August 15th, 2023

There were a ton of bees around today! The ground was wet still from yet more rain, but the tomatoes in pots needed water, so I did that. I also got FED UP with the black cherry's stake falling over and went to push it deeper into the ground and it snapped. Yay. So I grabbed a plastic stake in decent condition and propped it up with that, then grabbed an extra plant clip and clipped the dang tomato to that.

Upon going about my rounds to look for any changes, I found more baby tomatoes, baby okras, and FINALLY a cucumber blossom!

Additionally, the basil looked really healthy and the blanket flowers are back to REALLY blooming- so deadheading worked or it just cycles like that. I also found that my wood sorrel bits that I left while weeding are really thriving, unsurprisingly.

Now, for the drama. I went to water the tomato pots, since they were dry. Behind the nearest water hose, I have a bucket filled with rain water with a mosquito dunk in it to keep down the mosquito population a bit. I get absolutely accosted by mosquitoes. Anyway, in the bucket is literally JUST the water and the dunk, plus some dead mosquito larvae I think. I peeked over at it after I turned on the water because with all the rain lately, I was curious to see where the water level was at. To my horror, there was a big ole carpenter bee flailing around and a dead beetle in the water! I gasped, dropped the hose, and hurried to the shed where I found a good solid piece of a stick that I carefully held into the water next to the bee. The bee grabbed on and hoisted herself onto it, and when I was sure she was safely on the stick I carefully walked her over to my blanket flowers and held the stick next to some blooms that looked good. She slowly pulled herself onto a bloom and started cleaning herself off.

For the rest of the visit, I kept an eye on her. Even as other bees, I think little late-season bumbles, checked out the flowers and did their little dances, she seemed grateful for the flowers and kept cleaning herself and drying. The other bees seemed to leave her alone. I also went back and put a short wooden stake into the bucket at an angle to prevent further casualties. I do not want bee deaths on my hands. I already felt horrible about that poor beetle, which you can see below.

I did see a few other lil guys while looking around! I saw a lady beetle (probably the Chinese invasive variety, but what can you do). I also saw a wittle jumping spider on the side of my bed, very cute and very fast! Last, I saw some kind of beetle guy on one of my salvias.

I also decided to go ahead and sow some of the cleared beds with native wildflower mix. I used up most of the rest of my bag, so here's hoping that those beds are just chock full of pollinator-supporting flowers in the spring! Maybe even some fall season flowers? In any case, I may forget I did that until the spring anyway, so there's a lil gift for future me. And future bees n such. The nasturtium I pulled out of an abandoned bed seems to be taking pretty well. I'm getting flowers and I saw a new bit popping out of the ground!

Upon one final check, I found that the beetle was actually still alive! It was clinging to the wood when I left. I'm hoping it makes it out. In hindsight, I should have probably pulled it out and placed it in some weeds, but oh well I guess. The bee I pulled out had crawled up the blooms touching each other and looked significantly dryer and more energetic, I think. Hopefully I see NO SIGN of her when I return to the garden next.