Happy New Year from Beespeaker Saijiki!

Here's to a New Year buzzing with biodiverse  gardens for bees! This is a photo of an Epeolini cuckoo bee in a calendula flower taken in my mom's garden in Cactus Lake, Saskatchewan.

Calendula is a member of the aster family, which is an easy-access plant that feeds a wide variety of bees. It blooms from spring to frost, and is a good gap-filler in your garden, especially in early summer and fall when there are fewer options available for bee food.

Thanks to all the gardeners, farmers, restoration specialists, and bee huggers around the world who help keep our bees healthy and our flowers blooming.

Scenes from a Community Garden

 What up? Look at the florets around the edge of the calendula centre. That's where the nectar is. Is that pollen on your forehead?

A mason bee stops to groom on a viola.

 The same bee hides from the paparazzi. You can faintly see the pollen on her scopa.

The holes are filling up fast. I'm thinking we may have to put a bird guard on this baby because it might be tempting to flickers.

There's a bee on the thyme. Small flowers, small bee.

 It's easier to take photos of bees when they are resting or grooming.

Vancouver is Bee Friendly

As I followed the path today from garden plot to garden plot, I met a lot of bees and a lot of people who love bees and sweet peas. I watered, cut flowers, and harvested beans and Swiss chard.

 When I arrived at the City Hall Community Garden there was practically a bee in every flower: poppy, calendula, cornflower, rudbeckia, oregano et al.

It's at this time of the year one can't help imagining the fairy illustrations from childrens' books coming alive in the garden.

 Of course, there were some other critters besides bees.

But big or little, IMO the bees are the divas of the garden.