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GAILLARDIA and honeybees seem to go together during the
summer months.
Flowers And Insects
A Summertime Item
BY BILL FAVER
One of the sure combinations during the summer months is
that of flowering plants and insects. We
can find insects almost anywhere we
can find flowers blooming, for they
seem to go together.
One of our best coastal varieties of
annuals is the Gaillardia, or Indian
blanket or blanketflower. These plants
seem to be so appealing to insects be
cause they bloom for such a long time,
usually from June to the first killing
front sometime in November.
Gaillardia are fine plants for hot,
sunny areas and seem to like the kind
of soils we find along roadsides and
behind dunes along the beach. Their
yellow to orange to reddish brown
flowers are aster-like and seem to be
favorites of many insects. In the fall,
FAVER the Monarch butterflies move among
the Gaillardia from flower to flower. Honeybees also seem to pre
fer nectar from these colorful flowers.
Bees are important insects, mostly because of their role in the
pollination of plants. From flowers, honeybees collect pollen on
their hind legs and transport it from one flower to another. This
pollinating activity is much more important than the honey and
beeswax they produce. Long ago, farmers and orchardists realized
how important bees were to the yield of their crops and provided
man-made hives where they could live.
Honeybees are also among the smartest of all living beings. A
worker bee can discover flowers with a good flow of nectar and
return to the hive to tell the other bees the direction of the blos
soms, the distance from the hive, and what kind of flower it is.
Researchers think they tell the direction and distance by a certain
dance they do inside the hive and communicate the kind of flower
by the odor of the flower on the body of the bee.
lUce note of the insect activity around flowers this summer
and learn more about the fascinating combination of summer
flowers and insects.
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Turning The Back Yard Into
A Garden Of Earthly Delights
BY LYNN CARLSON
It's an unlikely place to find
Japanese water gardens, down a
sand road, past a travel trailer
park in a neighborhood of well-kept
mobile homes on large wooded lots.
And it would seem to be an un
likely hobby for a burly sheetrock
worker ? the kind of guy you might
assume would be more at home
hunting and fishing than tending
delicate aquatic lilies and nurturing
several ancient varieties of brightly
colored carp.
But get Andy Ludlum started
talking about his projects, and pre
conceived notions float away on the
breeze that blows through the tall
pines near Holden Beach.
"It's really the perfect hobby," he
says about designing and construct
ing flowing fountains and peaceful
ponds with neon-colored goldish
and koi gliding beneath the lilypads.
"You can give it as much or as little
time and money as you want to."
This passion began a few years
back when Andy and wife Damona
got the idea to put a little goldfish
pond in their front yard. A neighbor
passing by on a backhoe saw
Demons wielding her shovel there
and helped dig the first of their two
water gardens.
The small, front-yard garden is
pyramid-shaped and cement-lined,
flanked by banana trees and a cozy
swing. In the pond are the smaller
varieties of Andy's burgeoning fish
population, ranging in size from
inch- long new hatchlings to feisty
fan-tailed goldfish several inches
long and the color of geraniums in
bloom.
It's a peaceful place to sit in the
shade and enjoy the relaxing sounds
of a trickling fountain and the breeze
through pine boughs while watching
the fish dart among plants and flow
ers. Demona swishes her hand in the
water and dozens of fish break the
surface of the water, conditioned to
know it's feeding time.
"These will eat out of your hand,"
Andy said. "They like for you to get
in there with them. They kind of
peck on your legs."
Their backyard water garden is a
work in progress, only Uuee months
old and at 3,000 gallons, many times
the size of the little garden. It is rec
tangular, the dimensions of an in
ground swimming pool and 3'A feet
deep. Andy and his oldest son dug
the hole.
Its centerpiece is a fountain shoot
ing a gentle spray of water several
feet into the air. At one corner is a
grouping of exotic plants including
carnivorous trumpets, pickerel rush
and hy acinths. In the pond are sever
al varieties of lilies in bloom, plus
about SO of the Ludl urns' larger fish.
But when Andy and Demona look
at the big garden, they see it as they
dream it will someday be.
"The one in the front I'm going to
keep for everybody else. That one'll
be for the neighbors or people who
want to see h. This one's going to be
mine, the place where I can go to
take it easy."
He envisions a perfect space for
quiet time. He'll surround it with a
row of tall hedges, put in a waterfall,
let fragrant flowers and vines cover
the archway he's constructed, get the
chemical balance right so the water
will be dear enough to watch the
? I
m
ANDY AND DEMONA
sion is a work i* progress.
sur? photos av iynn camlson
relax in their front-yard water garden. A much larger back-yard ver
GOLDFISH swim just below the surface while a tropical Uty blooms tit the bigger pond.
big koi swim.
Hit largest koi it a good IS indies
long They're expensive fish, Andy
explains ? the Japanese eat them and
refer to them as warrior fish "be
cause when they cut them to nuke
them into sushi, they don't flinch.'*
The Indiums have had good suc
cess with their fish. The beautiful
swimmers thrive year-round and re
produce prolifically, so having to go
out and buy lots of expensive fish
hasn't been necessary. In fact, Andy
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estimate* he culled some 500 baby
goldfish from the ponds last year
and gave them away.
Besides, he says, you learn some
lessons about spending too much
mooey on your fish.
Demona laughs about the time
she looked out the window and saw
a stately great blue heron sitting on
the edge of the pood. "I told Andy to
look, and I was getting ready to go
get my camera and take a picture."
"Yep," Andy said, "by the time I
could get out there and scare him
off, that bird had eaten $54 worth of
fish."
The water garden hobby seems to
be making the rounds, Andy adds.
"A lot of people have come to see
mine and said they wanted to get in
to it I'm finding mote and more
books about them and getting lots of
ideas."
Some of those ideas are practical
and simple, others too time-consum
ing or expensive. But that's the
beauty of Andy Ludlum's hobby ?
you can do as much as you want,
whenever you want. After all. the
goal is relaxation.
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