Happy Earth Day 2026!

We have worked to convert our yards into natural spaces to save water and to support wildlife.  On Earth day, we observed this not to frequent visitor (we have only seen one in the past).  This is a male Indigo Bunting (he is sitting on some kinetic art - a Hummingbird made out of spoons).

In our front yard we had a volunteer Prickly Pear Catus, that has bloomed beautifully (ample recent rainfall).

The blooms do not last long (this was a little past the peak, but there are many more blooms nearly ready).  The bees and beetles were jam packed into each bloom.

Happy Earth Day!

We are about three weeks ahead of normal spring.

I have trees in bloom, plants leafing out and all kind of critter activity in the yard.

Trilliums appear to be slow to develop. Perhaps they are just late if they are young plants and the greenspaces older more established plants. Some more guidelines here: 

https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/trillium/growing-guide

I think my Hellebores are just about done flowering for the year, so just waiting for the Salvia to take over followed by the the Fuchsia and Alliums, ready for the bees.

We definitely bought them as plants at last years Trillium Festival.  Not sure how old they were.  I'll get a soil kit and check out the acidity.  Thanks for the tip. 

The Camas in front is blooming - too rainy today for a pic.  My wife was upset because there were rows of Camas by the path in one of the greenspaces nearby and someone weed-wacked all of them.

If they are still managing to find suitable nesting sites on their own, then that isn't such a bad thing.

I'm still doubtful that a buff-tailed queen can comfortably fit through the opening in the BeeBox. Will be interesting to see if any of the smaller bees like the Tree or Carder varieties take any interest.

Mining bees sound interesting. I wanted to get some photos of the queen as she was sat on the hedge above me preening herself for a while, but my hands were covered in soil at the time from planting so not an ideal opportunity to down tools and go get the camera.

I see that Trilliums prefer Acidic soil, so if your soil is overly Alkaline, then that may be an issue.

I see if growing from seed they have double dormancy so need a couple of Winters to get started then another couple of years to produce the three leaf form. Sounds like some patience is required if growing from seed.

Good that there is evidence of nesting, but it will be disappointing if you don't get a nest in your BeeBox. 

I recently encountered some Mining bees in a nearby greenspace.  It was kind of neat watching individual bees disappearing into separate "ant" hills.  I tried to get some pics or video, but the dogs had their own agenda that day.  The Mining bees look like miniature Honey bees.

We're having some problems with some of the native plants that we planted last year.  It looks like we have lost the Trilliums.  We just thought that they were late, but they have been blooming in the greenspaces for a while now.

The squirrels were very active digging up bulbs in the winter.  They even dug up the garlic (which they didn't eat).  We'll have to see what else ends up missing .

I've been out adding to the bee buffet next to BeeBox. Had some plants indoors over Winter, four of which were starting to take over the windowsill.

I think there may be a Buff-tailed queen nesting about 4 feet behind BeeBox.

There is a sheltered area which I've seen her disappear into on a couple of occasions.

Will know for sure if workers start appearing.