Feral Bee Garden

Feral Bee Garden Radical optimist working toward a more sustainable and equitable future. SW WA. 8b.

Community, mutual aid, gardening, native pollinators, backyard habitat, DIY, and secondhand.

Yesterday’s Pollinator Fest was a blast. Volunteering at the kid’s activity tent (sponsored by ) was just four hours of ...
06/21/2026

Yesterday’s Pollinator Fest was a blast. Volunteering at the kid’s activity tent (sponsored by ) was just four hours of playtime with so many awesome littles—and a few overgrown kids (adults) too! So many friends stopped by to say hello. Seeing the creativity and excitement flowing out of the kids into their hats was such a gift. We were also near the DJ so we got a little dancing in too! Before my shift, I was able to wander the festival a bit and was so impressed by all of the organizations and vendors that participated.

If you didn’t get a chance to stop by this year, definitely keep an eye out for next year. I also highly recommend considering volunteering for the event as it was such a wonderful experience. The reception on Friday night with speakers was great. Working at the event itself felt more like a big party than work.

Thank you for organizing and all of the awesome orgs like which contributed to this wonderful community event.

Photo 1: Me and my four and a half year old friend and neighbor in beekeeper gear.

Photo 2: Special shoutout and thanks to for capturing me in action at the kid’s activity tent (second photo) and stopping by and hanging for awhile. It was lovely to see you, friend!

Photo 3: Me and my favorite little gardening and gleaning friend in our bee hats. Please note our matching heart-ended antenna. 💚💚

Photo 4: Selfie at the end of my shift, the first time sitting down after almost five hours on my feet—tired feet, but very full heart. 🐝 💕

Sad news! Tomorrow’s showing at the library is cancelled. Head over to .is.fine.swwa for more info. Please also consider...
06/06/2026

Sad news! Tomorrow’s showing at the library is cancelled. Head over to .is.fine.swwa for more info. Please also consider tipping Karissa for all the hard work she put into this event. 💚

06/03/2026

Let’s build a third garden bed for the resiliency garden! A friend and fellow community do-gooder generously gifted me the boards to build this (and the second bed) last summer. I had to wait to build this third bed until I could get another donation of soil. Luckily, came through once again with a soil drop. 🫶

The boards were a bit warped but I was able to get this bed together with a lot of help from another friend doing all the things to help our community. (Honestly, sometimes it feels like there is just a handful of us folks spread across all the things.) We got the bed filled and I finished planting just before sunset. All but a few plants in the resiliency garden this year were started indoors myself or by direct sown seed. Two weeks later, the transplanted seedlings are starting to fill out and seeds have sprouted! I’m so excited and grateful to host this garden and provide free, healthy food to my neighbors and .

Interested in hosting a resiliency garden? Reach out to and they will not only help get you started but support you throughout the growing season. Having a home and space to grow is a privilege that shouldn’t be wasted on ornamental lawn, IMHO.

Let’s start building the world we want to live in—one resiliency at a garden at a time. 💚

06/02/2026

My elderly neighbor’s yard is overgrown—and quite magical—and includes this huge neglected cherry tree which is starting to do more than just peek over into my yard. I asked another neighbor if they would help me trim the overhanging branches before they become too big and at risk of falling in my yard. Just a couple weeks ago I planted native seedlings beneath the overhanging branches so we have to be really careful with how the trimmed branches fall. We needed to borrow another neighbors big ladder for the job and hearing what was happening, they also offered to help. Then yesterday, the elderly neighbor who owns the tree ended up popping over for a little visit. She was apologizing about the tree, like she always does, and I let her know that some neighbors were coming over to help me trim.

So long story short, I am now hosting a tree trimming party on Friday evening complete with pizza, drinks, and homemade ice cream. The tree owner, the two neighbors helping me trim, plus their wives and a kiddo will gather in my backyard to do a little yard work, eat, and socialize together. The kiddo is very excited about collecting all the cherries from the branches we trim. And I feel like the luckiest person in the world to have such amazing neighbors! 🍀

Do you know your neighbors? Have you built relationships with them? Community starts at home, IMHO. Knowing your neighbors, even the ones you think don’t have anything in common with, is one of the best resiliency plan you can have. These are the folks that will contact you when you forget to close your garage door, grab your dog for you when they accidentally get out (I can’t tell you how many times I’ve rescued neighbors dogs), share hyper local news (like the tree branch that fell on a neighbors car this morning!), and be there when you need an immediate helping hand (like helping you unload a heavy secondhand score or sweet treats and hugs when your dog suddenly and unexpectedly dies)—if you cultivate that type of relationship with them. And beyond what you can do for each other, it’s just nice to know the folks who live and sleep next to you every night and walk their dogs by your house every morning. 🩷

Have you ever dissected your compost? There is an entire little ecosystem in your compost bin! Yesterday I moved my comp...
05/31/2026

Have you ever dissected your compost? There is an entire little ecosystem in your compost bin! Yesterday I moved my compost bin and took the opportunity to grab some not quite ready but good enough compost from the bottom. After sloughing off the top layer which was full of kitchen scraps and paper waste, I found a diverse little village of critters that had happily moved in to process everything. There were tons of worms, beetles, pill bugs, and ants. After grabbing what I needed to condition the soil for new native plantings, I shoveled everything back into the bin in age order—oldest on bottom again. Every time I use my own compost, I smile thinking about how I have closed the loop on some of my waste and saved some money!

The past few weeks have been very busy with volunteer shifts, gardening, and native habitat building. I have created a considerable backlog of content to share with you in the coming weeks. Stay tuned for more gardening, volunteering, and local environmental and governance updates. 💚

How is your Spring to-do list coming along?

P.S. Special shout out to Alex for introducing me to this song by . 🎧

Another resiliency garden installed last weekend! I love this shot of Kim from Urban Abundance in her shirt, planting a...
05/21/2026

Another resiliency garden installed last weekend! I love this shot of Kim from Urban Abundance in her shirt, planting a resiliency garden bed. The weather was a bit temperamental and we all got rained on for awhile but we still had a blast building six new garden beds, foraging for sticks and brush in a nearby wooded area, filling the beds with soil, and of course, planting what will soon become free food for our community.

There is room for you at tomorrow morning’s garden shift which is in partnership with Southwest Washington Victory Gardens: “SWWA Victory Garden has a community garden in need of a few more eager gardeners. Every Friday, workers will meet to keep the garden growing at its best. When it is time to harvest, produce will be donated to the LULAC (League of Latin American Citizens) Mercado, FISH, and local Free Fridges. Urban Abundance is excited to join SWWA Victory Garden in this project.”

Register to volunteer at urbanabundance.duplie.com - link in bio!

At tonight’s County Council meeting, Councilors have been asked to pre-approve a budget from the IT department which inc...
05/19/2026

At tonight’s County Council meeting, Councilors have been asked to pre-approve a budget from the IT department which includes 500 licenses for Microsoft 365 CoPilot, a generative AI tool which integrates with Microsoft products. AI use is highly controversial for many reasons and therefore approval of its County-wide adoption should not be tucked away in a line item.

Councilors should defer approval of AI license purchases until the IT department has a clear plan for its use and implementation and statement of its value—and residents are made aware and given enough time to express their concerns or support for it’s County-wide adoption which will likely include access to resident’s personal data. To that end, I have written and submitted a public comment for tonight’s Council meeting and emailed the Councilors directly with some additional information.

You can read my full comment at feralbeegarden.substack.com-link in bio!

There is still time to have your voice heard on this agenda item. Submit a public comment online or attend the Council meeting at 6pm in person or online and submit your comment the Councilors directly.

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