Posted on 02/21/2014 12:13:29 PM PST by greeneyes
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Good question. I’ve never grown vegetables or fruits entirely indoors, and we have no shortage of bees here. I’m planning to start my seeds next week, as long as Frankie doesn’t take up too much of my time. This may be a two week project.
My garden area has two high bricks walls on both sides and a wood back wall and there is nothing around me in the other people's garden area to entice pollinating creatures. Their back gardens have absolutely nothing in them and the houses behind me have nothing growing that would entice pollinators.
I have two Lantana flowers in two pots but I need more of those to get butterflies and bees in here but they won't get in that net room but there will be plenty of plants on the deck that need pollination. I just don't know which need to be on the deck and which will do fine in the net room.
I have to find that out really soon.
Okay, I found a great list of plants that need or don’t need pollinators. Will get this list together and post it.
Due to the walls around my garden, wind that is high outside the garden is not that high inside the garden. That means there will likely be less pollination by wind in my garden than there would be outside. I do have some sunflower seed I will start tomorrow along with the veggie seeds. I think Lantana flowers are superb as when I bought a plant last year, butterflies were all over those Lantana flowers at Lowes, so many they must have been having a convention.
VEGGIES THAT NEED POLLINATORS:
Cucumbers
Melons and watermelons
Berries
Tree fruits
Melons and cucumbers can be hand-pollinated, but it is not that easy. If you grow blueberries, they need cross-pollination so plant two different types to make that easy.
Plant flowers close to food plants to attract butterflies and bees. I’ll have Lantana and Sunflowers.
VEGGIES THAT CAN BE POLLINATED BY HUMANS:
Squashes, both winter and summer types—by hand
Tomatoes—by hand, wind
Eggplant—by hand, wind
Peppers, Hot and Sweet—by hand, wind
Squash, with their large male and female flowers, are easy to hand pollinate. Get pollen on the female plant as much as possible. Veggies like tomatoes and peppers and eggplant, get fertilized by bees’ wings. You can shake the plants a little or use a Q tip or paintbrush.
VEGGIES THAT PRODUCE WITHOUT POLLINATORS:
All leafy greens
Brassicas: broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and kohlrabi
Below ground root veggies and tubers such as carrots, parsnips, salsify, potatoes, sweet potatoes, horseradish
Ground level root veggies such as beets, turnips, rutabagas
Most legumes including peas and beans
Corn—like other wind pollinated veggies, a little shake helps distribute the pollen.
Herbs
Celery
Onions and leeks
There are some hybrids that will produce without pollination but won’t make a seed.
That’s a difficult problem. We are almost overwhelmed by bees and wasps. We also have a good number of hummingbirds here. Our biggest challenge is a hard, rocky soil.
Oh, I ordered a bunch of sunflower seeds. For some reason, they grow like giants here! I’ve got all different heights and colours.
I hope my Sunflower seeds turn into flowers and they will be in containers of some sort so I can put them among the food plant containers.
They’re stately, gorgeous and the birds love them!
If you want to attract bees, plant horehound. It’s a bee magnet. Also, it has medicinal uses..Oh, and if you have a fly problem, infuse some horehound into milk, set it out, the flies will go into the bowl of milk, and die..
No, it doesn’t work to kill squirrels.
Are you ready for bee hives? Honey is the only food with no expiration date.
Unless you can add height to the sides of the planter, you may forfeit the extra soil to the first rain. You might remove it to 1” below the top of the planter. Water it first, as watering tends to settle dirt.
Awesome. Free organic matter.
A truck is a wonderful tool.
Congratulations on the new cat. I hope he mixes well with your other critters.
I'm just not up for complex evil plans like I used to be. ;)
NSA, the previous was mostly sarcasm. I'm not stalking or hacking anything. Except you guys.
/johnny
I thought that Twinkies and Spam had no expiration dates either. lol
Ha ha ha ttoooo funny
I would stalk them too - especially if they continue to bag the stuff up for you. A person can’t have too much organic matter.
I forgot about twinkies. :)
But then, are they really food?
I’m not sure maple syrup can go bad either.
/johnny
Thank you! Noted and copied.
/johnny
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