Lynn and I attended the Virginia Biological Farming, VABF.org, conference at the 4-H Center at Smith Mountain Lake, Virginia. The image below is taken at sunrise from the front door of our motel room. The motel, Westlake Waterfront Inn, was located on a small peninsula into a finger of the lake.
Many of the people at the conference were farmers. We are consumers but also interested in food issues in the Fredericksburg area.
Some notes:
- Might want to try growing pomegranates, alpine strawberry, black currants from Edible Landscaping.
- Some ideas for vegetable varieties include Boldog peppers for Hungarian paprika, trombocino for a vining summer squash
- Think about fall root crops as they look good in the garden.
- Need to clump flowers for pollinators.
- Scented, climbing petunias
- Edible Landscaping – a site and book by Rosalind Creasy. Edible Landscaping
- Debbie Roos spoke on pollinators
- growingsmallfarms.org
- her garden highlighted at https://growingsmallfarms.ces.ncsu.edu/growingsmallfarms-pollinatorgarden/ check this for List of Plants in the Pollinator Garden, Debbie’s List of the Top 25 Native Pollinator Plants for North Carolina
- minimize tillage
- allow crops to bolt
- stagger planting dates
- eave native bee sites alone
- neonictinoids are harmful to pollinators
- Sevin dust are mistaken for pollen and can kill pollinators
- plant in 3 to 4 foot diameter of a single plant to aid pollinators
- Read Bringing Nature Home: How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants, Updated and Expanded
by Doug Tallamy
- Check with Virginia Native Plant Societyfor information and resources for Virginia PLants
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