April 12, 2024 Early Lowbush Blueberries

Yesterday we went over for a quick visit, and to our delight, we saw the blueberry bushes were flowering and getting berries.

Vaccinium pallidum, early lowbush blueberries found in a patch at the bottom of slope near the waterway.

We’d been watching them and noted a few weeks ago they were leafing out. We have observed hundreds of them all throughout the forest. We’ve read that they are more productive when they have plenty of sun.

These fruits are eaten by terrestrial turtles, black bears, coyotes, foxes, raccoons, deer and many bird species including wild turkeys, grouse, blue jays, robins, wood thrush and eastern bluebirds. These wild blueberries are smaller and sweeter and grow in acidic soils that are moist and well draining.

We continue to marvel at the abundance of food growing wild in the forest and feel lucky to be able to caretake this incredible environment.

We also noted the tulip poplars, dogwood and sugar hackberry trees are all beginning to leaf out. The transformation of the forest to green for summer has already started.

Sugar hackberry leafing out up top near the clearing. Late last summer, we saw leaf cutter bees all over this tree and oval holes appear on the leaves of this tree. We were excited to learn that these solitary bees harvest the leaf circles to line their nests. 🐝

September 17, 2023 Leaf cutter bees and the Sugar Hackberry

Yesterday we went to Saint Andrew’s Forest Farm and we had truck trouble right as we arrived, the alternator went out. All the warning lights came on and the battery died. Luckily, we were in the driveway when it happened. We troubleshooted by jumping the truck battery with the mower battery but it only held a charge long enough to get the windows rolled up. We were grateful for that much, as rain was expected soon. We called for help and my daughter came directly from work in Richmond to drive us home to Staunton. We were so thankful!

While we waited, we limbed up and cut down trees in the front near where we were trying to jump the battery. We were also able to clear out more trees from the compost toilet and shower site as well as the shipping container site which will be an office and camping site for us. It is amazing how much better the woods look with a bit of attention and care.

This tree had bees buzzing all over it and we couldn’t determine what it was. We could not find flowers or berries either. The bees were all over the leaves. After some research, it appears to be sugar hackberry, Celtis laevigata.

The leaves and trunk of the Sugarberry.

In late summer, leafcutter bees arrive and oval holes with a very clean edge appear on the hackberry’sleaves. These solitary bees harvest the small circles of leaf to line their nests. There are several genera of leaf cutting bees but most of them are small to medium sized bees and carry pollen on the underside of their abdomen as opposed to on the hind legs.Within a burrow, several cells are constructed from leaf pieces. Each cell is stocked with nectar and pollen and an egg is deposited. The bee uses a few additional pieces of leaf to close each cell and finally, the opening of the burrow. The larvae fend for themselves, feeding on the supplies left by their mother.

We cut down a very large black cherry tree near where we plan to place the shipping container for our office. This tree had black knot fungus. We culled a medium sized pine from the front which was growing up against another. We also culled many many smaller trees. We pulled a few tree of Heaven, ailanthus, by the roots as the ground was wet enough. We are trying to rid the farm of this invasive nonnative in multiple ways as it restricts and chokes out growth of our native species. We will save our sweet Sugarberry tree for these leaf cutter bee babies to be sure! 🐝