Blooming in the Drought--Sustaining Pollinators on a Water Budget

The mall is blooming. You can always tell when 'tis the season for new shoes because the mall has changed out the flower borders. In Southern California we've gone from Christmas red begonias to spring pastel pansies to the first riotous red, orange and pink zinnias of early summer in the beds at the mall. They're so beautiful and trust me, color therapy is a thing I believe in deeply--but when I walk past those gorgeous color-filled beds and hear the sprinklers hissing under their leaves, I can't help but feel a twinge of guilt.

"You thought you could enjoy flowers without paying the price? No. No. You'll pay. Oh, you'll pay."

Even though Southern California has had unseasonable amounts of rain this calendar year and Northern California had a very successful rain year in 2016, helping to raise the water table and address some of the dwindling snowpack in the northern mountains that feeds many of our dwindling aquifiers, California is still deep in a drought that will probably be permanent. Our chaparral and desert climate in California was never meant to sustain the amount of farmland and elaborate landscaping peppering the state. Even a traditional suburban lawn sucks down an average of 2000 gallons of water a week just to keep the grass green, even under water restrictions.

Thaaaaat's a lot. For grass? for essentially a spiky dirt carpet? That's a lot. 

Grass is persona non grata on my urban farm these days since we let the lawn die in favor of vegetable beds and fruit trees. But the question of flowers has always been a tough one for me. Are they worth the water? In an urban garden every non-edible plant has to have a function--I have rue to keep away the Japanese beetles, garlic to keep off the aphids. Even my edible herbs live where they live for a reason--cilantro with peppers, basil with tomatoes, companions to encourage the growth of one another and improve the flavor of the edibles. Are my roses out there pulling their weight?

Further complicating that question is the looming disaster of the rapidly dwindling honeybee populations as Colony Collapse Disorder ravages colonies all over the country, leaving scientists baffled as to the source. The Hawaiian yellow faced honeybee was declared an endangered species this week for the first time, leaving species of vegetables like tomatoes, which can only be pollinated by honeybees, threatened as well. While scientists don't know what is causing Colony Collapse Disorder, a bizarre phenomenon which causes the drones to abandon the hive for no reason and die, the decline in available water sources and the longer and longer journeys that bees must undertake in search of pollen have also contributed to the decline in the bee population. Simply stated, fewer pollen-producing flowers per acre means longer flights for bees, who often die of dehydration or heat exhaustion from having to range so far afield with no fresh water sources to sustain them. 

So flowers, pollen-rich flowers, could do a lot for wild honeybee populations. and luckily there are some drought tolerant flowers that take very little water while providing brightly colored bee-attracting blooms. 

Purple-blue borage: edible leaves, medicinal uses for flowers, and a bee-paradise. 

Borage is one of my favorites. You don't often find it in nurseries already started; I planted my first plants from seed. They're super easy to grow, requiring nothing in terms of maintenance, and are self perpetuating. This patch of borage came up from seeds that fell between beds from last year's crop, and came up like gang-busters just from the winter rains. They are BIG, one plant stretching somewhere around 2-3' and reaching about that height. They are a perfect plant to have next to your vegetable beds as bees love them and they can thrive off the runoff from your vegetable watering. The leaves are big and slightly fuzzy and are edible, though the fuzzy texture makes them a little off-putting for me personally; but I rip off a handful of leaves every morning for my chickens and they love them. The stems are succulent and store a lot of water so this plant can take a lot of abuse.

Nasturtiums, "Alaska" mix; heirloom

These nasturtiums are also a hit with my chickens who go crazy for the leaves and the flowers. Harvesting the seeds from these heirlooms couldn't be easier; they drop from the flower heads as soon as the petals start to fade. Bees go crazy for them, especially with the yellow and orange blooms. They fade in the fall and go dormant, but this batch also came up with no help just from seeds that fell from last year's crop and the winter rains. Birds LOVE them so if you plant from seed, keep the bed covered with netting until they get big enough; and they spread a lot, mounding up quite high. Also good for borders, since they will really take over any bed they share; but they keep the ground shaded while taking up very little root space, so they are a good choice under taller plants like fruit trees. Nasturtiums are also a "trap crop", which means they attract bugs and pests and keep them off of your vegetables. When you start to see them getting infested with aphids or cabbage loopers, pull the infected plant and toss it in the compost heap. While nasturtiums do require a little water, they are by no means water hogs; I just hit them with the hose when they start to look droopy and otherwise they live off of the runoff from the vegetable beds.

Scented geranium, "Tea Rose"

These scented geraniums are probably my favorite water-wise flowering plant in the world. Scented geraniums are similar to regular geraniums but their leaves contain a strongly fragranced oil that makes the leaves scented with anything from chocolate mint to tea roses to citronella. I originally bought and planted these scented geraniums because I had read they were one of the most strongly fragrant plants out there, and I was trying to combat a stinky backyard that smelled horribly of dog from the previous owners. Whenever I had a few extra bucks I would drop by the nursery, pick up another 6" pot of these (sold in the herb section, all leaves and no flowers) and stick it in the ground. They required a bit of water to take hold but otherwise were one of my first successful garden projects. I stated collecting all the different kinds I could find and they were really, beautifully fragrant. It only took a slight breeze for the wind to pick up the scent and fill the backyard with a fresh sweet aroma.

I had never had geraniums before so I was completely unprepared for what happened once they got established. My leafy green pots shot out runners and started growing EVERYWHERE. The "citronella" variation grew straight up in stalks but all the others started sending out their vines and twining all over everything--the retaining wall, the fence, and each other. And then, without warning, they BLOOMED! Pale pink and peach and bright pink and deep fucshia, they exploded into blossom and the bees went straight for them. Once they were established, I never watered them. I went through a period where I was just too overwhelmed to take care of the garden and stopped watering them and they just grew higher. I have several plants that have now grown up over the fence and taken over everything on my back hill, and the bees just go to town. 

The great thing about geraniums is that they are easy to prune, the stalks, no matter how thick, being fairly brittle and easy to clip. They propagate themselves readily, growing to fill any space, and take up very little root space. If you can train them to grow up they look gorgeous against a fence or climbing up a tree. They drop their leaves and make their own thick, crumbly mulch, and the few times we have wanted to clear an area of geraniums they are extremely easy to pull up as their roots are very shallow.

Bottom line, when I'm thinking about what's going to live in my urban garden, I'm looking for flowers that are pollen rich (sunflowers for example, are great, but many strains have been developed to prevent allergies and have are pollen-free) or will repel or trap pests. If they can attract beneficial insects, like Bachelor Buttons attract ladybugs, great. If they're edible, as all three of the plants I've highlighted here are, even better. They need to be low-maintenance, since vegetables require most of my attention in the spring and summer months. The question remains then--with all of these great, water-wise plants, filled with pollen, requiring no care...are my roses worth it? Roses require pruning, dead-heading and weekly water; they attract diseases and take work to keep them free of leaf rot and rust spot and pests like aphids. They're petulant, spoiled princesses: if you leave them alone, they'll grow sickly and wither on their canes. 

Still...today as I was taking a good long look at the ultra fertile soil those roses live in, that beautiful crumbly dark soil filled with banana peels and garlic heads and cocoa mulch that I have cultivated over the years in order to keep those roses healthy, as I was thinking how I could stick an orange tree into that space if I just yanked them all up and it would probably take up less water, as I was asking myself what these roses were doing to earn their keep...

I noticed three honeybees climbing drunkenly into a single white rose, seductively shimmying up and down the inner petals, luxuriating in their soft, silken spa, sliding their legs through the pollen in a bacchanal of hedonism. The wind picked up the scent and carried the honey-sweet fragrance of the roses to caress my face. 

Dammit. 

Fine. But you're sharing the bed with the garlic bulbs.

4 Reasons to Plant Sunflowers

Sunflowers for fall? I'm not sure if this is going to work. I mean, of course, there's the whole color palette. Sunflower yellow is really more of a summer color, more suited to gingham and strawberry cotton prints, whereas it's really becoming more of a leggings and Pumpkin Spice Latte moment right now. But in Southern California at least, where winters don't often dip below 50 degrees F (the bottoming out temp for frost tender sunflowers), I have a theory that sunflowers might be a fall option, and I'm planting some now to see if they survive. I've fallen in love with this hardworking flower this spring and summer, so I'll definitely be starting some seedlings in February indoors so they can go out into the garden as early as March, but if I can have a year round dose of these amazing multi-taskers, I'll take it. Here's why sunflowers are my new obsession.

1. Bird Seed. Now I personally like to have birds come swooping into my garden because I like to pretend they are drawn there by my beautiful singing voice and my inherent and visible kindness as a clearly misplaced Disney princess who's been cruelly relocated to the real world. You may enjoy them for the pastoral scene they set when you go out in the morning for your coffee moment and hear them chirping away, or you may just enjoy the sight of brightly colored songbirds with their impossibly brilliant plumage.

This guy, a California oriole, showed up on my fence this year.

For the urban farmer, though, the birds are essential, both as pollinators (especially for large flowers like sunflowers) and for the bugs they eat. Yes, birds can be a nuisance when it comes to tasty little sprouts and berry bushes, but it's worth the hassle of covering certain plants in bird netting to have them present in the garden to eat things like tomato hornworms and cabbage loopers and the general abundance of caterpillars that turn into moths and other pests. Though I don't allow birds to just free range my entire sunflower garden, I do leave one or two sunflowers to go to seed where the birds can easily access them, and I also scatter a handful of seeds on the ground. Particularly in winter food sources can be scarce for birds and protein-rich sunflower seeds and the perfect little pick me up to keep them pecking around in the garden long enough to earn their keep by gobbling up some pests. 

2. Bees. Scientists haven't come up with a definitive answer yet on what is causing the catastrophic Colony Collapse Disorder that has devastated American beehives since 1997. Over ten million beehives have been lost due to CCD, worker bees disappearing from the hive despite an abundance of food and leaving the queen with just a few nurse bees to care for the young. The effects are potentially devastating to us humans as well since most food crops need to be pollinated in some way before they can fruit. It's serious enough that the federal government has enacted a White House Task Force on Pollinator Health to reduce the amount of beehives being lost to CCD and restore and enhance millions of acres of land for pollinators like the honey bee and monarch butterfly. The President has asked all citizens to help by planting pollinator gardens or setting aside land to go wild. Organizations like The Great Sunflower Project are trying to help educate and promote the use of sunflowers for pollinator gardens since sunflowers, by virtue of their bright yellow color, are especially attractive to bees and particularly rich in abundant pollen. Additionally, by letting some of the stems remain standing after the flowers are spent, you can provide hollow tubes for wild bees to lay their eggs. 

Sunflower "Lemon Queen"--particularly attractive to bees (notice pollen all over the leaves) and recommended by the Great Sunflower Project

Any sunflower seed will do as long you check to see that it is not a pollen free varietal (developed for florist arrangements) but The Great Sunflower Project particularly promotes the "Lemon Queen", a relatively small 4"-5" head, 5'-6' feet in height, with more than average pollen production. You can find the seeds right at the checkout counter at Whole Foods or in most nursery seed racks, or find them at Burpee Seeds or my personal favorite, Renee's Garden Seeds.

3. Attracting pollinators. The flowers are gorgeous, of course, and so cheerful, but the petals aren't just decorative and nor is the yellow color coincidental. Not only are sunflowers benefiting the pollinators themselves but the fact that they draw these beneficial insects and birds to the garden helps the entire garden ecosystem. Bees that come for the sunflower pollen will also pause to pollinate your squash blossoms and blueberry flowers. The huge yellow sunflower heads are like a big neon truck-stop beacon shouting "Food, Next Exit!" Not only do bees love the bright yellow color but all kinds of butterflies, including the struggling populations of migratory Monarchs, are attracted as well. I wish I'd put some sunflowers in next to my Butternut squashes this spring; the gourds flowered with some brilliant yellow blossoms but never fruited from lack of pollinating. Blah.

4. The Seeds!

A handful of sunflower seeds thrown into the ground under 1/2" of cover soil yielded about six heads and this bowl of seeds, enough that I have plenty for replanting even after I scattered some to the wild birds, fed handfuls to my chickens, and roasted a batch with salt. Click here for the recipe. Sunflower seeds are delicious but more than that, they just might be the perfect snack for keeping yourself beautiful. Don't believe me? A comparison of sunflower kernels to some other beauty-magazine-lauded nuts and berries (here) lists sunflower seeds as extraordinarily rich in selenium, iron, zinc (all of which combat thyroid problems that lead to lowered metabolisms and hair loss) and vitamin E (keeps your skin healthy and plumped). Did I already mention delicious? They're delicious.

Sunflowers take almost no care except a sunny spot and a bit of water to thrive (nothing like what your lawn full of emotionally manipulative grass, with its empty promises of softly caressing green abundance but in actuality scratchy, itchy blades of lies that would only save you from starvation if they could also give you crippling belly cramps and would just as soon burn your house to the ground as look at you). Each seed that flowers yields hundreds. HUNDREDS. Of seeds. I am kicking myself for not throwing down pounds of the stuff during prime time sunflower planting season in March. Once my sunflowers' petals had started fading and the seeds had formed, I went ahead and snipped off the top 12" of stem and flower head, bagging the heads in brown paper lunch bags and hanging them upside down. They dried in about six weeks and the seeds were easy to just brush off with a fingertip. 

Hopefully my fall sunflower experiment will yield some blossoms for me; but if not, I can't think of a better plant for an early spring container garden and some experiments in succession planting, where you plant a crop of the same seeds every two weeks to end up with flowers throughout the spring and summer. A flower that feeds everything in the garden, as statuesque and slender as a Roman goddess, turning her face to the sun to follow the passage of Helios' flaming chariot across the sky, definitely deserves to be the focus of Farming in Heels.