Bees like Red and Stripey- The decline of the Honey Bee

The decline in the Honey Bee population is a serious global problem, which has me seriously concerned. Many crops depend on bee pollination and farmers often hire bee hives to place along side their crops to help pollination. Suddenly the bee keepers were loosing whole hives on a daily basis and now this is a world wide phenomenon often referred to as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) or Honey Bee Depopulation Syndrome (HBDS).

I was amazed when I read in the March 2011 issue of the independent that

"The fact is that of the 100 crop species that provide 90 per cent of the world's food, over 70 are pollinated by bees."

and in  later in March the UN issued a warning stating that

"Bee declines range up to 85 percent in some areas "

Although the exact cause is not yet known experts from The United Nations say that several factors maybe involved. ie..

• Decline in flowering plants
• Use of harmful insecticides
• Worldwide pollution
• Increase in pests such as the varroa destructor which attacks Honey Bees.

When I first decided to change to a more eco friendly lifestyle one of the first three rules I made was to only by vegetable and fruit plants instead of flowers. I have now changed this idea and take pleasure in my flowering plants as they have their purpose in the garden. I have just planted some big sun flowers to plant along the back of the vegetable patch to hopefully encourage our Andalusian bees, but actually bees like red and stripy flowers.

Not many of us can rush out and start a bee colony but here in Andalusia we are lucky in that running bee hives is popular and there are groups who hire fields in the campo for such activity. Also many of you may have seen on the trip up to Sierra Nevada that honey is sold along the roadside of in local shops.If you can't get to local products you could try http://www.elcortijodelasabejas.es which appears have a nice online service.

You Might also Like to Read Andy's article on Pest Control.

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Lettuce and Salad Leaves

There are many varieties of lettuce to choose from nowadays so there is no excuse for growing just boring old “iceberg”. My personal favourites are the red tinged varieties like lollo rosso and other loose leaved varieties. Rocket is also always top of the list of things to grow when I’m planning the plot. It has a nice peppery taste and gives salads a good kick up the bum. There are also some nice oriental leaves that have appeared in seed catalogues over the past few years although they are less common here in Spain. If you want to try these then the internet is the best place to start.  

Sowing seeds

In each packet you are likely to get hundreds of seeds and its unlikely you will be able to use all of them even though they will last for a couple of years. Some seed merchants sell mixed seed packets which allows you to grow three or four varieties from one pack. This is good news in one way but the varieties are not always listed and in some packets the seeds are mixed together, meaning that you are not sure of exactly what you’re growing. However, if you’re not fussy about what lettuce you eat or are a novice and don’t know the different varieties it is a very economical way of growing several types. Lettuce seeds are small so should be grown on top of moist compost and covered with a fine layer of compost or vermiculite. There is nothing to stop you from sowing straight into the soil if your soil is nice and fine. I personally don’t and always start off my plants in pots if I can because I have too many stones that prevent the fragile seedlings from growing.

Soil

Any soil type will give reasonable results but if you can incorporate compost. It will give you bigger lettuce and they will grow much quicker. Having said that, home grown lettuce does not keep in the fridge for as long as shop bought ones, so you might have a certain amount of wastage. Not a major problem if you have a compost heap or chickens and rabbits that you can supplement their diet with.

Aftercare

You must keep the soil moist if you are to stop the lettuce from setting seed (bolting). Apply fertilizer if your soil is poor but it shouldn’t be necessary if you incorporated some compost before planting (a good reason for making the effort with your soil early on). Slugs and snails can be a problem earlier in the year when it’s wet and grasshoppers/ locust are the biggest problem in summer. To combat slugs and snails, sink empty tuna tins into the soil so the top is flush with the soil and fill with beer or sugared water. The slugs find them irresistible and slither their way into the tins/traps where they die from drowning or alcohol poisoning!! Grasshoppers are almost impossible to catch and if you find you have a major problem then your only option is to cover the lettuces with netting. This is easy if your lettuces are grown in nice symmetrical rows, not so easy if like me you grow them in between other plants. A good tip is to buy food protectors from a general houseware shop. They are made of rigid wire mesh and dome shaped and are designed to stop flies from landing on your food. An expensive way of doing it if you grow lots of lettuces, I know. Your alternative is to grow more than you need and be prepared to lose a few along the way.

Harvesting

It is tempting to pull up the lettuce once it has reached a reasonable size but I prefer to harvest in two ways. First is to pick the young outside leaves as the lettuce grows discarding any that have been nibbled or wilted (give them to the chickens instead). Secondly; lettuces are what you call “cut and come again” which means you can cut the lettuce just above the soil leaving the roots in the ground. With a bit of luck those roots will grow a new head of lettuce giving you a second crop.

General tips

The most annoying thing about growing and harvesting lettuces is splashing soil all over the leaves. The best way to prevent this is to lay weed membrane or plastic sheeting with holes punched into it on the soil prior to planting. Make some slits in the membrane and plant your lettuces through the slits, this will stop the soil from splashing on the leaves and conserve moisture too.

Bokashi

WHAT IS BOKASHI?

The product “bokashi” is an inoculated bran mix that ferments kitchen waste including meat and dairy products. In this mix is wheat bran, EM1 (effective microorganisms), molasses, and warm sterile water.

The bran is the host medium while the EM1 is the magic ingredient that makes it all happen. The EM1 has to be activated by the addition of molasses. Unless its activated the EM1 would take a long time to perform its function. Finally the water is added and the whole thing is mixed together. This is a brief overview of what bokashi is without getting too technical. For all you scientists and geeks there are many sites that go into great detail about bokashi.

 HOW DOES IT WORK

 The EM1 innoculant is a combination of naturally occurring yeasts and bacteria similar to those found in pro biotic yogurt. They work by fermenting the kitchen waste anaerobically, the opposite to ordinary composting/vermiculture which is aerobic.

The kitchen waste is placed into the bottom of a bokashi bucket and sprinkled with a handful of bokashi bran. Because the process is anaerobic press the waste and bokashi down to exclude as much air as possible. Placing a plate or piece of plastic on top of the waste as your going along will also be beneficial to the process.

This process is repeated until the bucket is full. It is then left to ferment for 12 to 14 days ideally inside out of direct sunlight. As the waste is fermenting a liquid should form at the bottom of the bucket called leachate. This is where a purpose made bokashi bucket comes into its own as it is made with an insert for the waste and a tap to siphon off the leachate. This can be used as a garden fertilizer if diluted down.

After 14 days the fermented waste can be dug into a patch of fallow soil or placed onto the compost heap where it will continue to decompose. If your digging it into the soil you will have to wait two weeks before you plant anything in it as it has a very high acid content until it has finished fermenting.

PRO´S AND CONS

 The bokashi process from start to finish takes about 5 weeks, considerably less time than either vermicomposting or regular composting. It can and should be carried out indoors ie the kitchen. It doesn't smell except for a fermented kind of sweet and sour smell, and anyway bokashi buckets have airtight lids. It is a solution to an old age problem of what to do with cooked leftovers and could, in a utopian world, be the answer to land fill sites.

                                   EM1                                                                                          

If you’re familiar with bokashi then you will have come across EM1. It is an abbreviation of effective microorganisms. These organisms are naturally occurring and are similar to those found in pro biotic yogurts and other food stuffs. They are a mix of yeasts, fungi, lactic acids and bacteria.

 Apart from their use in bokashi, EM is used by the farming industry as a treatment for slurry and to eliminate odours, as a nutrient in hydroponics to encourage root growth, in agriculture to improve the state of the soil and increase crop productivity by encouraging germination, flowering, ripening and root growth. By encouraging good root growth the plants are able to combat pests and diseases without the use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers.

When em1 is used in bokashi it combines with molasses to start an anaerobic fermentation process that can benefit gardeners and society as a whole. All kitchen food waste can be treated with bokashi and the finished product can be used in the garden. Combined with recycling of packaging, bokashi can reduce the amount of waste we put in landfill sites. Bokashi produces a liquid by-product called leachate which can also be used to keep drains clear as well as a garden fertilizer.  

 According to some EM was developed by professor Teruo higa in Japan. He is certainly credited to developing bokashi and bringing it to worldwide attention but there is evidence that EM/bokashi technology was used in agriculture in the far east before it was made popular elsewhere. EM cultures can be grown with some success by the enthusiastic amateur but results are sometimes hit and miss, lacking all of the necessary bacteria.

Spring in the Garden

Although it’s early spring things are moving very quickly in the garden. The warmer temperatures combined with the odd downpour are ideal conditions for the plants to really thrive. By now you should have most of your late spring and summer crops in the ground. If you don’t it’s not too late to start.

To make up for lost time buy vegetable plants from a good garden centre, most of the inland centres have them and they’re available from some agricultural shops on the coast. Of course you should be sowing some seeds too, that way you will have  new plants ready to plant out just as you are harvesting your first vegetables. This is called successional sowing and ensures that you have a regular supply throughout spring and summer. If you do have a glut of one particular vegetable and you just can’t use them all but don’t want to throw them away.

I’ll assume that you have prepared your soil ready for planting, if you haven’t then get digging. You will reap the rewards later on if your soil is in tip top condition i.e. its been weeded and dug over and you have either incorporated some compost and manure or given it a good feed with an organic fertilizer.

Talking of weeds, you’ll really need to dig them up now. If you let them flower and then run to seed you will have an even bigger problem next year. The odd weed in or around paths and borders don’t create too much of a problem but in amongst vegetables they can sap much needed water and nutrients from your soil.

Another problem that the gardener encounters at this time of year are bugs and pests particularly aphids and caterpillars. You will usually find aphids hiding like cowards on the underside of tender young leaves. A simple solution to a serious infestation is to blast the blighters with a hosepipe, it doesn’t kill them but it will give the plant a fighting chance until you can properly tackle the problem (See our article on organic pest control).

Caterpillars are easier to spot but by the time you do they’ll have munched and devoured their way through your cabbages and broccoli, anyone remember “The very hungry caterpillar”. The only way to rid your plants of them is to pick them off and squash them or feed them to the chickens, who’ll be eternally grateful unlike the caterpillars.