Eric, I'm so jealous! I'm always trying to get bumble bee pictures, but mine never come out so good as yours. Nice. Thanks. --Joolz

Saw our first of the season big fat bumblebee yesterday. We are fortunate to live in a rural area where I don't think anyone manicures their lawns. But my husband does like to mow. We leave a wild strip adjacent to the vegetable garden to encourage beneficials and we also have areas that only get mowed once a year. Dandelions have just started blooming. Borage is a great herb to attract bees. I usually get a few plants to show up every year in a corner of the vegetable garden. I have to pull out some of it because the plants can get quite large. Flowers are a pretty blue and taste somewhat like cucumbers.

The flowers are great but the spots are driving me batty. I moved it closer to the fan and away from the light, as recommended. The newest growth was beautiful until this weekend. The spots are moving in again. Sigh.

Our gardens are usually busy with Bumble Bees and other pollinators this time of year. This year - I have seen ONE Bumble Bee. They are totally missing and I am worried. Anyone else missing bees in their gardens this year? We do not spray insecticides, have many plants with pollen that attracted them. Walking this morning, we saw no bees around the wild honeysuckle vines. I am afraid something is seriously wrong.