July 16, 2017

Good morning, It has been a few years now that I have noticed 3/8 inch holes in the garden that have soil bermed up around the hole. The bermed soil is maybe 1/2 inc tall. I have seen at least 10 to 20 of these curious looking holes. Never saw the critter that made these holes.

Recently On Marfa Public Radio they had a Nature Notes article that was about Squash Bees. They are a native to the Southwest. It was said that these bees followed the squash as Native Americans cultivated squash throughout the Americas. The bees migrated with the  squash as the Indians spread squash across America all the way to the Northeast.

The cultivation practices of by the Native Americans appeared to be conducive to the Bees spread along with squash.

Once modern cultivation practices were introduced to squash culture there was a noticed decline in the diversity of these bees.

This was happening because the bees burrow into the ground and lay there eggs. The plowing and disking destroys these egg burrows.

I found this to be very interesting and it also solved my "hole" issue. 

This discovery adds to my desire not to turn my beds every year. I use a minimum till method. I started to use this method when I noticed that I had a spade footed toad population in the garden.

This was a two fold discovery. First I would on occasion "turn out" a toad as I was turning the garden. On occasion I would inadvertently kill a toad during this process. The other discovery  of how big a population of toads I had was also with a very curious hole issue.

After very violent thunder storms with heavy rain I would see holes throughout the garden. Maybe 50 plus. Slowly I put the toads and the holes together on the same page.

I am trying to be a good steward of the land. I am sure the bees are in the garden due to my squash plants but they found my garden because of buffalo gourds. The toads have always been in the garden. Most likely both of these critters populations may have increased because I turned the soil and made it easier for both of these creatures to burrow..

I am sure if I were to rototill the garden I would destroy most of these creatures as I tilled. The tines would be right at the level in tho soil where they are .

The bees pollinate my squash and I am sure when the toads are present they help with insect control.

I started to change my cultivation practices because of the toads and the discovery of the bees just inforces this decision even more.