Making a Bee-Friendly area doesn't require the time and expense of designing a garden, buying native plants, and installing those plants. Glenna McIntyre-Speed and her husband, Carl, have a huge natural Bee-Friendly Garden in their front field in Dripping Springs.
Glenna has had the property for about 15 years, Although she inherited a green thumb from her Grandmother, Glenna didn't really start gardening until about 10 years ago, but she and Carl have never added any additional wildflower seeds to their field.
Large patches of flowers will attract bees. Bluebonnets, Pink Evening Primroses, Coreopsis, Milkweeds, Thistles, Verbena, and Spiderwort, along with other wildflowers that bloom throughout summer and fall, will keep the bees happy with pollen and nectar all year. Ensuring this blooming field continues to bloom year after year requires that Glenna and Carl pay attention to seeds and limit mowing to times after seeds have set.
If you have a field on your property, you might take the first steps, as Glenna and Carl did, of learning to recognize some of the wildflowers that come up in the field. Letting the plants go to seed will help feed wildlife and be the first step toward a good wildflower crop the following year.
And while the flowers are blooming, take some time to just sit in your field. Listen and watch. Before you know it, you will start to see the native bees visiting the blooming flowers. Keep your eyes peeled for nesting sites in the ground. Most native bees are solitary and the female digs a little hole in the ground for her nest. Bumblebees may use an old rodent hole for a nest site. By watching, you may notice the more social bumblebees entering and leaving the entrance. Carpenter bees may nest in old timbers around your ranch.
That front field at Glenna and Carl's looks like a perfect place for two new Bee Watchers to pull up some chairs and enjoy watching native bees in the 4th Official Certified Bee-Friendly Garden in Texas. The native bees of Texas thank them. So do I.
And a special thanks to Carl, whose name is not John, or Sam, or Phil!
Cool looking bee garden/field. Hats off to Glenna and Carl! Grab a cool one and sit out there and watch the bees. Happy Memorial Day.
Posted by: California bee fan | 05/31/2010 at 05:44 PM