Musings from an Albuquerque Pollinator Paradise If you’re reading this from New Mexico, the Valle de Oro National Wildlife Refuge Grand Opening of Visitor Center and 10th Birthday is on Saturday, September 10th, about a month away. I hope you’ll join us! It’s summer in New Mexico and it’s hot and dry. Not as hot as Phoenix, thankfully! We received niceContinue reading “Musings from an Albuquerque Pollinator Paradise”
Musings from a Phoenix Pollinator Garden 7June22 Plants in the garden, and sharing plants from the neighbor’s garden Most urban and suburban lots are small relative to the natural tracts of native habitat, so there are limits to what we can plant, both in size and variety. And, it turns out, putting your yard into context with the nearest forage/host areaContinue reading “Musings from a Phoenix Pollinator Garden”
Musings from a Phoenix Pollinator Garden 7June22 Blood-colored Milkweed Bug, Tarantula Hawk Wasp, Queen Butterfly, Ceraunus Blue Butterfly, Great Horned Owl The beauty of a pollinator garden is a two-edged wand: The reward of knowing you are contributing to the health of the ecosystem that you inhabit The treasure hunt of discovering the web of characters that visit your paradise InContinue reading “Musings from a Phoenix Pollinator Garden”
Meet the Author: Dr. Shaun McCoshum An interview with Shaun McCoshum about his background, interests, research, and new gardening book.
Musings from a Phoenix Pollinator Garden Design: TJ’s framework drawing for pool and landscape. This is the third post in this series. You can read the first post here. Bucking the trend of right angle, manicured modern design, we decided to go with organic shapes to soften the landscape and align with the natural shape of the plants. Have we waitedContinue reading “Musings from a Phoenix Pollinator Garden”
Musings from a Phoenix Pollinator Garden Design: North Side Yard Welcome back! This is the second installment in this series – in the previous post I presented the history of the project and the design considerations for the South Side Yard – you can view that post here. The side yard on the north side of the house has two separateContinue reading “Musings from a Phoenix Pollinator Garden”
Musings from a Phoenix Pollinator Garden Join us for this series where we’ll cover a Phoenix Pollinator Garden from design to planting to pollinator observations.
The potential consequences of ‘bee washing’ by Sheila R. Colla (2022) Over recent decades, the plight of wild bees and other pollinators has gone from a niche area to one of the most mainstream environmental topics. Scientific research interest, capacity and consequently publications have grown tremendously in recent years, as has mainstream media coverage. The public has been engaged in a variety of ways to “save the bees”Continue reading “The potential consequences of ‘bee washing’ by Sheila R. Colla (2022)”
Bumblebees of the Southwest Yesterday, I posted about an opportunity for public participation in a bee and plant survey. Today, I want to share the 5 most common bumblebees in Arizona and New Mexico, according to iNaturalist. American Bumblebee: Despite being on the verge of the endangered species list, it is the most common to see in our area.Continue reading “Bumblebees of the Southwest”
Ask a Bumblebee Source: Bee Inventory and Monitoring Lab (BIML) | Facebook USGS/FWS Native Bee Lab have developed a simple Plant/Bumble Bee Survey that permits anyone to survey what plants Bumble Bees use anywhere there are Bumble Bees (literally). Our goal is to quantify which plants bumble bees use, rank them by that use, and also identify which onesContinue reading “Ask a Bumblebee”
Landscaping for Pollinator Diversity – From Southwest Yard & Garden Blog Are all bees beneficial? “For the most part, yes. Wild bees and honey bees need pollen and nectar to survive and establish their nests. Some bees can become pests when they build nests in areas where humans (or animals) live and play, but even those bees offer benefits as pollinators. Many bees look for openContinue reading “Landscaping for Pollinator Diversity – From Southwest Yard & Garden Blog”
What should I plant for the most pollinators? As much as possible! Okay, that’s not much of an answer. First, which kinds of pollinators do you want to attract? Hummingbirds – red tubular Penstemon and Acanthus flowers work great. Bees – sunflowers are your best bet. Butterflies and moths aren’t so picky, but you’ll want to provide host plants, like milkweed for Monarchs.Continue reading “What should I plant for the most pollinators?”
New Insect Page on PollinatorWeb.com! I am happy to introduce some fantastic flying critters, from popular to obscure. In my suburban Albuquerque yard, I have recorded over 120 species from tiny fairy bees (Perdita) to noisy, showy cicada killers. I hope you will go find some in your neighborhood. Take time to appreciate them and upload the pictures to iNaturalist.org,Continue reading “New Insect Page on PollinatorWeb.com!”
