CROPS

WHY BEAUTY? In the city, a garden can be a rare jewel. In addition to regular vegetables, Michael and Lorraine plant a large row of glorious sunflowers each year. People like to pick them for their vases. Most everyone who comes to the garden admires the very large sunflowers. A plowed garden, waiting to be planted, is a thing of beauty as well.

In addition, we have toads, tree frogs, large and small turtles, rabbits, muscovy ducks, and even a PEACOCK that visited the garden.

WHY POLLEN? Michael noticed after having grown the garden for several years, there weren’t many pollinators. Most people conclude pollinators are just bees. But vegetables get pollinated by all kinds of insects, too. Can you guess what some pollinators are? (see box below) To increase the likelihood of bees coming to the garden, Michael decided to plant cotton. Originally, he planted one variety, but has expanded to four different varieties. What happens to the cotton? Pollinators are attracted to the garden more readily so the cotton serves that purpose. But cotton can be used by people to make things. Some people have collected cotton to use to stuff dolls, to make wicks for candles, etc. Cotton is interesting to grow in that inside each cotton boll, there are seeds. You pick the seeds out of the boll. Then you plant them with some of the cotton surrounding it. Here is a cool picture of cotton emerging as seedlings with the cotton showing.