The Garden Song by Arlo Guthrie with John Denver and the Muppets

If you're feeling sad or stressed, just follow this link. Thank you Arlo Guthrie for such a great song. Rest in Peace Jim Henson and John Denver.

Did you know there are some "anti lyrics"? Sounds like a summer camp version:

[The Anti-Garden Verses - by someone whose name Arlo forgot]:

Slug by slug, weed by weed
Boy this garden's got me t'd
All the insects come to feed
On my tomato plants

Sunburnt face, skinned up knees
The kitchen's chocked with zucchinis
I'm shopping at the A&P's
Next time I get the chance

[End of Anti-Garden Verses]

Old crow watching from a tree
He's got his hungry eye on me
In my garden I'm as free
As that feathered thief up there

Join us at THE BIG DIG this Saturday!

 Photo: Some of the dudes from grade 5 Moberly Elementary working with Tupper Tech to build garden beds.


Join us for the BIG DIG! 


WHERE: South Side of the Moberly Arts and Cultural Centre, 7646 Prince Albert, Vancouver

(1 block east of Fraser on 60th--very close to Lee Valley for all you gardening folks.)


WHEN: Sat. May 3, 1--4 pm, RAIN or SHINE!


WHAT: Digging out garden beds, planting shrubs and ground cover and top-dressing the herb bed

PLUS check out the new raised beds constructed by Moberly Elementary grade 5 students with their mentors from Tupper Tech. Grade 12

PLUS an herb and weed walk by Lori Snyder at 2:30 pm

PLUS a garden info table and truck bed garden with Judy from Strathcona Seeds

PLUS the Village Vancouver Seed Library

PLUS "outDOOR" prizes!


WHO: You! All ages and abilities welcome!

BRING: Your own gloves, layers of suitable clothing, water bottle and a shovel if you can.



Merci Beaucoup! Happy Bee Gardening and Bee Watching,

Lori Weidenhammer aka Madame Beespeaker

Atrazine and Frogs

I highly recommend listening to Anna Maria Tremonti's interview with biologist Tyrone Hayes and the attempts by Syngenta to muzzle his scientific findings on the herbacide Atrazine's horrific effects on frogs.  The link is here today, but will move to the podcast page soon. If you ever needed evidence not to trust the manufacturers of these poisons--it's there.

Sunday Bee Safari

Here are some photos from my bee safari today starting at VanDusen gardens with the elegant Triliums.

And I LOVE this cutie patootie in the Siberian squill. Can you see the little grains of blue pollen on the bee's leg? Do you know how difficult it is to take photos of Siberian squill? I suffered for this photo! Plant these high up in your stepped garden so you can go underneath the flowers to take the photos.

I think this bee is a little too small for the flower. She took a long time trying to acess the nectar and she hasn't collected much pollen.

Aren't you in love with currants right now?

The crab apple blossoms and cherry trees were surrounded by clouds of all kinds of bees in different sizes, especially now that the queen bumblebees are foraging beside the tiniest of bees.

I need help identifying this tree in Oak Meadows park, but it was also full of bees.

But the bee plant of the day was this spirea. Whenever I see the name "spirea" I know it's going to be a good bee plant and the blossom density on this beauty was unsurpassed in the gardens today. It's right near the 37th street entrance to VanDusen Gardens, so you don't even have to pay to  get into the garden to see it: Hybrid Bridalwreath (Spirea x cinerea).

I took this photo of the shooting star to illustrate how similar it is to the morphology of cranberry blossoms. Please let me know if you see cranberries in bloom as I plan to head out to the fields to take photos.

The Shape of April Bee Flowers

One of our neighbors has planted native bushes on the boulevard in front of her house. This has created a super bee habitat, with mason bees zipping back and forth from holes in the adjacent power pole to the Oregon grape bush and the Pieris japonica (not native, but very popular with native mason bees).

 I never noticed before that the Oregon grape blossoms are like miniature daffoldils

The female mason bees will transform from larvae to adult bees in the back of these holes, and the males will develop closer to the entrance. Some of the boys will inevitably be lost to woodpeckers.

 The blossoms of the redflowering current are also like miniature daffodils.

 The honeybee is one of many bees who can access the nectar in the blossoms. All kinds of currants are attracted to currant blossoms. We really need to load up our city parks and gardens with different varieties of currant bushes.

This little mystery bee showed up on the current leaf. He's got a sweet red moustache and large mandibles. I don't know the Latin name, but I'm going to call him Angus.

 And for a completely different blossom shape--this purple dead nettle flower has the bilateral symmetry of the mint family. Did you know this weed is edible? Just remember to leave some for the bees!

Finally, here's the narrow bell-shaped flowers of the Pieris japonica. In June, the native rose nearby will also provide food for native bees. Thanks to this gardener, this boulevard is an excellent bee habitat!

An Argument for Planting More Bee Forage in the Summer

I've been encouraging folks to really focus on planting early spring and fall plants especially for honeybees, but a new study shows honeybees need more local summer forage. They will travel up to 22 times the distance to find suitable flowers in the summer months. This makes sense in the countryside because of monoculture farming practices and the use of pesticides which kill weeds that the bees feed on, especially if there are no wild flowers around the farm. The colonies of honeybees are larger in summer months and so they can afford to send scouts further distances to feed the hive. The study also acknowledges competition with wild bees at that time of the year. Cities do tend to have blossom density during the summer, but since we are adding so many honeybee hives to our city, we need to supplement forage for native bees and honeybees to make a healthy environment for all our pollinators.

Alison Benjamen from the Guardian published an interesting quote from one of the researchers.

“There is an abundance of flowers in the spring from crocuses and dandelions to blossoming fruit trees. And in the autumn there is an abundance of flowering ivy. But it is harder for them to locate good patches of flowers in the summer because agricultural intensification means there are fewer wildflowers in the countryside for bees,” said Frances Ratnieks, professor of apiculture at Sussex University, who supervised the study.

 I was also interested in the study's findings on the seasonal sugar content in nectar:

"In June, July and August, the median and range of sugar content is low. The median sugar content is also low in March and April. However, spring sugar concentration range is wide, showing that better quality nectar is also available (and at closer distances) to foragers. Taken together, the data show that in summer compared to spring or autumn, the bees fly further to bring back nectar that is not better in quality."

Check out the study in PLOS One: Waggle Dance Difference as Integrative Indicators of Seasonal Foraging Challenges by Margaret J. Couvillon,  Roger Schürch, and Francis L. W. Ratnieks.

Bee Sculptures from Recycled Materials

 Here's a sneak peak of a Madame Beespeaker ArtStarts residency at Moberly Elementary co-sponsored by Moberly Arts and Cultural Centre. Can you identify this bee?