from their observations of how things worked well together in the natural world. In theory, the three sisters crops benefit from each other. The maize provides a structure for the beans to climb, eliminating the need for poles. The beans provide the nitrogen to the soil that the other plants use, and the squash spreads along the ground, blocking the sunlight, helping prevent establishment of weeds. The squash leaves also act as a "living mulch", creating a microclimate to retain moisture in the soil, and the prickly hairs of the vine deter pests. But again, this pattern is an unmistakable part of Nature found repeatedly over and over for 10s of 1000s of years. So what happened ?

CaliforniaChaparral.org

A California Biologists Perspective - Bert Wilson

"Permaculture, Agroforestry, and Agroecology. These words have many characteristics in common, in terms of agriculture. The concepts from permaculture (permanent agriculture), agroforestry (growing tree crops and vine, field crops together), agroecology (study of agriculture using the basic ideas of ecosystems) are all interrelated. If you think about it, each of these systems is moving agriculture (growing living organisms for the benefit of man) closer to the natural world. The missing component is the integration of wildland plants into the mix. Every time you remove wild habitat, the agriculture suffers in that area; maybe in small ways, but small ways add up to big ways. For example, researchers have found that having strips, or areas of wild plants adjacent to, or growing within field and orchard crop areas support native pollinators such as bees and flies that help to increase pollination of the crops and so increase crop yields."

"Wild plants may support some of the predators and parasites that prey on your agricultural crop pests, and add stability to the immediate habitat, by redundancy. The cultivation of agricultural plants has, by definition, probably net negative impacts on an ecosystem (the practice of agriculture removes soil nutrition from an area, and decreases biological diversity, from microscopic soil organisms to large mammals). Incorporating indigenous plants adjacent to agricultural plantings supports more variety of beneficial organisms, and increases biological diversity, and can add nutrition to the site. Then, if one plant or animal fails one year, there are others to perform that function temporarily. So the 'plant-animal community' of cultivated plants, naturalized and indigenous plants and animals small and large, and other organisms, can recover from adversity more quickly, and reduce adversity's effects. Another analogy is that this plant-animal grouping is like a giant web; if one strand of the web fails, there are other strands to hold the web together. The more interlinking strands, the stronger the web. Also, in terms of humankind, there may be some species, even though we don't realize it now, that could help us to survive in the future. So it is to our advantage to save all the natural habitat that we can. One way is to integrate wild plants into the edges of our gardens, fields, and orchards. Instead of just mimicking nature, how about including nature?"

(Source)

Image - laspilitas.com

This is Bert Wilson of "Las Pilitas California Native Plants Nursery" who for many years just didn't grow plants for sale, but spent countless hours studying, documenting and educating others on the biological mechanisms in which various plant ecosystems function and operate. While other sites selling native plants have also done this, none come close to the scale with which Bert Wilson attempted to help his customers understand the underground mycrobiological interface which makes the successful whole plant ecosystems in pristine states appear to be so healthy and successful. Interestingly, from my own conversations with him on the telephone in the past, he said some eco-activist organizations were disappointed he didn't take a more active political role in furthering the cause for ecology. Actually he did do this through indepth ecosystem education far beyond anything many of these groups have ever accomplished through their civil disobendience inspired protests and filing a plethora of lawsuits. Bert's writings of the basic fundamentals and principles of how plant systems work are further enhanced with what the Groasis-waterboxx attempts to accelerate in these natural processes as opposed to handicapping them as the conventional science-based practices have done for decades. My main post on the Groasis Company is below.

Mainpost on Groasis Waterboxx Technolgy and it's incredible potential

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This is what happens when science-based practices are shackled to Corporate Business Interests 

For the past 100+ years, human technological innovation has  attempted to harness nature in making what the industry leaders decades ago have always viewed as improving Nature's flaws. 

Image - Utah Wildlife

Of course the theory behind site preparation and grinding up all vegetation into a mulch by a giant Balldozer pulling a roller is that this will (in their imagination) ensure no competition and the resulting nutrients feeding the trees. In actuality they've just eliminated the very mechanisms which would have helped the tree seedling/saplings survival

D-9 Bulldozer site preparation

Same misplaced theory for deep ripping the soil in site preparation. Ensure that no chaparral lignotubers and roots are left to resprout and compete with their precious plantation trees. 

D-9 Bulldozers ripping baparral with anchor chain

Old time outdated irresponsible method for site preparation. Even still, many a practices today are deeply entrenched in the mind of those employed with the Industrial Forestry business model.

Dave Powell, USDA Forest Service (retired)

This scene above looks almost exactly like Garner Valley in the San Jacinto Mountains where I once lived for 20+ years. They actually disked this Jeffrey Pine forest floor like this periodically. However this photo is in actually what the US Forest Service calls a scarification program which was done by disking to expose bear mineral soil, as in this ponderosa pine stand in the Pike National Forest of Colorado. Their theory was that establishing newer trees needed site preparation by mechanical seed bed preparation and competition control which they felt was necessary to establish the new pine seedlings. Garner Valley has had numerous such projects done exactly the way you see above. The process ultimately was chaparral cutting, disking, then mulching and smoothing of the ground. Pines were then planted and had to be maintain by hand watering the first couple years by Forest Service personel using an old time farm caterpillar pulling what is known as a Water Buffalo Trailer which were military surplus items provided such government agencies after World War II for their conservation work. Throughout the 1980s, I drove past numerous tree planting projects by the U.S. Forest Service along Hwy 74 through Garner Valley and watch them rip up the landscape of all chaparral, disk & mulch organic material left over and smooth out the surface in preparation of tree planting. After planting for the next two years they used an old Ford Tractor or WWII Farm Caterpillar to pull one of these Water Buffalo Trailers and hydrate the pine seedlings by hand over countless acreas.

Image - publicsurplus.com

Old time Army Water Buffalo Trailer

The Chaparral Institute has done an incredible job of documenting many of these irresponsible outdated practices as used by the U.S. forest Service and Timber Industries whose goal is servicing the land as a monocropped agricultural program. It doesn't matter if their justification claims to be science-based. People are going to have to stop using the term Science in the general sense and understand that many will misuse and abuse that term in justifying a commercial business model. Take note of the terrible aftermath of the 2003 Cedar Fire in San Diego County California and the attempts to reforest Cuyamaca State Park which lost most of it's forests in the video below. Notice the ignorance displayed in attempts at obliterating all chaparral believed to be a major invasive competitor of forest tree re-establishment.

Chaparral Institute: Loss in Cuyamaca Rancho State Park

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How the Groasis-Waterboxx can rapidly speed up the process of companion planting

Image - Goasis.com

Oregon State University

The ultimate goal of Pieter Hoff's Groasis-Waterboxx as represented in the animation above is to help facillitate long downward growing rootsystems which will hit subterranean moisture which will provide assured survival success. This is highlighted in the photo at right of a large main taproot of a Western Juniper in eastern Oregon. Create that type of root  infrastructure and you're home free. However, the planting of an additional companion nurse plant will also further the successful survival rate along with other shared nutritional requirements and health benefits further enhanced by the mycorrhizal fungi interface happening between differing plant species. The benefits of utilizing chaparral plants, especially those with incredible lignotuber developing abilities is that they have multiple taproots which drive and spiral downwards deep into the earth. This is why I have often photographed many examples of erosion exposed rootsystems on my own treks for the purpose of illustrating their capabilities. Pieter Hoff's website also has several pages also provide photos of rootsout in the wild dedicated for this same illustrative purpose. For example, this lugnotuber of a plant common to the southwest, Algerita or Mexican Barberry.

by Bob Harms - University of Texas

Mexican Barberry (Algerita) Berberis trifoliolata (Mahonia)

Lignotuber: "A rounded woody growth at or below ground level on some shrubs and trees that grow in areas subject to fire or drought, containing a mass of buds and food reserves."

Nobody ever considers the underground rooting network infrastructure and the successes this creates if grown correctly and they should. Especially where I come from where climate change made worse drought conditions are making it more and more impossible to maintain a healthy good looking urban landscape. People everywhere in dryland regions should seriously start looking for shrubs which would make the best Nurse plant companions to trees they wish to plant. And good looking native ornamentals should be researched first before considering some long time traditional retail nursery alternative.

Image - Groasis.com

You'll notice the design of the Groasis Waterboxx Cocoon actually allows for two plants to be inserted, not just one. In their videos they provide examples of how well this works in the commercial greenhouse and shadehouse vegetable operations where this type of association is desirable. But also in some examples, they show outplanting at remote locations where they have deliberately planted two differing plant species to compliment each other. As the example above which shows Mountain Ash on the left and perhaps a type of Mulberry on the right.

The Green Deserts' research project in Spain

Image - Goasis.com

Image - Goasis.com (Biodegradable Goasis Cocoon)

Okay yes, size does matter

The concept of planting two companion plants together in replication of what actually goes down in Nature all the time for the past 10s of 1000s of years is not only good common sense, but also thrilling. Think of the possibilities of doing your own experiment and jotting down all the data and making comparisons to the conventional recommendations by the so-called experts using dogmatic science-based conjecture ? Think of how you can instill appreciation and teach your own kids if you have them on how nature actually works. Seriously, they'll never get this from the textbooks at public school. However to get the full benefits, you first need to de-program yourself from conventional  teachings. Realize the "Survival of the Fittest" is now a dead concept. Mutualism rules. Take a closer look at our planet and what this blind faith doctrine has done to overall ecosystem health over the past 100+ years. Look where we are now with climate change. Next, stop being impatient when it comes to planning your urban landscape design. I understand everyone wants instant landscape installation. Hence you've purchased in the past five, fifteen or 20 gallon trees or box container larger specimens. Purchase very  small trees & shrubs which will far out perform any five gallon container or burlap tree or shrub. Ignore those large specimens at the nursery. Forget the 6' tall burlap examples like the illustration below. They will NEVER develop a proper deep rooted infrastructure that the devices from grosasis-waterboxx cocoon will encourage to develop. My only regret in writing this is that I'll never be able to test this in a drylands type climate. For me this patented product came too late. For me I would have loved this device back in the 1980s when I was more heavily involved with looking for the basic fundamentals and principles in how whole plant ecosystems work in cooperation with each other. This is the type of thing that should be taught in elementary schools and fortunately it is being taught and practiced down in Palm Springs, California on some of their desert projects.

Reforestation Groasis waterboxx desert planting experiment with Palm Springs School District

Image - familthandyman.com

When planning your urban landscape you need to think smart. Everyone wants instant landscape, but at what cost ? The tall tree in the burlap wrapping as the above example should always be rejected in favour of something which will out perform it on the road to life with far less maintenance and care. Also there is less danger of large trees with spiraled girdling root systems which will easily blow over in wind storms.

The Native California Plants used in three different habitat restoration experiments

Whitewater (High Desert), Mission Springs (Low Desert), Dos Palmas (Salton Sea), in Southern California

Honey Mesquite -- Prosopis glandulosa 

Screwbean Mesquite -- Prosopis pubescens 

Blue Paloverde -- Parkinsonia florida 

Sugarbush – Rhus ovata 

Velvet Ash – Fraxinus velutina 

California Sycamore – Platanus racemosa 

Holly Leaf Cherry - Prunus ilicifolia 

Wishbone Bush - Mirabilis bigelovii 

Cheesebush - Hymenoclea salsola 

Paperbag Bush - Salazaria mexicana 

Beargrass - Nolina parryi 

Joshua Tree - Yucca brevifolia 

Apricot Mallow - Sphaeralcea ambigua 

 Groasis: You can also cooperate in your own Groasis Tesform Experiment

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Gallery of successful plant companions, both for natural biomimetic replication in urban landscaping or habitat restoration

Image - Kevin Franck (2013)

Jeffrey & Coulter Pines planted in among Redshank,
Sugarbush, Scrub Oak, Chamise Chaparral plant community
back in 1983 in Anza Ca, (Terwilliger area)

Image - Kevin Franck (El Cajon, CA 2013)

Torrey Pine & Laurel Sumac
  Rattlesnake Mountain - El Cajon, California

Image - Kevin Franck 

Cuyamaca Cypress in Chaparral Community
(Adenostoma, Quercus, Cercocarpus)

Image by Game Warden Bill Bish

Indian Paint Brush with Artemesia-Sagebrush

An Icon of the Old West, Sagebrush (Atermisia tridentata) is Still Demonized as a Competing Invasive in it's Own Native Habitat

Image - Tarelton State University

Antelope Bitterbrush & Pine Tree

Image - María Florencia Urretavizcaya, Guillermo E. Defossé

 Austrocedrus chilensis (Chile - Argentina)

Image by J. Deacon - University of Edinburgh

Oagan Pipe Cactus in Palo Verde

Image - National Park Service
Saguaro National Monument

The Sonoran Desert studies on companion trees and nurse plants are beautiful examples of how Nurse Plants work and operate in real time. The interesting phenomena of Hydraulic Lift & Redistribution are also points to consider when planning any type of project whether urban landscaping or habitat restoration. And let's not forget the winter dormancy phenomena of hydraulic descent where rainy season moisture is pumped deep into the earth's subsoil layers in recharging subterranean moisture reserves. The goal here is not only immediate and long term survival success, but also the elimination of time wasting and expensive hands on on maintenance. Even in human societies, giving someone a hand up towards sustainable independence is far better than continued welfare hand outs which keeps people on lifesupport.

Hydraulic Descent An Ecosystem's Tool for Filling Vast Underground Reservoirs

Roots: 'Hydraulic Lift and Redistribution'

There is incredible potential for reversing the damage humans have done to the Earth using such a technology as Groasis Waterboxx. But only human leadership (Politics, Scientists, Religion, Corporations, etc) stands in the way.  The average person follows leadership /good or bad). Radical change in this world's leadership is imperative. 

Update July 16th 2016

Anti desertification and reforestation with the Growboxx plant cocoon

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Credit:  Arizona Geologist Wayne Ranne

Jodhpor India, Acacia & Prosopis trees can
 stabilize Sand Dunes and Badlands

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Other Valuable Resources for Urban Landscape Companion Planting & Research Studies

https://www.groasis.com/en 

LasPilitas.com - Native Plant Communities and Companion Plantings

LasPilitas.com - Easy Companion Planting & Important Things to Know

Lavandula species as accompanying plants in Cupressus replanting strategies: Effect on plant growth, mycorrhizal soil infectivity and soil microbial catabolic diversity

Effects of nurse shrubs and tree shelters on the survival and growth of two Austrocedrus chilensis seedling types in a forest restoration trial in semiarid Patagonia, Argentina

Customizing Gardens for Native Bees (Pollinators & Predators)

image: Mine

Predatory small wasp on my apartment balcony inside a large pot container with my Avocado tree digging a hole and burying what looked like a wood lice grub for it's young.

This past year there is a young 12 year old boy of African descent from parents who immigrated from Uganda who I've been spending time with discussing particular things about how nature really works. Here is Sweden because of this cool wet climate, there is not a whole lot of opportune days for being outdoors and exploring out in the wild. Especially when you live in an industrial city like Gothenburg. The Parks are not exactly representative of wild things, but once in a while there are some surprising exceptions. Other than school and the rare occasion where his dad will take him for a walk, he spends most of his time at home in a concrete social housing high-rise Project. However, there are many Saturdays we spend time out in volunteer work and as we walk through some gardens, one in particular stood out as unique from the rest over in an area on Hissingen called Baron Rogers. What I noticed immediately is that there were many different plants were  flowering plants. But also the area was loaded with all sorts of pollinators, not just bees and wasps, but also butterflies. On a picnic table was a wasp exactly like the one in the photo above. It was stalking a wood lice on the table and I pointed it out to the young man and explained that this is how things work in nature as a balance to keep pests in check. I also explained that when people carelessly use chemical pesticides to do the job, these chemicals which may be manufactured for killing certain specific pest are also toxic to the good predators which should be doing that job if the garden was managed properly. Rarely do you see such a garden in healthy holistic shape as this one was and we actually met the groundskeeper who had specifically designed this landscape with those reasons in mind. But this brings me to an excellent recent article which encourages citizen participation in creating a landscape environment which is managed as a natural native habitat for all the beneficial critters through eco-friendly practices. Here is the article below and it concludes with an extremely irresponsible negative quote from a Biotech Scientist who says nature is dangerous and should not be encouraged within urban areas. Seriously, she said this.

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(Image: Jim Cane ARS)
A native Andrena bee species gathers nectar
 and pollen from a pear flower

"Dogged by pests, pathogens, poor nutrition, and other problems, the European honey bee is having a rough time these days. The bee pollinates over 90 different kinds of fruit, vegetable and nut crops. These same crops are also pollinated by native bees, particularly on smaller or diversified farms and especially in home gardens. Together, their pollination services are an $18 billion annual asset to U.S. agriculture, and concern over their welfare prompted the White House in May to issue a directive aimed at bolstering their numbers and health through a series of initiatives including improving and expanding pollinator habitat."

"Citizen involvement is another component. Among the actions citizens can take is growing nectar- and pollen-rich flowering plants; another is “customizing” garden or landscaping areas to make them more hospitable to these pollinators—especially native bees, says entomologist Jim Cane, with USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS)  Pollinating Insect–Biology, Management, Systematics Research Unit in Logan, Utah."

"In a three-year outdoor experiment conducted on the campus of Utah State University, Cane found that the common, widespread social bee species Halictus rubicundus (H. rubicundus) prefers digging its subterranean burrows next to small surface stones rather than in areas of bare soil. The next generation of queens, who mature in the fall and hibernate away from the cluster, return in the spring to use those same sites to establish nests of their own. Indeed, when Cane created a thin mulch of flat stream pebbles along the edges of a landscaped sidewalk area, he observed 66 to 78 percent more burrows there the following spring than in adjacent areas of bare soil."

(Image: Jim Cane ARS)

Burrow dug by female Halictus rubicundus bee amid pebbles and cobblestones

"Together with Utah State University Extension, Cane turned his research findings into practical guidelines the findings into practical guidelines that gardeners and landscapers can follow to create habitat areas that will serve other ground-nesting bees, which comprise about three-fourths of the 4,000 described native species in North America."

"“Bees have two primary needs in life: pollen and nectar to feed themselves and their offspring, and a suitable place to nest,” writes Cane in his guide, Gardening and Landscaping Practices for Nesting Native Bees. While lists of bee-friendly plants are available, most practical advice focuses on practices to avoid, like using buried landscaping fabric or sprinkler-irrigation systems during daytime, which can disrupt a female bee’s orientation to familiar landmarks.

"For ground-nesters, like H. rubicundus, Cane suggests creating a single surface layer of small, streambed-type pebbles along the perimeter of a flower garden or landscape area. It’s important that these pebbles remain undisturbed by foot traffic, because female bees will burrow into the ground near them and rely on the pebbles’ positions as landmarks to return to their nests after foraging for nectar and pollen. When pruning plants with woody stems that have pithy or hollow cores, Cane advises, leaving a few foot-long dead sprigs in place. This will attract species that prefer to nest above ground, like small orchard bees."

"Urbanization, loss of habitat, and other events have taken a toll on managed and wild bees. But they’re resilient insects, and even a few simple steps to help these important pollinators can go a long ways."

“Watching them forage and nest can be great fun as well as educational for curious homeowners—they’ll quickly appreciate the truth in that old saw, ‘busy as a bee!’” says Jim Cane.

(Source: USDA Blogs)

(Image: Jim Cane ARS)

Two female Peponapis squash bees pollinating a zucchini flower. These bees are key pollinators of squashes across much of the United States.

I loved this rare article from of all sources the USDA which normally is promoting and supporting the agro-chemical business model, but here actually encourages the average citizen to participate in helping native bees/wasps thrive into the urban landscape setting. Of course the focus was on pollinators, but don't forget many of them have a major play in keeping plant pests in check. The role of flowering plants of course is to attract the pollinators and in so doing your garden plants are pollinated. However, though they all dine on pollen and nectar, their developing young for whom they dig those burrows in the soil or carve out holes in dead wood do not feed on pollen. They need more protein diet to develop and the adult native bees and wasps provide this food by finding an insect plant pest, paralyze it with a sting and shove it down the nesting cavity which they have previously created. They lay their egg on the victim and as it grows it feeds on the insect pest their parent have provided for them. This is what the little wasp was in my plant container on the balcony and at the garden landscape within the apartment complex of Barron Rogers in Hissingen were doing. They play such major roles in balance in nature and provide an opportunity for all of us to never again use chemical pesticides ever again. Same with the chemical fertilizers which are often so rich and potent, they attract the very pests to the plants that feed on the synthetic chemical diet. Yesterday I had a neighbour down the street ask me what I fed my mothers shrubs and trees because everything looked so green and healthy and they've noticed the plants appear to flower all year long. She said she hasn't been able to get her Mexican Red Bird of Paradise shrubs to flower at all the way my mother's shrubs do and when they have flowered, there were very few blooms and their appearance was momentary. She was blown away when I revealed to her that I have never ever fertilized them with any chemicals. Mycorrhizal inoculation the first couple of years to build initial plants health and long term soil benefits are all I've done aside from adding just a thin layer once a year of decorative mulch on the surface which will gradually get broken down by the natural fungi and  bacterial elements. All of this is really fun for me, but this is also the kind of basic things never taught in schools where it should be at a very early age. Wait till High School and most youth are lost into the virtual world of electronics and turned off to anything regarding outdoor activity. The Biotech and Agro-chemical Industrial world have the say and influence on what is taught in academia from the conventional textbooks. Take for example this negative sewery comment below by a well know Biotech proponent demonizing the USDA article because in her worldview, it was sending a dangerous message because Nature is so unsafe.

"As an agricultural scientist I fully appreciate the importance of our pollinators to the farming community, but encouraging bees in urban areas places a higher concentration of people in contact with insects than in the coutryside, insects which can sting and even occasionally, cause anaphalactic shock. Yet urban bee keepers are on the rise, and while people are exhorted to change their gardening practices and use of pesticides to protect the bees, little consideration is being given to harm this can cause – Up to 100 people a year die from insect bites, not including mosquito and tick borne disease such as West Nile Virus or Lyme Disease. I wish there was more balance to the “save the bees” call to action, and some recognition that people don’t only have pollinators to protect but also themselves, their children and pets."

Source: Dr Clare Thorp PhD, Croplife America, Managing Director at Biotechnology Industries Organisation (BIO), Washington DC

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So what is there really here for me to critique about the  irresponsible comment above ? Absolutely nothing since I believe they speak for themselves. This woman is shackled to promoting a business model and nothing more. If people all got together and actually got on board with what the USDA article was encouraging, can you imagine the dollar value big business losses in retail sales of all their chemical cocktails sold at numerous home improvement stores ? This is a multi-billion dollar a year business for these people and their investors. Count on more negative publicity in the years to come as these people will go down to their grave fighting these issues. Walk up and down any aisle with countless agro-chemicals for fertilization, insecticide and herbicide solutions and it's quite literally all about death and keeping your garden and landscape on permanent life-support for a cost. And with that I'll simply close and post a few beneficial links for improving your garden and landscape for your personal health and benefit. I'll also post some links of organizations for furthering your education on how native plant ecosystems actually work and how and why they should be replicated. The Agro-Chemical giants have had this "Us against Nature" mentality for decades, so Clare Thorp's comment was nothing new or isn't something that hasn't been pimped before.

"But if we want to protect ourselves from the rampages of Nature (such as fire, famine and disease) we'll have to use chemicals"

( Monsanto advertisement 1977 ) 

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 News Update (November 4, 2015)   

Urban environments boost pathogen pressure on honey bees

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/11/151104151019.htm 

USGS: Native Bees Foraging in Fields Are Exposed to Neonicotinoid Insecticides and other Pesticides 

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Past Articles from my blogs on this very subject of Pollinators and Predators

Diversity of Flowering Plants Imperative to Pollinator & Predator Health

How to Construct the best Insurance Policy for your Agricultural Business Venture

Attracting Wild Bees & Wasps to Landscapes & Farms is the best Insurance Policy

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Sources of Native Plant Ecosystem Education and the practical applications into the Landscape

http://www.californiachaparral.com/

California's Own: Native Landscape Design by Greg Rubin

http://www.laspilitas.com

http://www.californianativeplants.com/