#introduction Hi, I’m new here, but I’m giving this Mastodon thing a try! I’m an ecologist by training, currently teaching intro bio to undergrads. I’m an #insect enthusiast with particular love for #bees, #wasps and other garden critters. I have a chaotic good #vegetablegarden and plant lots of #nativeplants for the yard critters. I’m also a #twinmom and #vegetarian#cook. Don’t have a #dog yet but I love to see photos of your #dogs. What are you #reading right now?
This is a solitary bee just starting its life. It visits these last Phacelia blooms over & over. Eventually, the bee will move over to other flower varieties that are coming on strong.
Diversity in plants & habitats makes the difference on this small scale. Native bees forage over hundreds of yards-not miles like honey bees.
We live under the flight path of wildlife traveling between native forests in #CoastalNSW. At midsummer, these creatures are all very busy feeding on, pollinating, propagating (through excreting seeds), and regenerating not only the great native forests, but many private gardens.
Why not give your local native birds and wildlife a gift for #2024 by planning now to plant edible native flowers, shrubs and trees wherever you live. Or find a Bush Regeneration group to work with on local public lands.
Before long, #Biodiversity Value will become a measurable contribution to the value of both public and privately owned land, including yours. It’s the beautiful gift you give to yourself, your children’s children, our wildlife, and the planet.
This outstanding article related to #NativePlants has many useful points for preparing for the next growing season and improving the #environment in general. I'll pull out some main ideas in a threaded series this week.
First up: Insects are the primary conduits for energy to get from plants to animals. And lowly caterpillars turn out to be the most important.
Our job, gardeners, is to plant more caterpillar food!
Per the article☝️, the population of American birds has declined by 30% since the 1970s. To help, you must support the bugs that the birds need to reproduce. But only 14% of #NativePlants generate 90% of the yummy caterpillars that drive food webs!
So are you planting these?
At the link provided, you can pull up a list of what you need to plant in your ecoregion. Scroll down and click on your list.
In the technically-not-a-recession UK, #GardenDesign has taken an understandable hit, because gardens are considered a luxury. A damning indictment but hey, that’s the economic lemons.
Luckily, I am still making #garden lemonade. If you’re fortunate enough to have a garden design budget, please see my portfolio.
Following the 4 dam removals on the Klamath river, and restoration plan closely. Local tribes collected a phenomenal 19 BILLION local ca native plant seeds from 98 species to revegetate the project. Our local tribes do stuff in a well thought out, big way, reintroduction of endangered species like condors, reintroduction of cultural fire, instrumental in getting the dams removed, + collecting 19 billion native seeds to reveg the project. Continual source of inspiration. #KlamathRiver#DamRemoval#WatershedRestoration#NativePlants #Yurok#Karuk#Hupa#SeedGathering
Longhorn Bees have been gathering in groups in our Tucson, AZ, USA yard to sleep on the dried-out flower stems of our Brittlebush. We’ve seen up to 40 of these each night recently so I drew a few of them for my Perpetual Journal this week.