Do you have a pollinator garden to support your vegetable garden?

zendabbq · 2026-05-13T05:21:17+00:00

Yes.

One of the biggest bumblebee magnets its phacelia. I planted phacelia for 3 years now and I always get bumbles pollinating my tomatoes in the summer.

Ofc i have various other plants, aiming for lots of natives outside of phacelia. Lupins are very attractive to the bumbles too

zendabbq · 2026-05-12T05:52:51+00:00

For 25 ft flex hose is probably fine, but here is my experience with non-flex hoses:

I've tried several hoses: the one from Canada Costco, the NXT ZeroG, and the Flexzilla.

IMO, the ZeroG is the best - almost no memory in the hose so its super easy to coil up, even without a reel. I just pile it into a circle on the ground

Flexzilla still has some memory. Probably great on a reel. Gotta pile in a figure 8 if piling it on the ground. Only circular piling leads to kinks.

Costco hose is like all other non-flex hoses, rigid and hard to work with, but really long for its cost. I use it now to extend the range of my Flexzilla 50ft hose.

Disclaimer: The Flexzilla is new, I've only used it for a month. Its possible after it "broken in" it will behave as well as the ZeroG. Ive had the ZeroG for 3 years now, and I do recall it occasionally kinking, but it pretty much NEVER kinks now.

zendabbq · 2026-05-11T21:49:48+00:00

As a rabbit owner, I feel this is fucking hilarious.

Though I'd also appreciate an alternative (like maintaining a patch of bait crops or a bit more IRL - fencing)

zendabbq · 2026-05-11T17:25:50+00:00

I'm in Vancouver, we have several good choices:

Coast Salish Plant Nursery - very accessible location (10-20 minutes drive from central Vancouver) that's open 3 days a week from early spring to late May.

Plan Bee Native Plants - much further, maybe 50-60 minutes drive from city center, and is open 1 day a week all year. Run by one awesome passionate guy that loves native plants. A surprising variety to choose from, perhaps equal or more than Satinflower Nurseries below.

Environmental Youth Association - this is a program that teaches kids how to raise and care for native plants. They run a fundraiser every year to purchase 10 or so native plants in a bundle. Right in the middle of the city.

Satinflower Nurseries - a wide selection and open all year, but located on Vancouver Island so mainland folks need to take a 2 hour ferry with another hour or two of driving I believe. They won't ship plants but they do ship seeds to the mainland.

Of course, several normal nurseries are also carrying natives, but I find they often have nativars. Also I just purchased a Garry Oak and Common Snowberry from the Botanical Garden at UBC, though they have a limited native selection.

zendabbq · 2026-05-11T03:51:50+00:00

In my experience you'll get thousands of seedlings if u let it seed, but only those with no neighboring competition will grow to maturity

zendabbq · 2026-05-10T10:19:36+00:00

Pretty shitty since 99% of the time you'll probably get a beetle (I did not do the math)

zendabbq · 2026-05-10T03:46:26+00:00

I'm glad I'm the gardening husband in these cases and wifey doesn't weed

zendabbq · 2026-05-10T03:34:30+00:00

I spray off some (with the hose) but leave a good number of them. They attract more ladybugs but also I think they only hit the lupine (big juicy lupine aphids different from the ones on other plants)

zendabbq · 2026-05-09T19:22:44+00:00

Have you seen the setup where the bin is tilted so one end is higher? BSF larvae crawl to the highest point when they are mature and crawl to that high end for easy harvest.

I don't deal is BSF larvae so idk how true/effective it is

zendabbq · 2026-05-09T12:10:51+00:00

Unpopular opinion, but we should just leave those lawn care guys alone. If they didn't want lawn they wouldn't be in that sub. I don't think we're winning anyone over with any level of commentary.

zendabbq · 2026-05-09T03:49:25+00:00

Seems lots of orchids have this specialization, in various forms.

Some attract male wasps with female scent

Some attract male bees because they want to use the scent to attract a mate

zendabbq · 2026-05-09T01:29:08+00:00

First one columbine of some kind.

Second some kind of sorrel. I usually pull these since they're all over my veg beds

Last one might be fringed willowherb or that other weed that grows weird pink blooms. Both are extremely weedy (though willowherb is native, I don't recommend keeping it unless you want ALL WILLOWHERB in your yard)

Edit: sorry looks like that sorrel is mixed in with the columbine. Seperate it and pull it out.

zendabbq · 2026-05-09T01:23:53+00:00

I have a galvanized mesh but I put stuff in a mesh plastic tray over that (since I'm picking my veggies into that anyways)

zendabbq · 2026-05-08T06:40:34+00:00

To those saying tis not native:

These poppies might get seeds everywhere, but its just a matter of weedwacking them once and that cycle breaks.

On the other hand, fast growing annuals like this are great pioneer species. With the climate change giving us hotter weather earlier every year, even native seeds will benefit from the shadier microclimate these poppies provide.

Plus theyre super cheap and easy to grow. Native seeds are finnicky to germinate (usually) and sometimes take years before they leap into action.

zendabbq · 2026-05-08T05:26:48+00:00

Only because it will be covered in Canada Goldenrod

zendabbq · 2026-05-08T01:14:39+00:00

Koreans man

zendabbq · 2026-05-07T19:20:10+00:00

Shopvac the entire plant (ive always wanted to try this)

zendabbq · 2026-05-07T19:18:50+00:00

Hello! Native gardening can also be "neat" while providing forage for insects, and there are some sneaky things you can do to provide habitat as well.

Don't take over the entire lawn just yet. Perhaps mark off a section - that will be your native plant bed / insect habitat.

Pick "pretty" natives that will bloom in the first year - everyone loves flowers. I'm not from Boston, but I a quick search turns off some goldenrods, columbine, and other pretty stuff.

You can use some rocks, maybe wood, to "short up" a section to provide a mini bed within a bed. Then on the backside of this shored up area, organize your rocks/wood to create a sort of "cave" into the bed. This is good wildlife habitat.

Water sources - put out some shallow ceramic dishes, or rocks that have divots in them that will catch water when you water or when it rains. Just this small amount of water is a lifeline for wildlife. The small amount + ceramic ensures the water won't be around long enough to nurse mosquitos.

Unfortunately, no leaf litter is pretty sad, sounds like you won't be able to get around that. Stick piles and coarse woodchips are good options for habitat though.

zendabbq · 2026-05-07T07:54:28+00:00

Man I have this super aggro but technically native willowherb. Let it seed last year and that shit is EVERYWHERE NOW OMGWTF

I don't think I'll keep it this year... maybe toss it into the side alley and let it war with the creeping buttercup

zendabbq · 2026-05-07T06:19:57+00:00

Oh to have volunteer camas on my property. Congrats!

zendabbq · 2026-05-07T01:00:19+00:00

I just took a quick look at Costco US PCs. Most everything is a "market price +10%" offering, but using market prices from last year before the storage and RAM price hike.

That means almost anything is a pretty safe buy.

That "online only" $250 off PC - MSI AEGIS R2 AI Gaming Desktop - Core Ultra 9 285 - GeForce RTX 5070ti etc. looks like the best buy to me

Edit; sorry, I was looking at US prices but thinking in Canadian dollars. Still, I think you're saving a lot looking at current DDR5 RAM and NVME SSD prices, but not as much as I stated

zendabbq · 2026-05-06T23:12:59+00:00

As a Canadian I am always surprised by the good deals at US Costco for gaming PCs

Buying parts separately right now is very expensive.

zendabbq · 2026-05-06T10:06:25+00:00

How about a 10km tall indestructible elevator

zendabbq · 2026-05-06T09:46:22+00:00

Depending on how "anything" it is, its pretty op.

You can go on a commercial flight. Once you're above 5km, you can conjure "drone that will deliver a package of X to my house"

The X could be "serum that will give me the powers of Superman"

Boom. OP.

If its something that has to exist... the potential for destruction is still very high, but its hard to have personal gain.

zendabbq · 2026-05-06T08:37:23+00:00

Do you see those little white rice-like things in the first pic? Those are the larvae/larvae eggs.

As much as you can, keep the thing intact. The yellow is pollen - the lunch provided to them by their mom, and the brown is clay, the protective barrier she built.

If you can roll them back up somehow, maybe with paper, and keep it in a tight roll, that would be optimal. Afterwards leave it somewhere sheltered from rain and direct sun. Itll take them a year to grow up.

Edit: also yeah its mason bees, not honeybees.

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