I noticed one day some paper wasps were swarming around a saucer that had collected water from my morning spent watering the garden. This saucer of water was in an area that receives quite a lot of use as it is close to the sliding glass door. I do not care to have a wasp watering hole that close to my back door. That was when a light bulb went off in my head. What if I was to make a little watering hole for the wasps by the veggie garden? The veggie garden is far enough from the house to prevent any unwanted encounters plus the watering hole would be close enough to the garden for the wasps to help me out.

Armed with this idea in mind I gathered up some rocks and placed them in a small birdbath that I have not been using this year. I filled the birdbath up with water to just cover the rocks half way. After standing back to admire my creation I left it alone to see how long it would take for the wasps to find their new oasis. It did not take long at all. By the afternoon my little transformed birdbath was a hopping wasp hang out.

The picture below shows them happily drinking away. It can be clicked on to enlarge. (And yes, I am crazy enough to get that close to them to get their picture! In fact, I think my boys find me nuts just for making a wasp watering station.)

I personally find it really cool to see that my little idea is actually working. The wasps land on the rocks, get their drink, and fly on. As with so many things when it comes to gardening with nature I am reminded of that infamous line from the 1989 movie Field of Dreams: “build it and they will come.” 

For more information on wasps please check out the two links below. Both have excellent pictures and are a wealth of information.

1. Wikipedia
2. Washington State University (This is a pdf file so you will need Adobe to read it.)

I have always thought that the Praying Mantis looks like an alien. It really is such a strange looking insect. To me they look like the predators that they are. They look just as aggressive too.

I am happy to have found him even if he does kind of scare me. They are one of the best beneficial insects a garden can have. Their only downside is the fact that they do not discriminate over what they will consume. The praying mantis will eat anything and everything that comes in its way; meaning it will eat other beneficial insects as well as the bad guys of the garden. And do not even get me started on what the females do to their mates! It is vicious!

This is the third year I have found them at this garden so obviously they are enjoying their stay. That is just fine with me too.

To read more about the praying mantis please follow this link to Wikipedia. There you will find some great information as well as some excellent pictures of the praying mantis.

I decided I wanted to plant that area with garlic this fall and since I still have several months until it is time to plant the garlic we decided it was a perfect opportunity to squeeze a few cover crop plantings in.

I am really excited about this (and I think my fellow gardens out there are the only ones that are going to understand my excitement here!). For years now I have wanted to try growing cover crops. Perhaps I am a little nuts, and it may be the frustrated soil scientist in me, but I think cover cropping is so cool and fascinating. The concept of growing a crop strictly for turning under has always intrigued me. Not only do you get the benefit of adding organic matter to your soil but the cover crop also smoothers weeds and can add nutrients back to the soil. Especially if you grow a legume for a cover crop since legumes fix nitrogen from the air.

I am hoping to get at least 2 if not 3 plantings of the buckwheat in before it is time to plant the garlic. Earlier this week I cut it all down and will turn it into the soil in a few days. Buckwheat is ready to be cut down and tilled under when it is in flower. You do not want to let it go to seed as it will be everywhere. Two weeks after it has been cut down I am going to sow that section again with buckwheat.

Buckwheat is actually a rather interesting cover crop. It is a good indicator plant because if your soil is low in organic matter and nitrogen the buckwheat will be small and have yellow leaves. (Note the front section of my sown buckwheat. You can see how stunted the growth is there. I found that interesting considering the rest grew so lush.)

When in bloom buckwheat makes an awesome plant for attracting beneficial insects. I have read that numerous times but witnessed it first hand this past week. I almost felt guilty cutting it down as the bees where beginning to fall in love with its flowers and I was finding 5 or 6 ladybugs on it at a time.

Although it does not add nitrogen to the soil it does do an excellent job of boosting the organic matter which my soil, being that it is a new garden, desperately needs.

I will continue to post on this with updates for anyone that might find this as interesting as I do. Perhaps there are some other frustrated soil scientists out there like myself that actually get into this.