On Saturdays I work at Bell Gallery, a small art gallery and studio located in Denver. On my first day at work I learned about dung bunnies when Susan Bell, artist, gallery owner and creator of the eco-sculptures, handed me one. Shocked by the lack of manure odor and taken back by its cute appearance, I learned that these sculptures are garden-friendly because it slowly decomposes in yards during the course of a year.

Bell came across the idea for eco-sculptures when she felt inspired by Chris Ofili’s The Holy Virgin Mary (1999), which was encrusted with elephant dung. The controversial piece sparked Bell’s creativity and she began planning her own form of “shock art.” However, her “shock art” was not so shocking due to its environmentally friendly use.

Photo courtesy of Susan Bell.

Bell sculpts small animals such as frogs, birds and bunnies, out of manure she collects from her horses. She spent months developing the right kind of mold out of the right kind of materials and eventually found the perfect combination—using plasticine would shape and hold the manure in place. So that the dung remains odor-free, Bell constructed composting bins out of wire mesh where she mixes the material a few times a year. Because the texture has to be of a certain weight, the process takes roughly two years.

The eco-sculptures range in both size and price, costing anywhere from $8 for a small snail to $28 for a large cat. They can be purchased online or at the Bell Gallery.

What do you think about these dung bunnies? Do you have something similar in your yard to help fertilize the soil? Let’s chat about it; drop me a comment or email me at snelson@ogdenpubs.com.

Honeybees are the best of friends for blooming fruit trees flowers, and herbs, such as apricot, cherry, members of the daisy family, lavender, oregano and sage. We’ve known that bees help pollinate plants before Jugen Tautz’s study. Tautz, of Biozentrum Universitat Wurzburg, Germany, has studied bees since 1973 and in 2008 released his book The Buzz About Bees: Biology of a Superorganism (Springer, 2008). Now, Tautz has studied even more about the relationship between honeybees and plants. In 2008, his extensive study on honeybees, caterpillars and blooming plants and trees, proved that honeybees protect plants from hungry caterpillars. 

Tautz’s findings revealed that caterpillars have sensory hairs located on the front portion of their body. Although these sensory hairs can detect vibrations, such as the buzzing of a bee, they are unable to distinguish bees from wasps, which fall into the same vibration level. Assuming the worst, the caterpillar will often stop moving or intentionally fall from the plant when a bee or wasp is overhead. (It is a technique to fool the flying creature by making them believe they are dead.)  

In addition to this, Tautz found that if bees or wasps are present, caterpillars will become stressed and feed less. This is especially true for caterpillars feeding on blossoming fruit trees. He says that plants that were “protected” by visiting honeybees suffered 60 to 70 percent less leaf damage.

Courtesty of Flickr/Energetic_Spirit
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nperlapro/

To protect your garden from caterpillars, put blooming trees and plants near non-flowering plants to create a bee-friendly yard. Bees are attracted to yellow, blue and purple colored flowers. According to Tautz’s study, the honeybees will create a stressful environment for the herbivores to the extent that they will be discouraged from eating in that location.