bees in the bay breeze

bees in the bay breeze is a blog that features musings about nature,

organic gardening and food for a changing planet

Leaf Cutting Bee on the Chim Chiminee

Leaf Cutting Bee on the Chim Chiminee

So nice to see a leaf cutting bee on the Rudbeckia hirta "Chim Chiminee". This is a hard to find "Black Eyed Susan" that I purchased from Annies Annuals https://www.anniesannuals.com/ as a seedling. Although I planted it as a nectar plant for butterflies, it's great to see that bees are getting nourishment from it, as well. The plant is getting quite tall in its pot, full of blossoms, as you can see from its shadow on the patio surface.

Skunks in the garden beds

Skunks in the garden beds

These aren't the greatest images, but they were taken through both a glass and screen sliding doors. It was evening and I happened to look out at the patio when I heard some movement in the garden beds. First a skunk emerged from the upper garden bed Cuphea Minnie Mouse shrubs, and climbed down to the lower garden bed. We have some native plants growing there, Sticky Monkey, Heuchera Maxima "Alum Root", as well as an abutilon and Chiapas Salvia. The skunk was rooting around i

Sunday greetings to you!

Some very good books about pollinators and pollinator-friendly gardening

Some very good books about pollinators and pollinator-friendly gardening

Aside from being a passionate organic gardener, planting for the pollinators, I am also an avid reader. I have many nature-themed books about pollinators, other beneficial insects, both non-fiction as well as poetry and prose. Here are some very wonderful books that you absolutely should have, if you want to learn more about pollinators and how to create habitats for them in your garden. This wonderful book, meant for gardening in North America, was written and published by

Monarch Caterpillars are growing

Monarch Caterpillars are growing

Here is one of the caterpillars who were still tiny eggs nineteen days ago. It is a little less than 1/4 inch long, and is on a showy milkweed leaf, on the plant where it started out as an egg. It is of great concern to me that there are very few of these caterpillars on our milkweed plants this year. So far I've counted only five. Considering that we have fifteen potted milkweed plants, some of which are quite lush, one would think that the female monarchs laid more eggs. At

Anna's Hummingbirds in the Garden

Anna's Hummingbirds in the Garden

Some of the plants in our garden I intentionally planted for our local hummingbirds as their nectar source. Instead of a feeder, which we had kept full of nectar in the backyard of our former home, we decided it best here that the hummingbirds get their nectar from natural sources. And the Anna's hummingbirds are enjoying all the blossoms providing the nectar. In the above image one of the birds is sipping nectar from the clustered whorled inflorescence of a Hummingbird Sage

A Summer Long-horned Bee laden with Pollen

A Summer Long-horned Bee laden with Pollen

Just look at all that pollen that this Summer Long-horned female has groomed into its scopa on its hind legs. Yes, all that bright yellow on its legs is pollen. I can't tell if this is a Melissodes robustior or Svastra obliqua expurgata. But I know that this is a Summer Long-horned because it has a flattened head (as opposed to rounded head). And it is a female because the antennae aren't as long as on a Long-horned male (see image below). Also, you can identify the females q

Thank your Flower Flies

Thank your Flower Flies

Flower flies, otherwise known as hover flies or syrphid flies, are common visitors in gardens, but because some of them, like this one, closely resemble bees in coloring and size, they may often go unrecognized. This flower fly, an Eristalis arbustorum, is one of the most common in gardens. It is feeding on the nectar of a cluster of flowers on a naked buckwheat plant. The larvae of some species of flower flies feed on aphids and thrips, while others eat decaying plant and an

Feed the Pollinators

Feed the Pollinators

And they will help feed you. It's that time of year when we see the lovely and tasty results of a great team effort, ours and the bees'. Without the bumble bees we wouldn't have these beautiful purple cherry tomatoes. Or luscious strawberries. And believe me, these are luscious, sweet strawberries when ripe. To create habitat and to nourish the bumble bees, honey bees, leaf cutting bees, digger bees, flower flies, wool carder bees, and others that visit our garden, we plant m

The Monarch Butterflies are back!

The Monarch Butterflies are back!

At last! Hopeful signs on the milkweed! I spotted a monarch butterfly flying over the patio sometime in June, and hoped it was a female that was ready to lay her eggs on our lush potted milkweed plants. She may have returned to our milkweed pots shortly after, because early July, instead of caterpillars I discovered three tiny eggs on narrow-leafed milkweed plants in one of the pots. In previous years we discovered monarch caterpillars already in first instar on our milkweed

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bees in the bay breeze

For years I have been sharing ideas, gardening tips and recipes with family, friends and colleagues.

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