Thursday, September 8, 2022

Herbs for Humans and Bees: A List of Resources

Many edible and medicinal plants are a boon for humans and bees. You can create an “herbaliscious” garden that fills your pantry while feeding pollinators. There are some edible annuals that are easy to grow and some perennial “keystone” herbs which are an essential part of the infrastructure of a healthy pollinator garden.

Books on Growing and Using Herbs:

Food Forestry North of the 49^th by Richard D. Walker

“A food forest is not your typical Canadian forest. Rather, it is a planted garden that aims to mimic the ‘closed loop’ of self-sustaining biological system of a natural forest with the added benefit of growing food and medicine.”

“If I were King of the World I would decree that all communities require nature corridors, even if they go right through the middle of corporate office grounds, institutions, highways, and thoroughfares. We would use the same jurisdiction as used for pipelines, highways and cell phone towers.”

--Richard D. Walker, Food Forestry North of the 49^th

Grow Your Own Drugs: The Top 100 Plants to Treat Arthritis, Migraines, Coughs and More by James Wong

The Lavender Gardens: Beautiful Varieties to Grow and Gather by Robert Kourik

The VanDusen Cookbook: Flavours of the Gardens (A collection of recipes from the members of the Vancouver Botanical Garden Association) ie rosehip jelly and nettle soup

Homegrown Tea: An Illustrated Guide to Planting, Harvesting, and Blending Teas and Tisanes by Cassie Liversidge

Drink in the Wild: Teas Cordials, Jams and More by Hilary Stewart

Edible and Medicinal Plants of the West by Gregory L. Tiford

Wild Berries of the Pacific Northwest: on the bush . . . on the table . . . in the glass by J.E. (Ted) Underhill

Pacific Northwest Foraging: 120 wild and flavorful edibles from Alaska blueberries to wild hazelnuts by Douglas Deur

Edible Wild Plants and Useful Herbs by Tim Meuninck

Online Resources:

Richter's is a wonderful company that sells herbs based in Ontario and their catalogue has a wealth of information on growing herbs: https://www.richters.com/

Horticultural Centre of the Pacific Ethnobotany Trail

Haikai Magazine The Local Carb Diet

The Wondersmith: Exquisitely presented art and recipes, ceramicist

Wild Bee Florals: Edible flowers grown in the Comox Valley: artist and flower farmer

Pascal Baudar: Wild food artist, ceramacist

Unruly Gardening: Using selfheal (Prunella vulgaris)

Go Hiking: Cooley’s Hedge Nettle

‘Ornaments Are Great But It’s Better If You Can Eat Them’

Edible flowers are back on trend. An explainer by Sonal Gupta

Tuesday, April 26, 2022

Postcards from The Rail Trail on Kalamalka Lake, Vernon BC

Sunday, April 24, 2022

Uncanny Valley: I Thought I Saw a Saw Fly

Becker Park on the hill is a place I can walk to from the artist retreat and so I try to get up there every other day. It’s become a ritual and I have my favourite entry points, plants, bees, trees, and trails. Yesterday I was physically tired, so I gave myself a talk before I went up the hill, “Don’t take any unnecessary risks. Don’t fall on any broken glass. Don’t slide off the steep edge of the ridge on loose stones. Be careful up there.” There’s a place where the arrowleaf balsamroot blooms that is incredibly steep, so I decide it would be better to avoid those patches today and save it for a time when I have more mountain goat energy. It’s funny how some days the blossoms can be loaded with bees, and other days, there’s no joy at all. Other flowers nearby become more attractive, the nectar runs out, or I’m just unlucky with the timing of my visit. But right now, they are my favourite flower blooming on the hill. They pull me up the hill with their sunny yellow magnetism, but today it’s the action in the Amelanchier that gives me a surprise adventure.

The Saskatoon berry bushes are suddenly in bloom and so I’m also on a quest to see what pollinates them because I just don’t tend to see bees on them. Today I notice there are some male bees lekking on a bush and I miss getting a shot of a female bee grooming herself on a leaf. She had pale yellow pollen on her back legs—some kind of mining bee. I also see a tiny wasp-like critter, but can’t get a clear shot. Maybe tomorrow. I might need to net some of these pollinators and look up close in a jar. Then on the top of the hill I get a surprise—three large insects are chasing each other around a Saskatoon bush. I try to get a bead on what they are—not bumble bees, but a similar size. Maybe wasps? But they seem too broad and hairy. As I move in closer to get shots I get that “uncanny valley” feeling because this insect is so unfamiliar to me it feels like a dream. I had a similar experience one when I saw my first tachinid fly. The head shape did not fit with my concept of typical fly anatomy. It looked like something someone created in a 3-D printer and then animated it somehow.

And then the unexpected happened, which made the experience even more dreamlike: the three insects started chasing each other. “Mating or fighting?” I wondered as I followed the action with my lens held tightly against my eye. They landed on the dusty ground and appeared to wrestle vigorously with one another. This seemed like a test of male fitness. After a few moments of tussling they disengaged and flew off in different directions. They were clumsy flyers and I must admit I had a shiver of revulsion at the thought they might land on me and continue the battle. I rarely have that feeling about insects, so I had to step back, get some distance and examine my reaction. At the base of this reaction was fear and unfamiliarity. I didn’t know if these were stinging or biting insects. Upon examining the photos later, I see they have very large mandibles and I’m curious what they’re used for. If these are males, they are using them for fighting and possibly mating, since that’s while the “tools” on male anatomy are usually evolved to do. Something in my brain told me these were saw flies, which was confirmed by entomologist Lincoln Best. I'd just never seen them this large and I don't see saw flies very often at all--especially giant pugnacious saw flies.

I think one of the things that tends to get under one’s skin is not knowing which direction an insect may head toward. With bees you often get a clear sense of trajectory as they go from flower to flower and flower to nest. They’re just not into humans and are very good at keeping out of our way. We humans want to stay out of their way so they can do their work. The more we disrupt their work, the less likely they are to survive. We are creatures of disruption. We are the interlopers here. When you grow up with mosquitoes, you know the irritation of avoiding insects that want to drink your blood. Horsefly bites are not much fun either. But when you grow up as a free-range child in the country you get stung and bit by insects, scraped and poked by thorns, and you inevitably end up picking soil and pebbles out of a skinned knee. But the next day you get out there and do it again. Unless you’re my wee neighbor Sidney. I have a vague memory of mom telling me he suddenly became afraid of bugs and wouldn’t leave the house. “Should I be afraid,” I wondered? And I was, for about a week, then I forgot about the fear and went on getting poked and scraped.

“I’m afraid of trees,” my friend’s nephew admits as he looks up from a game on his cell phone. “Hold on,” I thought. Where did that come from? I’m absolutely flabbergasted. This is coming from a woman who can be seen regularly getting up close to inhale the heady butterscotch scent of Ponderosa Pine bark as if it were the sun-warmed chest of a lover at the beach. I am worried folks think I’m nutty for getting too close and personal with a pine tree. But to be afraid of individual trees? Oh dear, what has technology done? It’s seduced children and their parents away from the hills, bees, trees and uncanny saw flies. We need to help children from a young age simply get used to being in nature with a biodiversity of insects, plants, trees, ecosystems, and weather. We need to teach them how to be safe in potentially dangerous situations. We need to face an element of risk in order to create deeper relationships with nature. Oh and yes, I did fall on a prickly pear pad with my full weight onto my hand. It hurt like hell. I pulled out the thorns as best I could. Drank some gin. I’ll still head out there today and take the same damned risks all over again. But my attitude toward the saw flies will have changed because now I know a little bit more about what they are, and my fear has turned to curiosity.

What inspires you to face your fear of critters that move in unexpected ways? I’d love to hear your stories.

Special thanks to Lincoln Best, who IDed the mystery critters as club-horned sawflies.

Tuesday, March 22, 2022

Bumblebee Plants and Resources for Saskatchewan

(*Denotes a medicinal plant for bees)

Shrubs: Pussy Willow (Salix spp.) Arctic Willow, Clove Currant (Ribes aureum) Wood’s Rose (Rosa Woodsii), Prickly Rose (R. acicularis), Potentilla spp., hardy bush roses (avoid double flowers), Ninebark, Buck Brush (Symphoricarpos occidentalis), Common Snowberry (S. albus)

Native Trees: Chokecherry, Crabapple, Saskatoon (and many other native fruit trees), Western Mountain Ash (Sorbus scopulina) Pincherry (Prunus pennsylvanica)

Native Vines: Purple Clematis (Clematis occidentalis) Virgin’s Bower Clematis (Clematis ligustifolium) beware of invasive look-alikes

Native and Near Native Perennials:

Native violets

Prairie Crocus (Pulsatilla patens)

Bleeding heart (Dicentra spp.),

Heartleaf Golden Alexanders (Zizea aptera)

Nodding onion (Allium cernuum) and other native alliums,

Canadian Columbine (Aquilegia canadensis) and other Aquilegia spp.

Prairie Smoke (Geum trifolium),

Few-Flowered Shooting Star (Dodecatheon pulchellum)

Locoweed (Oxytropis spp.)

Milk Vetch (Astragalus spp.),

Native Silvery Lupin (Lupinus argenteus)

Yarrow (Achillea Millefolium),

Yellow Rattle (Rhinanthus minor)

Common Harebell (Campanula rotundifolia) Don’t plant creeping bellflower!

Native Larkspurs Delphium bicolour, D. glaucum or Nuttall’s Larkspur (D. nuttallianum) HIGH toxicity warning,

Rocky Mountain Bee Plant (Cleome serrulata),

Anise Hyssop (Agastache foeniculum)

Penstemon spp.,

Scarlet Globe Mallow (Sphaeralcea coccinea) (red-listed grassland species),

Plains Prickly Pear (Opuntia polyacantha),

Erigeron spp.

Blue Gentian (Gentiana spp.)

Jacob’s Ladder (Polemonium spp.)

Prairie Clover (Dalea purpurea)

Cranesbill Geranium (Geranium spp.)

Native Annual: Bienenfreunde aka Lacy Phacelia (Phacelia tanacetifolia)

Late-Blooming Native Asteraceae:

Blazing Star (Liatris spp.)

Joe Pye Weed (Eutrochium maculatum)

Blanket Flower (Gaillardia spp.)

Tickseed (Coreopsis spp.)

Pearly Everlasting (Anaphalis margaritaceae)

Asters (Symphyotrichum spp.)

Goldenrod (Solidago spp.)

Purple Coneflowers (Echinacea purpurea)

Prairie Coneflowers (Ratibida spp.)

Black-eyed Susan the Alberta native is Rudbeckia serotina

Curly Cup Gumweed (Grindelia squarrosa)

Wild Sunflowers

Sneezeweed (Helenium autumnale)

Exotic Perennials:

Catmint (Nepeta cultivars)

*Sage (Salvia spp.)

*Meadow Sage (Salvia pratensis),

*Oregano, *Thyme,

Tall Verbena (Verbena Bonariensis)

Hollyhocks (and other malva spp.),

Russian Sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia),

Sea Holly (Eringeum spp.),

Globe Thistle (Echinops ritro),

False Sunflower (Heliopsis)

Exotic Annuals:

Borage (Borago officinalis),

*Buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum)

*Tobacco (Nicotiana rustica),

Calendula (Calendula officinalis),

Blue Shrimp Plant (Cerinthe major)

Moroccan Toadflax (Linaria maroccana)

Veggies: Scarlet Runner Beans, *Nightshades (Tomato, Pepper, Eggplant, Potato), squash (Cucurbitae)

Let some of your veggies bloom for bees: radishes, kale, leeks, carrots, parsnips Extra bee-friendly herbage: cilantro, fennel and dill

Warning: Don’t plant Sainfoin (Onobrychis spp.)—I have recently found out that it is invasive in Alberta. Creeping bellflower is also invasive.

Sources and Recommended Reading:

Blazing Star Wildflower Seed Company: https://www.growwildflowers.ca/

Local native plants and seed nursery: http://www.wildaboutflowers.ca/

Native Plants for the Short Season Yard by Lyndon Penner. (This is a must-have book for the Albertan bumblebee gardener!!!!)

Victory Gardens for Bees: A DIY Guide to Saving the Bees by Lori Weidenhammer

List of Saskatchewan bumble bee species: http://beespeakersaijiki.blogspot.com/2017/11/saskatchewan-bumblebees-species-list.html

BB’s of Southern Alberta Guide to Queens by Megan Evans 17 true bb’s and 3 cuckoo bbs.

https://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$Department/deptdocs.nsf/all/prm13779/$FILE/bombus_guide.pdf

Bumble Bees of Calgary: A key and illustrated guide for identification of the bumble bee species found in Calgary, Alberta

Neame, Tobyn; Ritchie, Sarah; Summers, Mindi

https://prism.ucalgary.ca/bitstream/handle/1880/113505/Bumble_Bees_of_Calgary_V1.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

Bumble Bees of North America: An Identification Guide

Paul H. Williams, Robbin W. Thorp, Leif L. Richardson, and Sheila R. Colla

Bumble bees of the western U.S. (I use this a lot)

https://xerces.org/publications/identification-and-monitoring-guides/bumble-bees-of-western-united-states

Conserving Bumble Bees: Guidelines for Creating and Managing Habitat for America’s Declining Pollinators by the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. (This is available online for free.)

https://xerces.org/sites/default/files/2018-05/12-028_01_XercesSoc_Conserving-Bumble-Bees-Guidelines_web.pdf

Bumble bee nest relocation: A blog post

http://beespeakersaijiki.blogspot.com/2019/05/operation-bumble-bee-nest-relocation.html

Videos, Allies and iNaturalist Links:

Bumble bees of Canada Monitoring Program (You can search for your local bee sightings by typing it into the location setting)

https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/bumble-bees-of-canada-monitoring-program

Bees of Canada

https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/bees-of-canada

Native Bee Society of BC Bee Tracker

https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/nbsbc-bee-tracker

Feel free to DM me/tag me if you want me to help ID a bee. (@beespeaker)

Allies: