Crafting My Bliss

I was very enthusiastic about planting a garden that attracts pollinators. I try to do what I can to help our planet, and bees play a very important role in our ecosystem. Lately I’ve seen a few of them in myyard. The dandelions are a wonderful feast for them. They stay out of my way and I stay out of their way.

I’m in the process of adding more plants to the garden around my patio and fire pit. One of my newfound obsessions is to create a garden with fewer weeds. I’ve read that you can achieve this by having several plants in the garden and not giving the weeds room to flourish. Right now the garden is overgrown with weeds, and the April showers seem to make it worse every day. Today I started planting new plants by removing the weed barrier landscape fabric, which wasn’t doing a good job, and moving the existing pea gravel. While digging, I couldn’t help but notice a few bees hovering over the soil of my future rain garden, which is currently muddy pile. I stopped shoveling and started paying attention to the bees.

I was stung by a bee for the first time a few years ago while doing landscaping work at a rental property and I literally melted all the way down. I was trying to remove some plants from a flower bed and as I was pulling out some leaves, I unfortunately disturbed a hive. I got stung three times and was not pleased. It was horrible. My eldest was with me and after venting for a few minutes, I burst into tears and melted down even more. He had to call his dad, it was that bad. Of course, I had no interest in repeating the ordeal.

I watched the bees for a few minutes and noticed that they were flying into holes in the ground. Now it was time to go inside. I don’t know much about bees, but I do know that they nest in the ground. I didn’t dig any further for fear of running into another hive and being attacked. I just watched them out of curiosity. They weren’t bothering me, so I didn’t feel threatened. I went inside and began researching the bees in Maryland that nest underground. I came across mining bees also known as digger bees. I read a few articles and watched a few videos. I was pretty sure that they were indeed digger bees. They are not aggressive and there is only one bee per hole. That reassured me and I went back outside and continued planting.

Today was definitely an educational experience. I never realized there were so many different types of bees. I took the time to educate myself and it helped me get over my fear and feel comfortable enough to go back outside. According to my research, the bees are active for two to four weeks. Since I haven’t spent much time in that part of the yard since since I first started digging out the rain garden, I don’t know how long the bees have been there. I’m going to play it safe and say this is their first week. I will keep an eye on them and once they have calmed down, I will resume working on my rain garden.