Friday, March 18, 2011

Doing the bees work

I am back at playing pollinator early in the morning, but I don't mind as I am seeing the fruits already! Hubby and J put in a new vegetable bed towards the end of last year and I planted some butternut and baby marrow seeds . They had dug it over with horse manure and some compost from our own compost heap. I was concerned that the planting had happened too late in the summer but it was so worth the wait and the trial and error.

The plants have done so well and every morning I am greeted with a beautiful display of the brightest golden yellow flowers, make and female. I am helping to pollinate them so that we get a good harvest. I have learned through our botany course why I was not so successful with the butternuts.....some plants are "allergic " to the pollen from their own plant!
They need to be pollinated with the pollen from the same type of plant of course, but not the exact same bush! I love learning new things alongside my children and next time I will be sure that the male flowers of my butternuts that are being used to get the pollen, are not on the same vine as the female that needs pollinating.

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