Texas Bee Watchers

Birth Announcement at Bee Garden

Vernon Berger discovered that our Bee Garden Mockingbirds have successfully become parents. Here's the photo of their new babies. We have noticed that the Bee Garden seems to have allowed for increased diversity in the immediate area. Whoopee.

Bees on Grass?

This summer I received an email from a Texas beewatcher wondering if native bees ever used pollen from grasses.  To answer that question, I went to Dr. Gordon Frankie, native bee flower and gardening expert. Here's what he had to say about native bees on grasses and on some other plants not usually associated with native bees.

  

 

Lessons from a Bee-Friendly Garden

If you are just thinking about planting a bee-friendly garden, I want to clue you in on what happens if you disappear for a few months. 

TBW started a Bee-Friendly Garden at the Austin Community Landfill 2 years ago. The photo below shows the garden in its first spring (May 2009)–after being planted in Fall 2008.

 

This spring, Vernon and I doubled the size of the garden and planted in the spring. 

First Lesson: Plant in the fall. It's just so much easier on the plants.

Second lesson: Bigger is more work. 

As luck would have it, I have been traveling out of the state more or less since April.  

Third lesson: Being gone for long periods of time gives you some perspective on how large plants can grow. 

For example, here's a photo of the garden in early May 2010. That's Vernon waving at you!

 

And here's a couple of photos from yesterday–about 3 months later. 

 

 

That's about 3 feet of growth! 

Let me stop here and acknowledge and thank Vernon who has visited and tended the garden all by himself for those months. He has kept the weeds down to a reasonable amount, watered, and pulled overgrowth. The garden would not exist without Vernon. He's a hero! 

Lesson Four:  Someone needs to be around to care for the garden a bit.

Neither Vernon nor I know much about landscape design. We occasionally disagree over whether the garden should look a bit wild or a bit more manicured. Or rather, we disagree about how wild it should look. I don't think either one of us is the manicured garden type. And the ACL garden is definitely on the wild side. 

And there are LOTS of native bees at the ACL garden this year.

Lesson Five: Less manicuring is better for the native bees!

 

 And just to prove it, on one of my trips over the last few months, I visited the Melissa Garden in Healdsburg, California with Dr. Gordon Frankie of Urban Bee Garden fame. There's a photo of this garden just below. I must say that I was speechless, awed, and overwhelmed by this garden. It has to be one of the loveliest gardens I've seen. And native bees? Billions of them. This garden was so alive, it almost brought tears to my eyes. And it was a pretty wild garden. It made me feel pretty good about the effort Vernon and I have put into the ACL Garden.  

Lesson Six: A wild garden can be absolutely gorgeous and provide optimum habitat for tons of native bees.

We've also noticed that new native plants have started to appear in the ACL Garden. Ones we didn't plant.

Lesson Six: If you provide the habitat, they (native bees and native plants) will come.

 

The Melissa Garden

So, don't worry so much about everything being landscape designer quality. Get those bee-friendly plants established and let them grow for a year or two. 

This fall Vernon and I will be moving some plants to make the garden look a bit less wild, we'll be pulling out a few plants we (or the native bees) don't like, and we'll continue to add a few new plants most likely. 

And we will enjoy watching the bees.
 
 
 
 

BUMBLEBEES!

Vernon and I were out at the Austin Community Landfill Bee Garden on Wednesday. Vernon says to me, "Kim, is that a bumblebee?" 

And, yes sireeee! it was.  

That is the first bumblebee we have seen at the garden. We were so excited, we didn't even notice what flower it was on.  Later we saw another bumblebee on some Partridge Pea (Chamaecrista fasciculata). 

 

In my continuing quest to be the world's worst bee photographer, I was unable to get a recognizable photo of the bee, but it looked more like a Bombus pennsylvanicus than anything else. Dr. Jack Neff listed three Bumblebees for parts of Travis County back in 1990 (Bombus pennsylvanicus, Bombus fraternus, and Bombus sonorus). Click on North American Bumble Bees to go to a link with diagrams to help tell the difference between two of the species in Texas.
 

I've seen Bumblebees at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center on Partridge Pea in the last two years. And I have a friend who lives in South Austin who had a healthy population of Bumblebees in his yard in 2007. But, in general, bumblebees seem to be hard to find and possibly in decline around Austin.

Welcome to the garden, bumblebees. 

Large Patches of Bee-Friendly Plants

Bees are attracted to large groupings of flowering plants. Me, too. At the Austin Community Landfill Bee Garden, the spring bee flowers are blooming–en masse. The photo below doesn't do the Horsemint patch justice. It looks beautiful blowing in the wind.

 

The yellow patch of Coreopsis and Rubeckia is so inviting that I'm tempted to try a bit of nectar and pollen myself! Not!

 

Texas Palafoxia can become a bit weedy, but it is easy to control by pulling up the little seedlings and it produces these pretty delicate flowers. They are just beginning to bloom and attract bees.

 

Vernon and I transplanted a Dewberry which promptly died on us, but we keep watering it hoping it will emerge next spring ready to bloom again and attract bees. We have put mulch down in this area to prepare the soil for seed planting next fall. We made sure to leave plenty of bare soil for nesting solitary bees, however.

And another shot of the yellow patch!

  
I've got several more Candidate gardens for the 52 Bee Gardens: 52 Weeks Challenge. Look to be inspired by photos of those gardens in the next few days.

And keep watching the bees. Many Megachilid bees are starting to show up. Look for more on Megachilids in the next few days as well. 
 
 

Visit the Bee Garden

This weekend, Waste Management is hosting an Open House at the Austin Community Landfill. This is a great opportunity to see the Bee Garden, tour a landfill (you'll be amazed!), tour the gas-to-energy plant at the Austin Community Landfill, get a tour of the Wildlife Area at the Landfill, and get a free hot dog and drink. You can download the flyer here: Flyer for Austin Community Landfill Open House The OPen House is May 15, Saturday, from 11 am to 1 pm. The Austin Community Landfill is located at 9900 Giles Lane.

Vernon Berger and I have been busy all month working at the Bee Garden at the Austin Community Landfill.  Bubba Smith, Waste Management District Manager, and Byron Turner, Austin Community Landfill Manager, have also helped by providing willing hands and mulch for paths.

Mulch pile delivered 

Looking at the recently added section of the garden with mulch paths in place. 

Last Thursday, a huge pile of mulch from the landfill was loaded up and dumped at our Bee Garden site. We leave the actual gardens free of mulch to allow the ground-nesting solitary bees to dig their nests, but we do put the mulch down on the paths.  With the help of Waste Management employees, we got all the paths mulched and a nice border mulched around the edges of the gardens. We also mulched between our fence demonstration area in preparation for planting in this area next fall.

We also rerouted the existing irrigation pipes to provide water throughout the Texas heat this summer. 

 The plants from last year thrived and put out many seeds–I think all of them sprouted–this spring. Vernon and I started weeding out a few of these sprouts this week to neaten up the garden a bit. Next year, we may have enough seedlings to give away some bee-friendly plants to landfill visitors! Vernon also managed to find a donated Bird/Bee Bath for the garden. In addition, Waste Management has added a Swift Tower and a Purple Martin House. It's getting to bee pretty cool out at the Landfill!

 Our Bee Garden at the Austin Community Landfill now covers about 1500 square feet. And its its blooming! Unfortunately, it has been really windy at the Bee Garden all month.  The native bees are not all that fond of windy days so the bee watching has not been easy.

But . . . as soon as we started spreading out mulch on the paths, a group of school kids showed up. Ashley and Linda led a great tour for the kids . . . which included walking around the Bee Garden on the newly-mulched paths! Whoopee!

 

Vernon, chief landscaper and bee watcher, welcoming native bees to the old section of the garden.

Farmers, bee, field borders, hedgerows, money and a challenge!

This video, Birds and Bees, is almost a challenge for Texans. The music, the 57 miles! Can we do more than 57 miles in Texas?

 

Last fall, we decided to put in a Demonstration Fencerow at the Bee Garden. It will give us a chance to talk about the value of creating or leaving intact fencerows alongside crops.  The plants along the fencerow can provide nesting areas, habitat, shelter, and food for native bees.

If you farm in Texas, you may be eligible to get some Farm Bill help to increase Pollinator Habitat on your farm.  Take a look at Using Farm Bill Programs to Increase Pollinator Conservation. It might provide some incentive to use native plants alongside your fields. (The pdf takes a few extra seconds to load. Don't give up!)

California has an active program to increase hedgerows on farming land. According to New Haven for Hedgerows and the video above, in 2009, California farmers and the USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service planted the equivalent of 57 miles of new hedgerows along California farm fields. 

Come on Texans. Fifty-seven miles, surely we can beat that. Heck, there's probably several farms and ranches where 57 miles of hedgerows could be planted and you'd never leave the ranch!

Check out the USDA's Plant Materials Program in Texas. There's quite a lot of information here for getting your field borders and hedgerows started. Now, giddyup!

Expanding the Landfill Bee Garden

I spent several hours today pulling plants at the Austin Community Landfill Bee Garden.  Many of the plants from last year have produced tons of new seedlings. This week we will be transplanting some of them to the new planting beds. We will also be adding some plants purchased at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center's Spring Plant Sale.

We are planning to be the 2nd Official Certified Bee Garden in Texas once everything is planted. Want to push us back to #3?  Check out the 52 Bee Gardens: 52 Weeks button in the Navigation Bar if you think you can beat us.

Expanding a Texas Bee Garden

Last year, when James Smith, the District Manager of the Austin Community Landfill, asked if I could build a Bee-Friendly Garden at the Landfill, I said "Sure." I knew it would be a big challenge, but I really didn't know how big. It was more work than I imagined, but with a lot of help from another Texas Bee Watcher, Vernon Berger, we managed to plant a large area and watch some bees.

But when Mr. Smith asked us if we could expand the garden, I was a bit less sure. However, with Vernon providing a lot of positive energy, encouragement, and manpower, we started doubling the size of the garden yesterday. Today, with more help from the Waste Management employees at the Landfill and some rather large landfill equipment, we got the garden beds formed. Vernon moved mulch into about half of the paths to provide a weed-free (we hope) path for people visiting the garden. We have left plenty of bare ground for ground-nesting solitary bees.

Vernon documented the day with photos, including this photo proving that we actually had a plan on paper for how we would set up the garden.

 

Next comes moving transplants from the old garden areas to the new garden beds. We've learned a bit more about garden design after last year and we hope to move plants to better locations. We also need to redesign our watering system to help the new plants make it through the Texas summer this year. 

The garden will serve as an experimental garden to test the bee-attractiveness of both native and non-native flowers. School groups are also invited to come and wander through the garden to learn about pollination and bees.

We certainly plan to get the Austin Community Landfill Garden Officially Certified as one of the 52 Bee-Friendly Gardens this year.  Maybe we'll be one of the first 10 gardens?  Though this garden is going to end up being about 1500 square feet once completed, your garden doesn't have to be that large to become an Official Certified Bee Garden. 

So, get your new Bee Garden planted, modify your existing garden to better accommodate native bees, or just inventory your existing Bee Garden and let Texas Bee Watchers know about it. 

Can you identify this plant?

Today was a beautiful day in Austin. Earlier in the week, the weather at the Bee Garden was cold and windy. I've seen a couple of honeybees, but no natives in the garden area yet.

The cold and wind didn't stop the winter clean-up.  Vernon Berger and I have been pulling weeds from paths, trimming bushes, and removing mulch from the paths all week. We have laid out the strings for the new garden and, in our heads at least, are busy trying to decide which plants to move and which plants to add. We are hoping to have the gardens laid out and prep work begun for spring planting next week. 

We have quite a few seedlings which have volunteered from plants last year. And we are having an interesting time trying to match up seedlings with the plants they will become.

For example, what plant is this?

If you know this plant, please let us know in the comments section below.

 

By the time we are finished the garden will double in size–to about 2000 square feet. It's still a garden in development, but we are learning a lot about gardening and a little about design as we create this food court for native bees.