I love summer and the long rich days, and the summer days get even longer as you go north! Holding onto summer daylight and comfortable temperatures fades as the calendar turns to fall. Already the nesting birds have migrated south, and I miss their joy. I also miss the magnificent butterflies, and there was a summer shortage this year that concerns and scares me.
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A foggy wet horizon on Lake Superior
Summer brings joy, and the nature of that joy diminishes with the fading daylight. Below are some of the last plants standing:
I love the red stemmed asters!A carpet of big leaf astersPurple cone flower
Summer could be defined by comfortable days, and Lake Superior wind pattern dominance which shifts from hot and humid to breezy and cool. This [ast summer was weird how much moisture was in the air. Many mornings it was hazy looking across the big lake. Warmer air holds more moisture, and it was a humid summer. We have just lived through the most humid summer on record. Read about it here.
“The environment is where we all meet; where we all have a mutual interest; it is the one thing all of us share.” — Lady Bird Johnson
The Monarch butterflies charm me as they play tag, the hummingbirds zip from one flower to the next, and the goldfinch quietly sit on the monarda and eat the seeds. Enormous bees gorge themselves with a bounty of pollinator plants they love. The consistent rains of this summer have created a healthy blooming habitat. All this pollinator activity creates joy!
A Monarch on liatris Hummingbirds love cardinal flowers, and Joe Pye Weed.
Native deep-rooted plants fix many things that are wrong with our world. They do not need fertilizers or chemicals, they don’t need to be watered, and their deep roots absorb water run-off. They help to keep our waterways clean, keep our air clean, and they are beautiful,
Native plants are healthy for wildlife. Birds, bees and butterflies love them and they create vital habitat which has gone missing in recent years.
Pollinator Week has been a rainy week where I live in Minnesota. I was going to list all the pollinators coming to my yard, but it’s hard to see much activity when it rains hard every day! The rain doesn’t bother hummingbirds, and they are entertaining us at our hummingbird feeder.
Spiderwort, a native plant beauty!
The purpose of Pollinator Week is to heighten everyone’s awareness of how important pollinators are to us all. Our bees, butterflies and birds are having a hard time with loss of habitat and our overuse of chemicals. We use too many harmful chemicals to kill insects and fertilize our lawns and farm fields.
My message to you this pollinator week is reduce your dependence on harmful chemicals that kill pollinators. This includes butterflies and birds. Since 1970 North America has lost 3 billion birds. We can’t keep killing the insects and caterpillars the birds need to raise their young.
Birds and butterflies add so much to the quality of our lives Bees and other pollinators touch our lives every day in ways we may not realize. Imagine a world without most of the foods you love. Without bees we wouldn’t have the abundance of apples, pumpkins, strawberries, blueberries, or almonds that we enjoy. Pollinators even help milk production: the alfalfa and clover cows graze is replenished by seed pollinated by bees. A world without pollinators would not only leave us with fewer food choices, but would make it substantially harder to find the nutrition we need to survive.
Thoughts on creating a pollinator Garden:
Provide a variety of flower colors and shapes to attract different pollinators.
Whenever possible, choose native plants. Native plants will attract more native pollinators and can serve as larval host plants for some species of pollinators.
If monarch butterflies live within your area, consider planting milkweed so their caterpillars have food.
Plant in clumps, rather than single plants, to better attract pollinators
Choose plants that flower at different times of the year to provide nectar and pollen sources throughout the growing season http://www.fws.gov/pollinators/
“Of 30 commonly used lawn pesticides, 19 are linked with cancer or carcinogenicity, 13 are linked with birth defects, 21 with reproductive effects, 26 with liver or kidney damage, 15 with neurotoxicity and 11 with disruption of the endocrine (hormonal) system. Of these same pesticides, 17 are detected in ground water, 23 have the ability to leach into drinking water sources, 24 are toxic to fish and other organisms vital to our ecosystem, 11 are toxic to bees, and 16 are toxic to birds.”
Monarch butterflies are beginning to return to Minnesota and should start arriving in droves in the next two weeks. But the population returning from Mexico will likely be much smaller than in years past.
A years-long drought pattern, winter whiplash and warming temperatures are all hurting the vulnerable species and the plants it relies on to survive, according to University of Minnesota Professor Emilie Snell-Rood, who studies monarchs and other pollinators.
Every day is a wildflower day for me. I plant for the birds, butterflies, and bees and love when they are in my garden. The spring has been spectacular where I live. Trees and bushes are blooming, birds are singing in concert, warblers are migrating through, many butterflies are present, and its sunny and 70 degrees.
The hummingbirds have arrived!
Shooting star , wild geranium, and violets
Marsh Marigolds
Hummingbirds love columbine
It is a perfect time to add some native plants to your garden to draw more birds and butterflies into your yard.
I disagree with a bill in the Minnesota Legislature about synthetic turf (HF 3705/SF 3869).
Synthetic turf has been framed as a sustainable solution for dealing with the climate crisis, drought and drainage issues. Unfortunately, many want to believe in this easy but expensive solution and believe without evidence that it is a sustainable practice. This is greenwashing and a false solution for helping our climate crisis. Synthetic turf is made of plastic. It has all the terrible side effects of plastic pollution. It breaks down in the sun and breaks down with use. It leaches toxic chemicals into our water and breaks down into microfibers. Synthetic turf is not healthy for children, pets, wildlife or adults to recreate on. It is not a sensible solution for a green lawn.
If plastic were a country, it would be the fifth-largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world. We shouldn’t be encouraging the use of more plastic. We should be reducing our plastic use, not increasing it.
Synthetic turf is terrible at managing stormwater runoff. Even if it is permeable, the water will run right under it and cause erosion as it finds a muddy path to the nearest waterway. Deep rooted plants are the master of absorbing runoff and holding the soil. They are a proven solution.
The state of Minnesota is putting lots of money into bee lawns. Let’s pivot to them in times of drought. Bee lawns help pollinators, improve water quality and work for the healthy communities the public wants. Bee lawns are real, not fake. They are a low-maintenance and sustainable solution, and bee lawns can be adjusted and planted for everyone’s needs.
Becky Wardell Gaertner, Minneapolis
I like violets in a bee lawn, they are hearty, can be mowed and bees like them.
On what should have been a beautiful Lake Superior morning, smokey air was creeping across the big lake from fires burning in Canada. Luckily, most days are filled with brisk clear Lake Superior air.
Amazing butterflies, the Compton tortoiseshell.
Sounds of robust birds singing fill the woods. The chestnut sided warbler, song sparrows, oven bird, indigo buntings, red-eyed vireo and many others sing all day long.
The butterflies are the very best, and the contrast to so few butterflies in urban areas is striking. Every amazing butterfly that lives in June is here. They seem to love the host plants I have planted to get them to begin the next generation of butterflies. There is hope for the future if we could get over our addiction to pesticides and plant pollinator gardens.
Milkweed is a wonderful host plant.
The swallow tail is one of the easiest butterflies to identify.
Seeing the bear, fox and big bucks and deer have been a surprise. After several years of scarcity, they are back, and the squirrels, chipmunks and bunnies are almost non-existent.
Bunch berries will have red berries later in the summer.
June in the north country of Minnesota and Wisconsin are famous for the beautiful but non-native lupine. They grow in patches everywhere. This year I was struck by all the June white plants blooming. and have enjoyed enormous fields of daisies. I especially love the delicate star flower, the false lily of the valley, the hardy Canada anemone, and classic north woods bunch berries. To experience these beauties, you need to get out of your cars and walk!
Happy Juneteenth**and Happy Pollinator Week! Both important in making the world a better place to live.
This mix of native plants attracts bees, butterflies, and singing birds.
Bee balm is one of the best plants for pollinators.
Pearly everlasting is a host plant for the painted lady butterfly. Picture of her catterpillar.
An unsung hero of the pollinator world.
June 19 to June 25, is pollinator week highlighting the importance of pollinators to our world and our survival. Drought, floods, storms, chemicals and loss of habitat are hard on our pollinators, and there are things we can do to ensure their survival.
Pollinators bring me joy and I can’t imagine a world without butterflies, dragonflies, hummingbirds and beautiful singing birds. Take time this week to think about what you can do to help the pollinators of our world. Maybe decide to stop putting chemicals on your yard, plant some native plants, or take out some grass lawn for more garden.
This Pollinator Week is emphasizing the connections between climate and pollinators. Pollinators are dying because their food and homes are disappearing, diseases have increased, and rising temperatures and natural disasters are affecting their ability to survive – all of which are related to climate change. At the same time, the conservation of pollinators and their habitats can help combat climate change by supporting healthy ecosystems, air, soil, water, and plants. Combined, these results make planet earth a safer place for us to live. These are big problems and the efforts that are made around North America and globally during Pollinator Week can help provide real solutions for the pollinators we all love. https://pollinator.org/pollinator-week
**Juneteenth is the “longest-running African-American holiday,” and it recognizes June 19, 1865, as the date that news of slavery’s end reached slaves in Texas and other states in the southwest—formalizing their emancipation after the end of the Civil War a month earlier. It also came two years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.
Bees are facing many stressors because of climate change, loss of habitat, too many chemicals and disease.
On World Bee Day plant some seeds bees love like bee balm(menardia) Culver’s Root, hyssop, Joe Pye weed, or asters. Also, consider a bee lawn https://beelab.umn.edu/bee-lawn
There’s just something about being outside that seems to lift your mood and bring on the happy. Happy May!!
I hope you can spend lots of hours outside this May. Clean air is crucial to being outside! What can you do to ensure our air is clean?
Native plants bring birds butterflies and bees into your yard. They also need no chemicals, and create cleaner air!
Hooray for May. It has been a long snowy winter where I live. This May get outside to experience the beauty of nature. Time outside demands fresh air. It’s a big frustration for me when I go outside, and someone is using a smelly lawn mower/leaf blower, or the airplanes overhead are spewing bad air Why people need to idle their engines as they read their phones is a mystery to me? Please turn your engine off. **This May spend time outside and work for clean air! There’s just something about being outside that seems to lift your mood and bring on the happy.
I have just been out walking along a river near my house. It was so quiet, the baby leaves are just popping on the trees. Manny rich colors, and wow, beautiful wildflowers appearing! I saw my first bull snake. Pay attention and nature will award you!
-Work for clean air. Never idle your car engine, don’t use your power lawn mower or leaf blower, and please avoid outdoor fires. All these polluting activities contribute to our climate crisis. Every action matters!
-Two or more days a week leave your car in the garage.
-Take a breath, clean air! Thank you.
-Clean air is an environmental justice issue. Read about it here. Never support the burning of garbage or chemical recycling.***
-Participate in No Mow May https://www.ecowatch.com/no-mow-may-uk.html No Mow May is under way! #NoMowMay encourages people to resist the call of the lawn mower and leave lawns untouched until the end of May for the benefit of: pollinators, biodiversity and clean air!
-Enjoy a peaceful bike ride away from traffic!
**Idling your car wastes fuel, money, and causes air pollution and health problems. It is better to turn off the ignition if waiting more than 10 seconds, as restarting the car does not use more gas than idling.
***What is chemical recycling? The process primarily involves converting plastic into fuel that is then incinerated. Far from actual recycling, it’s really just an expensive and roundabout way of burning fossil fuels. The chemicals industry is lobbying hard to get two types of these plastic-to-fuel incinerators — pyrolysis and gasification — exempt from regulations under the Clean Air Act.
The Actions For Happiness groups has a calendar of activities to help make May meaningful and kinder!
