Black Bees in the Squash Blossoms

I made sure to plant squash for the squash bees. Instead of squash bees, I found another bee I’ve been looking for.

Sunflower buffet

Want to eat from the sunflower? Take a number!

Bugs of Summer

Summer is full of bugs. I’ll let you think up the nasty ones. The good ones include bees and syrphid flies, dragonflies and damselflies, butterflies and moths, crickets at night, and now that’s we’ve hit the hazy hot humid dog days, cicadas. Cicadas are the quintessential summer bug. When you hear their buzzing whir up […]

Fruits of Summer

Warm, sunny days mean ripening fruits. Today I picked my first BIG tomato, a Ramapo tomato that I bought at Mahoney’s this year. Supposedly it’s the original “New Jersey” tomato. It’s an heirloom in the sense that it’s an old variety, but not an heirloom in the sense of seeds gardeners can save. Since it’s […]

Pretty, pretty sunflowers

The sunflowers are so pretty right now. Some of them are dressing up in russety orange. Honeybees come and meticulously work their way around the rings, getting every bit of pollen and nectar from the flowers. And when the sunflowers go to seed, forget how ratty they look. Goldfinches will arrive and it’s pretty all […]

Buzzapalooza on the goldenrod

While I’ve been reading, all sorts of bees have been busy buzzing at the Goldenrod Buzzapalooza.

One tomato, so close to ripe

The first ripe tomato of the year started to color up a few days ago. The red is filling in so fast, I can see it changing over the course of a day. Today, for instance, that pale patch on top was about twice as big.

Advice for a pear

Hi there, pear, blushing on your branch Near the treetop. Belly swelling as you grow Like a raindrop. Forget about the metaphor. Don’t drop.

Black-Eye Susan

The Black-Eye Susan that is not a sunflower is back. And the bees have found it. This is Halictus ligatus, another bee that I see fairly often, tiny bees bearing great saddlebags of pollen on their legs. Bugguide tells me he’s a male. If you look closely, you can see that he’s brushing his antennae. […]

The crowd on the bee and butterfly bush

The butterfly bush is surrounded by the darting shadows of bees against the all-too-clear blue sky. Amid the heat wave, this and the coneflowers are the main source of nectar around here. The powdery lavender scent is drawing an amazing variety of bees and such. Last year, the butterfly bush was the domain of the […]