Tomato plant growing among the fava beans
Ha ha ha! Look what's growing right in the middle of the fava bean plants - a healthy tomato plant. It could be from a seed that was...
Ensuring continuous food sources for the pollinators
Sweat bee on a Klondike sulphur orange cosmos blossom Planting native plants in pots in our backyard really is a great example of "if you...
The leaf cutter bees
As I wrote in a post earlier this week, prior to this week, I have never seen so many leaf cutter bees feeding on nectar and collecting...
monarchs are now in chrysalis mode
Just as I thought, the monarch caterpillars were already in their 5th instar when I discovered them last weekend on the milkweed plant....
busy bees in the backyard
Now that the cosmos flowers are blooming, along with a new bloom of the lavender plants, the backyard literally is abuzz with activity....
monarch caterpillars in the backyard!
Two months ago I purchased a small narrow leaf milkweed plant from Annies Annuals https://www.anniesannuals.com/ Every year for the past...
Dirty Girl tomatoes
Here are our first ripening Dirty Girl tomatoes! It's always exciting to see your own food grow. And so easy to do this in a container...
More food for the bees
We now have another buckwheat plant for the backyard, the lovely Eriogonum fasciculatum Warriner Lytle buckwheat. It is said to be an...
Umber skipper's delight
What fun to observe the umber skipper flitting from flower to flower in the backyard. First I saw it sipping on nectar from the orange...
Leaf cutter female bee and the first cosmos flower
The first cosmos flowers are blooming in the backyard. And on a day when the sun barely appeared, the bright colors of the flowers stood...
