While you might consider April to be well past the time to talk about starting the year, spring is the real start of my gardening. That's what matters, right? My true test of spring is whether we begin to see bee activity in our landscapes, and the garden is literally buzzing! This year, my bee activity never stopped as we worked to get Austin over the finish line in becoming a Bee City USA. The City Council passed the needed resolution, and it's all now official. Now we hunker down again, thinking of projects for the coming year that will allow us to re-certify. Even so, it feels great to have accomplished this amazing result with a group of hard working strangers who've become friends over the past two years. To fill in the gaps in my knowledge of native bees, I'm taking a six week course on bumble bees. I thought I knew something about bumbles before this, but find myself thinking instead how very much I didn't know. I love it! I'm also taking Beekeep