Beneficial Insects
Feeding the Bees: Creating a Bee Buffet!
We are hearing more and more about the challenges which honey bees and native bees are facing. There are many things you can do in a landscape to help bees. One thing we all can do is create an appealing and nutritious “bee buffet” to help our pollinator friends. As you likely know, bees need both pollen and nectar. Let’s…
Read MoreProtecting Bees: Skip the “Secret Sauce”
You may have heard about the recent bumble bee massacre in Oregon, which killed an estimated 25,000 – 50,000 bees. Shoppers at a Target store in Willsonville, Oregon found thousands of dead bumble bees in the parking lot. The likely culprit? A landscaping company which had sprayed the neonicotinoid pesticide “Safari “ on dozens of Linden trees in an attempt…
Read MoreYour Favorite Native Plants: Cutleaf Coneflower
Autumn Thomas had the final winning entry to the EcoBeneficial t-shirt contest: “I’m going to go with Cutleaf Coneflower (Rudbeckia laciniata) even though it’s a tad aggressive, I see hundreds of bees, beetles and lepidoptera (butterflies, skippers and moths) on it every year. Then, after it goes to seed flocks of goldfinches arrive!” Wondering if Cutleaf Coneflower would be a…
Read MoreAn Environmental Aspect to This Memorial Day
As we remember our fallen troops this Memorial Day, let’s also pay tribute to Rachel Carson, born on May 27, 1907, a famous conservationist credited with starting the modern day environmental movement. After studying at the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory, and receiving a Masters in zoology from Johns Hopkins University, Carson started her career as a marine biologist. She…
Read MoreYour Favorite Native Plants: We Have Some Winners!
Thank you to everyone who participated in the t-shirt competition. There were many wonderful submissions and it was very hard to choose. The 5 winners are: Penny Lewis, Kay Wulf, Autumn Thomas, Missy Clark Isaacs, and Kay Davis. Starting today, I’ll share their answers on this blog. (Winners, please email me at info@ecobeneficial.com with your mailing address, t-shirt style and…
Read MoreHelping Bees in Crisis: 7 Steps to Creating a Bee-Friendly Landscape
The European Honey Bee and our 4,000 species of native bees in the U.S. have suffered dramatic losses to their populations due to a combination of many factors. Since bees pollinate a significant portion of our food crops, this is a problem that affects all of us. Without bee pollination services, many of our common fruits, nuts and vegetables would…
Read MoreEarth Day Resolutions: Top 10 Tips for an EcoBeneficial Garden
Here are some easy ways to increase the health of the ecosystem in your landscape. If you have more tips, please let us know. 1) Reduce or eliminate your lawn – it’s an ecological desert. 2) Focus on increasing the health of your soil – it’s filled with life! Compost is king for many soils, not fertilizer. 3) Eliminate synthetic…
Read MoreAttracting Butterflies: Growing Nectar Plants Isn’t Enough!
There are many, many reasons to use native plants in your landscape. One great reason is to support the caterpillars of butterflies. If you don’t feed those caterpillars, you won’t support the transformation of caterpillars into adult butterflies in your landscape. Adult butterflies eat mostly nectar found in flowering plants, and most adult butterflies use a variety of plant species…
Read MoreSpotlight on Great Native Plants: Vernal Witch-hazel
Vernal Witch-hazel aka Spring Witch-hazel (Hamamelis vernalis) is one of our earliest blooming native shrubs, flowering as early as January, but often in February or March. Its orange, red or yellow flowers can appear while snow is still on the ground, and hug tightly onto the leafless branches. The spicy, sweet fragrance of the flowers will often lure you even…
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