Alternative pollinators to honey bees is important because honey bees are expensive, require a decent amount of work and sting! This video looks at keeping leaf cutter bees in a backyard garden. Leaf cutter bees will increase yields for a backyard garden. They also are solitary bees meaning they are friendly and fun to watch.
Grab your leaf cutter bees www.backyardpollinator.com
Website/Blog: https://gardeningincanada.net
👩🔬Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/gardeningincanada
Amazon Affiliate:
pH Meter: https://geni.us/ZXQx0S
Fungus Gnat, Thrip control: https://geni.us/SBDgp
Spider Mite Control: https://geni.us/tG5FlN
T5 Light I Use: https://geni.us/BXR7
LED light I Use: https://geni.us/Av6yYh
🇨🇦 Canadian Seed Retailer – https://www.zappaseeds.com/?refs=282
👩🔬 2021 Garden Planner! https://www.etsy.com/ca/BeeBizzyStudio/listing/896493958/gardening-in-canada-2021-garden-planner
🚨 MERCH ALERT🚨
CHECK OUT MERCH!
Stickers, Mugs, Hoodies, Shirts, Face Masks!
https://teespring.com/stores/gardening-in-canada
PODCAST : https://anchor.fm/gardeningincanada
🌿 PLANT HACKS TESTED SERIES: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqYTfQkKTvqoG0I-F9aMj7O7DwiZYDJTt
🤠 SOIL SCIENCE FOR GARDENERS: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqYTfQkKTvqr67CqJC9pqz8RT_x99dkgC
🇨🇦 CANADIAN BACKYARD VEGETABLE GARDEN PLAYLIST: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqYTfQkKTvqrqvRRP8bB5YnD0KclTXFmL
🤕 SICK PLANT SOLUTIONS PLAYLIST: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqYTfQkKTvqoCOoOO9SX-rzbnUcBm_AHJ
😏 CONNECT TO THE LAND PODCAST: https://connectedtotheland.info/podcast
THUMBNAIL photos are compliments of Unsplash.com
INSTAGRAM https://www.instagram.com/gardeningincanada
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/GardenInCanada/
PLEASE SUBSCRIBE if you are wanting to know more on gardening in Canada & gardening in Colder Climates in general. My methods apply to the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone 1 – Zone 6. As a soil scientist I always try to incorporate science into my videos. Soil science can be over complicated so allow me to guide you.
Leave a comment and let me know where your are gardening. And let me know what videos you would like to see in the future!
Ashley is an agronomist who has had a passion for plants since she was a small child. In the long summers as a child, she would garden alongside her grandmother and it was then that she realized her love for greenery. With years of great studying, Ashley had begun her post-secondary education at the University of Saskatchewan.
At first, her second love, animals, was the career path she chose but while doing her undergrad she realized that her education would take her elsewhere. And with that, four years later she graduated from the University of Saskatchewan with a bachelor’s degree in science and a major in Soil Science.
Some of Ashley’s interests are YouTube, in which she posts informative videos about plants and gardening. The focus of Ashley’s YouTube channel is to bring science to gardening in a way that is informative but also helpful to others learning to garden. She also talks about the importance of having your own garden and the joys of gardening indoors. Ashley continues to study plants in her free time and hopes to expand her YouTube channel as well as her reach to up and coming gardeners.
#gardeningincanada #canadiangardener #soilscience
31 Comments
If you want to try these bees out your can go too https://www.peaveymart.com/animal-equine/bee-keeping/bee-barns/cedar-leaf-cutter-bee-barn/3503907?sourceCategoryCode= I don’t get any kick back it’s just out of personal interest/helping you guys out.
If you want to check out the blog post head over too. https://gardeningincanada.net/why-leaf-cutter-bees-for-the-garden-are-a-must/
💚💚
Just bought my bees.. thank you. !
🐝🐝
interesting video. you can keep the bees, tho. i would kill them for sure. or have a house full of them!
I love pollinators and bees. I just cut out a new pollinator garden in my front yard last fall and can’t wait to see the flowers.
I've always wondered what those were. I've been driving that road for years. Thanks for the answer!
I have 3 honey bee hives in my small Saskatoon yard and honestly, I rarely see them in my garden, aside from the fruit trees when blooming. I think they either hit the yard early, before I'm up, or they go for the big pay-out along the river. The bumble bees are plentiful here and more and more I'm seeing beautiful, jewel-like hover flies around.
Great topic! Would an average suburban garden be enough food for them? I do have some annuals planned, single petal roses, flower shrubs, and veggie garden, and my one neighbour has a veggie garden, the rest is just landscaped yards.
Wouldn't they be a problem with cross pollination in a vegetable garden? I do find this very interesting though.
Great video. Thanks for the information. I was looking at native Illinois (USA zone 5) and leaf cutter bees are listed as native. Is that a different leaf cutter bee?
I wish this my solution to pollination indoor garden. Lol!!!
interesting thoughts we raise honey bees and I heard about Mason bees too always learning here
Great video, Ashley! Thanks for the information. I didn't realize there were "Easy Bees". I'd considered honey bees, but they're just too much for me with everything else on my plate. These guys look more manageable. I live in Georgia, USDA Zone 7b. It gets pretty hot here in the summertime. You mentioned they don't tolerate the cold, but do you know how tolerant they are of very high temps (in the mid to upper 90's F/upper 30's C)?
You mentioned TSC. We have Tractor Supply Company in our area. Do you know if that's the same company?
I have leaf cutters every year. Where I live there are a couple of active farms "close by." Anyway one or two have found a home in around my front planter. So it must be ideal for them. I can tell when they are about to make an appearance as the robins start hanging out in the planter. Each year I make sure to plant a couple of packs of petunias to keep them from my mini roses.
I have a couple different pollinators, but there is one type that is black with some white markings that absolutely "rape" a particular variety of Oriental Lily. Oh they try some of the first bloomers but when the rosey-pinky ones open up, it is Biblical at times with the amount of them. They don't bite or sting, but I don't feel I need to touch them, I just leave them to their work. lol Maybe it is a variety of Mason Bee? meh, as long as my flowers are happy, they can keep coming back each year.
Cool video
We have tried cultivated a colony of Mason Bees. They are indigenous to North America. I have not had success as yet. I think I see them flying around but can't get them to nest. I agree totally that honey Bees are not a passive addition to the garden, I had a hive for three years nothing but trouble. Thanks for the info I may check this out further.
Omg I have fallen in love!! They’re sooo cute they’re like lil baby farmers you pay in leaf coins! 😍 and i imagine them as lil feminists who created the perfect world for themselves 😂😅 and I am loving it!! 😍
Leave it to you to finally solve the mystery of the blue shelters on highway 11. I’ve been travelling up and down that highway for years trying to figure out what they are. A very interesting read is “The History of Bees” by Maja Lunde.
Hi Ashley! Awesome topic! But… Leafcutter bees ARE Native! Ontario has at least 11 species of Leafcutter Bees: Heriades carinatus, Hoplitis pilosifrons, Hoplitis producta, Megachile brevis, Megachile centuncularis, Megachile frigida, Megachile gemula, Megachile inermis, Megachile latimanus, Megachile relativa, Megachile rotundata, of which only the last one, Megachile rotundata, the Alfalfa Leafcutter Bee, is a European introduced species. Sorry, I don't know about the Prairies, but ours overwinter in USDA Z4.
Those looked like cherry leaves with the circles in them. Fire ants have a second form that are tiny leaf cutter ants, and they are so tiny that they look like a smudge, and they can get entire brassica leaves underground including the stems.
Would like to attract more pollinators, but I have so many mud daubbers around that if any hole is filled with offspring and packed with mud. Not sure bees would have a chance. Mud daubbers not aggresive also. Not sure how they would interact? Any idea?
Good info. I am probably not gona get leafcutters because they are too late for my haskaps/honeyberrys , but i am getting barver and research told me bumblebees are what i need. FYI Winnipeg by-laws prevent honeybees chickens or any farmed animal from bieng kept inside city limits as a pet 🤬. Backyard chickens sure would be nice to eat bugs n process food scraps giving eggs n fertilizer, ok rant over lol.
That is so cool !! Since I live literally on the other side of the world, I did some research to see if it could be a thing here (I looove bees, they're like flying little plushies 😊), and especially, with which species. Reading multiple wikipedia pages about species in the megachilidae family, I stumble upon the definition of "osmiculture" ("osmi" for osmia genus since it seems to be the most encountered one for people using this word). This word does not seem very widespread for now (but really I cant' be sure) because the wikipedia page only exist in french.
But the practice exists even without that name. Basically, it consist of installing adequate empty "houses" (most like yours, but ideally you want to have the possibility of easily open the tubes) in spring to attract solitary bees who are native to the region but struggle to find nice holes to do their nests (sometimes they make their nests in little holes houses can have, in walls or windows, which isn't that ideal 😅). When the holes have been filled, you have to protect them from cuckoo bees and control the nests for other parasites (because if you don't, even if you have plenty of bees the first year, the risk is that the population decrease year after year). Then you store your cocoons in a safe, cold place for winter. The next year, with your help, the population will have then increased. And of course you have a nice pollination service in exchange for your efforts in being a baby bee protector 🙂 and if one year you feel like you have too much cocoons, you can give them away. For example to a friend who didn't manage to attract a single one. Some professional gardeners use them for production purpose, too.
I want to try it so much now 🥰 but I don't even have a balcony 😣
(I hope my english isn't too odd)
I bought some thanks to you. I am looking forward to hatching them, but it will be a while until it's warm enough.
This is amazing! I can't wait for my bees, thank you 😀
Honey bees can be an investment, but they are such a wonderful one! I love my hives. You can buy kits to build your own hives which will save lots of money. There is a decent amount of work to be done, (I take a more hands off approach with my bees…personal choice but they thrive) but if you are capable and interested, try looking up local beekeepers in your area, or reach out to some online! Beeks (beekeepers) are a nice bunch and are always more than willing to help new keepers out!
May be a dumb question, but will they ravage lettuce leaves?
Super helpful, thanks!
Great video❤️ I’m in zone 2-3 and I have some of these, I put out small bamboo and I always see them making little homes inside, I wonder if someone around orders them. I will definitely be ordering some now, I wish I had known I needed to bring them in. Thx for this
You should do a video on mantids, I’ve been getting them for like 6 years and have very few mosquitos in my back yard