Guerilla bee gardening

[lemmje]

I'm with TenBears. If you and i were neighbors and you thought it great to spread flower seed, and i thought it great to spread tumbleweeds, and someone else thought it great to spread fire ants, then by your logic, all of us are ok in doing so because we are all equal owners of that public land.

Do what you are gonna do, just know there could be consequences.

[Diamond Hunter]

Hey Tenbears,how in the world do you plant 10 acres of purple Tansey?How many pounds that take?

[dudelt]

Your idea of planting borage "for the public good" is a nice idea. However, what make you the person who decides what the public good is? I might believe that marijuana is a great medicinal plant. Should I be out there planting it all over town for the public good? It is legal here so why not? Unfortunately, I don't get to make these choices. Public lands belongs to everyone. Since we don't all agree what is best for our public lands, we let the government decide and we elect them to make the choices for us. Clyderoad has the right idea. Bring the idea to your city or county officials. They might like it so much, they will pay for the seed!

[Tenbears]

Hey Tenbears,how in the world do you plant 10 acres of purple Tansey?How many pounds that take?

I plant 60 acres not 10. Each pound of seed contains over 1/4 million seeds. I use 50 pounds for the 60 acre tract. Believe me it is not cheep seed. Because of the cost of the seed I drill it in rather than broadcast to minimize the bird damage. I also bush hog after it goes to seed. I get 4 years out of it that way. making the planting cost below $1000.00 a year.

[beepro]

Both the blue and white flower type Borage are invasive. I've been trying to get rid of them for almost
4 years now. Every early Spring time they would bloom and can be overwintered quite easily here. Frost cannot
kill the young seedlings. Our environment is perfect for them invading every corner of the backyard if you let them.
The worst part are the tiny transparent skin poking needle like fine hairs. You would be asking for hours of itchiness if
you don't have a pairs of thick gloves to remove the dead plants. Imagine when a little dog or innocent kid playing at the
public land to be in contact with those innocent looking beautiful blooming plants. The seeds not in contact with sunlight will
stay dormant for years under the ground. Now I don't till the soil anymore instead to cover them with more compost making a raised bed. They are blooming nicely now and the bees are all over them. And so are the tiny 4 little seeds that come with every seed pods attached. I too like you have consider spreading them to the local creek and open fields. But after thinking about it further it is too invasive because of the many seeds one plant can produce in a season's growth. No other animals or insects will eat the plants either. They are drought resistant to an extent too. One month without any water they're still blooming and going strong. Just too many qualification to be on the invasive species list if it so qualify. Will be getting rid of them for good after the purple tansy and clovers got established this year.

[Brad Bee]

I plant 60 acres not 10. Each pound of seed contains over 1/4 million seeds. I use 50 pounds for the 60 acre tract. Believe me it is not cheep seed. Because of the cost of the seed I drill it in rather than broadcast to minimize the bird damage. I also bush hog after it goes to seed. I get 4 years out of it that way. making the planting cost below $1000.00 a year.

Where do you get your seed?

[roberto487]

Both the blue and white flower type Borage are invasive. I've been trying to get rid of them for almost
4 years now. Every early Spring time they would bloom and can be overwintered quite easily here. Frost cannot
kill the young seedlings. Our environment is perfect for them invading every corner of the backyard if you let them.
The worst part are the tiny transparent skin poking needle like fine hairs. You would be asking for hours of itchiness if
you don't have a pairs of thick gloves to remove the dead plants. Imagine when a little dog or innocent kid playing at the
public land to be in contact with those innocent looking beautiful blooming plants. The seeds not in contact with sunlight will
stay dormant for years under the ground. Now I don't till the soil anymore instead to cover them with more compost making a raised bed. They are blooming nicely now and the bees are all over them. And so are the tiny 4 little seeds that come with every seed pods attached. I too like you have consider spreading them to the local creek and open fields. But after thinking about it further it is too invasive because of the many seeds one plant can produce in a season's growth. No other animals or insects will eat the plants either. They are drought resistant to an extent too. One month without any water they're still blooming and going strong. Just too many qualification to be on the invasive species list if it so qualify. Will be getting rid of them for good after the purple tansy and clovers got established this year.

I live in planting zone 6A and borage comes year after year. I want to destroy them, but when I see the flower buds, I change my mind. Then the hot summer days of July and August dry them out. In fall, a few rush to grow and flower drop their seeds and start the process over.

[mischief]

I concentrate on my own property, although I did throw out some evening primrose seed along the highway wile driving along it simply cos it was a high pollen plant and I had heaps of seed leftover.

There is nothing at all wrong with weeds naturally growing in 'wasted spaces'. These have a place and also have insects including bees that make use of them.
You dont have to guerilla bomb the neighbourhood to help our little friends.

The other thing to remember is that while Borage may be an excellent bee forage plant, its not the only one and like us, they need diversity of forage/food in order to have a healthy diet.

So once again, concentrate on your own backyard and maybe talk to others to try to get them to think of what they can do to help in theirs.

[GregV]

This "Guerilla bee gardening" just needs to be adjusted and become a land restoration project.
All it is to it.
Remove few misguided ideas; instead do the well defined and much needed land restoration (or prairie restoration, if prefer this term).
I am doing it; few people around me doing it just as we speak.

Here are few ideas that are doable, beneficial, and plenty ethical and legal...

1)prepare seed balls with seeds of bee-friendly plants in them - goldenrods, asters, sweet clovers, any number of other native plants (google the "seed balls" if don't know already)
2)identify public spaces where plant diversity is lacking and, worse, places are taken over by aggressive invasive plants - canary grass is one example (in my area much public lands have been taken over sea of canary grass and are total disaster for everyone, people and insects alike)
3)toss the seed balls into those areas (again, the goldenrods/asters/sweet clovers will make it there on their own anyway but much more slower - so you simply speeding up the eventual and natural process)

PS: to be sure, sweet clovers are non-native, but essentially are a common place plant now and have high value in many regards (excellent for soil restoration and insect forage; Feds and some states use sweet clovers exactly this way as we speek - see North Dakota prairie soil restoration/preservation, just for one example)

[Jadeguppy]

I've always thought that along roadsides/highways were a great place for communities to start reclaiming large swaths of land for a public good. I wonder if we could convince whoever's in charge of such things to mass plant pollinator plants alongside them as an experiment?

There are organizations and individuals that do that in my area, but they work with the county and let everyone know what is planned.

damdaman, I think part of the discussion issue is a misunderstanding of what an invasive species is. Many non-native species grow well and take their place in the ecosystem. They are not invasive. Invasive species are non-native species that grow well, spread fast, and cause damage to the ecosystem that causes native species problems. In Florida, we deal with a lot of problems related to invasive species, but we also have a lot of non-native species that are fine.