Gil's Garden

I went to visit my friend and urban gardener extraordinaire, Gil, recently and got a beautiful sunny day to check out his garden wonderland! He has maximized growing in a mid-sized Minneapolis yard to include squash, melons, more tomato varieties than I could count, herbs, kale, cabbage, cucumbers tomatillos,  as well as amaranth and other grains. What a green thumb! But can you guess what caught my eye? An urban hive - no wonder his bounty is so great! Bees love to pollinate fruits and vegetables, the shape and color of the flowers attract them. But, grains are not pollinated by bees, rather, by the wind! Here is the hive and a rabbit waiting for us to leave so it could sneak a snack :)

The bee and butterfly population in our garden is decreasing as the days get cooler and the flowers near the end of their season...The sunshine helps! These wondrous creatures have been working hard all summer to gather enough nectar and pollen to feed themselves over the winter. The bees store honey (and protein) around the queen and the brood with extra stored above them in the hive. This honey is the food for the bees during the winter. Bees can survive winter in Minnesota, but the colony needs to weigh 130-180# in our northern climate to get all the way through until springtime! The bees have been too fast for me lately, but in these photos they are caught in flight :)

Bee 2-4-1

Our bees seem to especially love the sedum flowers, any color will do! Worker bees, like the Queen, are all girls. These busy girls are gathering pollen or nectar, the pollen provides their protein and the nectar from flowers is their carbohydrate source. Bees are vegetarian while some wasps will eat aphids or something decomposing. Wasps can get carb from anything sweet and might even go after your pop or watermelon at a picnic!

It's a Girl!

If you look below at older posts for the caterpillar picture, that's a "before" photo - on Sunday, our butterfly emerged and slowly made her way across the yard! Girl butterflies do not have a "dot" on the bottom black line of the wing while boys do. So, no dot, it's a girl :) Here are a couple of "after" photos, isn't she beautiful? I'm a little teary...

Bees are fuzzy and have 2 sets of wings. Their "fuzz" attracts pollen with a little static charge making them great pollinators! Wasps are smooth with 2 sets of wings and some flies mimic bee appearance...they can be either fuzzy or smooth but only have 1 set of wings.

No promises that I haven't got a wasp or fly in the mix, but I'll do my best!

Have seen more grasshoppers out and about lately,  I saw two grasshoppers together and thought "how nice, a mom carrying a baby". Those in the know tell me this may, in fact, be romance...Either way, fun to catch!

Welcome!

Welcome! I love the bees in our garden and am learning about them and taking bee pictures at home and as I travel.
It's fun to be learning about these very complex little creatures!

While bees will certainly show up in my blog, expect blossoms and other garden visitors too :)

Giving Tree Gardens

Hen & Chick plant

3 cheers for Russ Henry at Giving Tree Gardens for creating our magical garden full of plants and flowers that bring life to our house and yard!! None of these home photos would be possible without his expertise and teaching. Thanks Russ!

Monarch Caterpillar

Wow, look who made an appearance today! The hungry caterpillar :)
One of those beautiful monarch butterflies found the milkweed, laid an egg, and now we have the next generation. Pretty neat! The dramatic coloring tells predators that they are poisonous.
This is a mature monarch caterpillar, the caterpillar stage lasts about 2 weeks, then we will watch for a chrysalis...stay tuned!

Check out today's garden visitor! This beauty wasn't shy, instead, was happy to pose for many photos. More exciting news, the milkweeds in our alley are spreading- yea! This is where mom monarch butterflies will lay their tiny, white, oblong eggs - on the milkweed leaf. Once they hatch, they first eat their egg shell (full of vitamins I understand) then go to work eating up the delicious milkweed leaves! If you'd like to learn more about monarchs, click here.