A new use for this old blog; a reference

So I haven’t really been keeping up with this blog and frankly I am not sure of its fate. Since I haven’t been updating it regularly like I once did, this blog has turned into more of a static website, and I think that is fine. I think the value of this blog lies in is utility as reference and as a resource to cover topics in depth, but after eight (!) or so years, I find many of the issues with native plants and wildlife gardening keep coming up, so rather than reposting an old article or updating a subject I have written before,  I am thinking about turning these posts into a book (though I have been threatening that for a while). 



When I started this blog in 2009, social media was really (at least to me) in its infancy.  Now, platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are a more useful tool for updates and news.  As a result, I post garden news and pictures on these platforms, ignoring this blog.  But I do think the in depth articles I have posted are a compliment to a nice Instagram photo.  Having said that, some of the most commonly requested topics are the following:

• How to remove a lawn
• How to build an urbanite path
• How to build a bee house (in 5 minutes!)
• How to build a brush pile (hint: it is easy!)
• Why not to use bird feeders
• Your garden as a bird feeder
• Bird house basics
• Honey bees suck (yes, you read that correctly)
• Pollinator (or whatever) garden
• Should I start my new garden by seeding (the answer is NO)?

In general, "why native plants are important" is always a common topic, and the subject of the whole blog!

I still post unique or timely things, like our Cat of the Year or SponCon projects, but day to day social media seems to suit the general needs of this one time blogger!

So, please follow me on Instagram or Facebook!

Make a Bee House Class Follow-Up

  

I had a lot of fun talking about native plants, native insects that use them, and our native pollinators at the Make a Bee House Class I taught last week through the Missoula County Public Schools Lifelong Learning Center.   

Twelve people participated in the class, some had never used a drill, others had never really thought there was a difference between a bald faced hornet, western yellow jacket, European paper wasp, etc… but all were eager to learn and excited about native bees!

Everyone had great questions and I think were pretty excited to install their houses and see who shows up.  I hope people keep me posted about their boxes.  I also know most were eager to build more.  Like I mentioned in the class, if nothing else building the bee houses and watching them is a great way to learn about out native bees and other insects.  

Ultimately the class made 14 boxes, and only a little blood was shed.   

I got all the materials at my favorite building material reuse center, Home ReSource, including Douglas fir 4x4" and 4x6" for the boxes, cedar shakes and tin ridge cap for the roofs, cedar fence boards for the backs and a variety of nails and screws to fasten it all together.  Home ReSource has it all.

This just in....I just got an email from Cate from the class showing where she installed her bee house- right next to her vegetable garden!  Beautiful!

Marilyn, my wife, made a box too (she was a test subject for the class; she survived), and this one will be installed at the Native Plant Garden at 8^th and Grant this Thursday when we do a spring cleaning, and weeding of this neighborhood native plant garden.   Everyone is welcome to attend, and we will even be giving out free native plants!  See I was able to turn this post into a plea for help!  Here is a link to the event page with more information, but you can just show up at 8th and Grant, at 6pm on Thursday (April 30), ready for an hour or so of light work in this little garden.  Bring gloves and your favorite weeding tool if you have one.

This box is heading to the Native Plant Garden at 8th and Grant!

The idea of ground nesting bees interested a lot of people and prompted some discussion of what we can do for them (since they comprise the majority of our native bees), and I thought I would pass a long some timely information.  One was a recent blog post on how to provide habitat for native ground nesting bees from my favorite native plant and insect personality, Heather Holm of Restoring the Landscape with Native Plants, and author of Pollinators of Native Plants.  Be sure to follow her on Facebook, and any other social media you can.  And buy her book.  She is a wealth of information on native plants and insects, and a fantastic artist, graphic designer, educator and landscape designer! 

The other experience with ground nesting bees came to me yesterday (unexpectedly) when I was hunting in a snow storm in the mountains east of Missoula.  As I was sitting under a ponderosa pine escaping the cold and wet snow, a bumblebee came buzzing by me visiting some flowering lupines and other snow covered plants.  I immediately thought of how I explained to the class that our native bees will tolerate a much wider range of temperatures and conditions than Eurasian honeybees.  So I took out my phone to get a picture of a bumblebee pollinating flowers in the snow.  Then the bee landed on a patch of bare ground and started furiously digging, probably a excavating nesting burrow.  I captured this action on camera: