Newsy Mcnews Face

I have news!!!!! First off, I am heading to Vancouver island to do a talk on gardening for bumblebees for the Russell Nursery Anniversary talks series this Sunday at 1:30 pm tickets are $18. The talk is at Kildara Farms, located in Deep cove, at the tip of the Saanich peninsula. I’m so looking forward to having the space and time to rattle on about bees for an hour and a half—much more time than the 10-minute Ted Talk model. This lecture will stuffed with all sorts of ideas for bumblebee gardens and I’ll have time to go into more detail with some of my adventure stories.

If you are in Vancouver, please head to the Environmental Youth Alliance Wild About Spring Celebration—you must register to participate, but you can go to a wild pollinator workshop and take home some native plants. Saturday, March 25, 12:30 pm Strathcona community garden.

I’ve just returned from Alberta (see the posts below) where I’ve been to Seedy Saturday in Calgary, and Seedy Sunday in Edmonton. I met all sorts of gardeners who are interesting in growing flowers and building nesting boxes for over 20 species of bumblebees they have in that province. Check out the links on my web site to another site called Border Free Bees with a file on how you can build a nesting box for bumblebees in a info sheet compiled by bumblebee scientist Ralph Cartar and Luc Pelletier.

I also had a really interesting conversation with a veternarian who told me that her profession is increasingly being asked to diagnose and treat managed bee species. Stay tuned for more thoughts on that topic.

Photo: A Bembix sand wasp, which is the carnivore that evolved into the vegan and became the first bee. These are not the wasps that "bring the sting". They are sweet, gentle, and quite beautiful.

I am thrilled to be honored with the nomination for an INDIE book of the year award. This has just been announced and it’s great timing as we try to get copies of Victory Gardens for bees into peoples hands as they hit prime gardening season. Again, I’d like to acknowledge the team—team BEE—especially my editor Carol Pope who worked to make this book work for bees. Someone in Calgary mentioned that they wanted to buy the book as a coffee table book—which is great—but I want you to use it, make it dog-eared, write notes in the margins—put that book to work gardening for bees. You could always buy two copies—one for the garden and one for the coffee table which is what I know at least one person has done!!!!!

And on that note: put a couple of dates on your calendar: Alpine Garden Club of BC plant sale at VanDusen gardens, April 1, VanDusen Botanical Garden plant sale April 30. Check the plant shop at UBC Botanical Gardens and Figaro’s Garden—they will set you up with pesticide free bee plants.

Also, I really encourage everyone to try growing at least one plant from seed this year. There is nothing more inspiring, than the miracle of seed-to-flower-to fruit. Start with chives or nodding onions, and prepare to get hooked on a new healthy habit. I'm so happy that West Coast Seeds is now carrying my book!!!!!!!!!! So order your copy and put in your seed order at the same time!

 Photo: Did you know blueberries need bumblebees for polliantion? Join me in a picnic with the bumblebees at UBC Farm.


 First Saturday Tea with the Bees:
 The first Saturday in May and June we'll be hosting tea with the bees in the blueberry rows and orchards. Let's start a family tradition of seasonal picnics celebrating the connection between what's bloomin' and what's pollinatin'.

Life in the Bee Lane:

I have attended one public consultation meeting for The Arbutus Greenway plan, and I’m happy to announce the City of Vancouver is planting a temporary bee lane along the path with pollinator wildflowers. Please go online and fill out the survey and encourage the planners to make the bee lane a permanent feature. As we lose backyard bee habitat every day to developers and people add honeybees to the urban environment, we need to keep adding bee forage to keep up and feed our precious native wild bees.

Neonics in the News:

The Canadian government is getting serious about banning neonics. (Or is it one neonic, singular?) Anyhow, please tell the government to ban Imidacloprid—either via the Wilderness Committee links or the David SuzukiFoundation or both-- BEFORE March 23. Do it today!!!!!

Photo: Did you know that Yellow Cosmos (Cosmos sulphureas) is a dye plant!!!! Can’t wait to grow some this year). The photo above was taken at City Farmer in Vancouver.

All the photos except the final one were taken at Earthwise  Farm and Garden in Delta. This is one of the best places to buy organic flowers for bees in the Lower Mainland.

Best of luck with all your gardening adventures!!!

Cheers,

Lori

UBC Farm Market with the Dudes

I know people go to the UBC Farm market for the veggies, fruit, and free range eggs, but I'm all about the flowers and the bees. I convinced my husband and son to come out and enjoy the farm with me.

And here they are, my rock stars, looking very underwhelmed at being dragged out of the man cave. The words "humoring me" come to mind.

 I am so happy to see so  much cerinthe here for the happy bumblebees.

It also sounds amazing as the bees vibrate to a high pitch inside the bell-shaped blossoms. I tried to convince the sound artist he should come out and do a recording. It would be fun to put mikes and speakers right in the flower patch.

Look at these beautiful scabiosa blossoms.

I do have a soft spot for the candyshop colors of old- fashioned zinnias. I'm seeing more and more eastern bumblebees around Vancouver this year. It's an invasion of the nest snatchers.

Phacelia and oats.

 Lacy phacelia (Phacelia tanacetifolia) is such a great bee plant because it offers both nectar and pollen rewards for bees and attracts a wide variety of  bee species. I'm always happy to see it at the farm.

Now that it's August, the bee species are starting to dwindle to a few familiar suspects like this jaunty dude: Halictus rubucundis.

These straw flowers amaze me with their everlasting petals and tightly packed florets.

The August color pallet is full of delicate shades of peaches and cream.

Tupper Biology Trip to UBC Farm

Baby onions hardening off, given some tough love before they are planted out in the field.

 A field of kale thrumming with bumblebees.

It's intriguing that there is a species of bumblebee at UBC Farm with this bald patch on their thorax. You'll see a picture of one in my book.

A mason bee house completely full. All the holes are plugged with clay. Each tunnel contains female and male bees.

A bumblebee queen having a beauty sleep with her head inside a cozy comfrey flower. How cute is that!?

A nectar robber caught in the act.

 She uses her tounge like a straw to sip the nectar through holes bees chewed in the corolla.

This large bee probably could sip the way she's supposed to, hanging upside down under the flower, but she is opportunistic, saving valuable energy by simply robbing the nectar. She's got babies to feed! And comfrey refills with nectar every 15 minutes or so. So there's a lot to go around.

 This bee is sticking her head right into the blueberry flower to sip nectar. I noticed some of the bumblebees were more noisy than others, which means they were buzz-pollinating the blueberries, shaking the pollen out of the stamens by hitting a certain frequency. This makes them better at pollinating blueberries than honeybees. Honeybees don't even like blueberry flowers and the pollen is low in nutrition to them. These bumblebees, however, evolved with the blueberries and the pollen is good food for their brood.

An intriguing tree in the forest surrounding the farm. The forest adds to the biodiversity of life on the farm and provides a sheltered environment for growing crops. The forest edge is a hot spot for biodiversity of flora and fauna.

 Usually maple blossoms are high up in the trees and we can't see them. They look almost finished for the season and are actually a really important bee tree.

These trailing blackberries are the ones native to BC. There are invasive Himalayan blackberries on the farm, but they are carefully managed.

UBC Farm: My Favorite Place to Be in October

Beautiful pumpkins are waiting for you at UBC Farm. Make sure you head there this weekend to get yours.

An Eastern Interloper, this bumblebee has escaped from a greenhouse.

 No more flowers on the snowberry bushes. This signals the end of the native bee year here in Vancouver. You'll see honeybees foraging, but very few native bees if any at all.

Yarrow acts as a benificial plant next to crops attracting predators of the crop-eating bugs. It does tend to spread, and has deep roots, so in a smaller garden is needs to be reigned in. It's perfect for naturalizing into lawns and no-mow zones.

Bee plants can have other functions besides providing pollinators with nectar and pollen. Here's an example of intercropping kale with clover as a living mulch. (I'm not sure what that weed is at the bottom of the photo.)

Note to self: a trap crop is a crop that attracts pests away from the main cash crop. Catch crops like this phacelia and crimson clover catch nutrients and hold them in the soil in between the main cash crops.

An Example of Garden Design for Pollinators at UBC Farm

 On Saturday I taught a workshop at James Richardson's permaculture course. I found a great example of gardening for pollinators in the Landed Learning Garden. In the centre of the garden is crocosmia, a hummingbird magnet which has bright red flowers with long nectar tubes. A cheeky little hummer gave us a lovely demonstration of sipping nectar while we admired her.

The next layer in this grouping is comfrey (Symphytum officinale), which was almost finished blooming, but was still attracting hungry bumblebees with fat golden pollen baskets. This bee is grooming while hanging on the blossom by one leg. The hummingbirds were also sipping at the comfrey which refills with nectar about every 3 hours. The third plant, which was a lower layer was hardy geranium (Geranium maculatum). It has shallow purple flowers with clear nectar guides that was attracting honeybees and tiny native bees.This planting is an example of a great way to design for pollinators, with different plants catering to different niches filled by a diversity of pollinators.

Artist Jasna Guy, pictured here with fireweed (Chamerion angustifolium), helped me out in the workshop and showed us how to use a tuning fork to release pollen. She has had good luck putting flowers in a vase and then using the fork to release the pollen when they reach that crucial point in their development. Jasna is exhibiting her work this fall at the Richmond Art Gallery. Please keep an eye on her fabulous blog for details.

Students who want more information about mason bee houses can check out this info from the Xerces Foundation.

Folks interested in further classes in bee knowledge can check out Brian Campbell's  classes at VanDusen Gardens and Langara College. 

The Environmental Youth Alliance also offers opportunities for learning about bees and you can drop in on the open hive days at Hives for Humanity in the Downtown East Side.

Thanks for a fantastic afternoon of exploration!

Sign Up for Our Workshop at UBC Farm: Healing Hedgrows for Humans and Bees

Healing Hedgerows for Humans and Bees: Seasonal wild foraging

Link for registration here.

Join the Artist Madame Beespeaker and Contemporary Herbalist Lori Snyder for a tour of the Agroforestry hedgerows of UBC Farm followed by hands on experience making simple home remedies from hedgerow plants. Madame Beespeaker will talk about the ways hedgerows can provide a solution to supporting the health of honeybees as well as providing habitat for our precious native bees. Lori Snyder will show you how to forage for seasonal wild edibles and make herbal teas, healing foot soaks and salves from hedgerow plants.

Sample herbal teas foraged from plants that grow abundantly around us like gingko biloba, peppermint, fresh strawberry leaf, uva ursi or blackberry leaf

Foot Soaks: treating your feet with external medicine can be an effective way of removing toxins from the body and re-invigorating your health

Salves: Beeswax melted into oils infused with hedgerow herbs can make balms to treat rashes, bruises, and muscular aches and pains

Taste:  Learn to forage for wild greens and experience their exotic flavours along with all the goodness they contain

What to bring & what you'll take home!

Bring along some raw honey and see what we might find to infuse into.  Time permitting, learn to make your own hydrosols. Attendees will take homea mind-map handout and their own infused honey.

The Presenters:

Madame Beespeaker aka Lori Weidenhammer is a an eco-artist with a passion for bees, birds and the plants that support them. 

Lori Snyder has been working with herbal medicines and wild foods for several years and she just completed her training as a professional chef.

Date: April 29

Location:  UBC Farm Centre

3461 Ross Drive

Vancouver BC

Fall Bees at UBC Farm

It's almost the end of the bee foraging year for both bumblebees and honeybees. For the queen bumbles it's a frantic time of loading up as much as possible for surviving the winter. Other bees are literally on the last leg of their journey. At the harvest festivals in September we should really be celebrating these brave little souls who are essential to creating our rich bounty and variety of foods.