Gardening Nana – Respect the Bat!

GardeningNanaLogo_FeatureNothing adds to a scary Halloween like bats swooping through the dark night. We have made bats out to be the bad guys when in reality they are the good guys and deserve our respect. In planting our moon garden, my great nephews and I learned a lot about bats. Even the small Indiana brown bat can eat 33,000 mosquitoes over a summer!

Take the “What’s GOOD About Bats?” quiz (bit.ly/GoodBats) and learn about “Indiana Bats” on the Indiana Department of Natural Resources website (bit.ly/IndianaBats).

Bats save pumpkins?! Yes, bats eat insects that can damage fruits and vegetable plants. Bats in the tropics help disperse seeds like the cacao bean. Yes, bats have my respect since I love chocolate! Just like bees and butterflies, bats are pollinators and are necessary for all kinds of plants to make fruit from their flowers. We need our bats and must learn how to respect and protect them.

My great nephews, Max & Eli, have harvested their pumpkins and soon will be carving scary faces and saving the seeds. A great book to learn about planting, growing and harvesting is Pumpkin Circle: The Story of a Garden by George Levenson.

There’s still time to plant bulbs for spring flowers. I helped my daughter in Colorado plant 500 tulip bulbs!

The Gardening Nana
Nancy Craig


Nancy loves flower gardening almost as much as she does her great nephews and nieces. Her interest in gardening intensified while living in Holland and was perfected with Master Gardener courses.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Send me your media kit!

hbspt.forms.create({ portalId: "6486003", formId: "5ee2abaf-81d9-48a9-a10d-de06becaa6db" });