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Sunday Letter: 05.01.22

May 1, 2022 By Talya Tate Boerner 10 Comments

sunday letter

May Day greetings! So much has happened since my last Sunday Letter, I’m not sure where to begin. I suppose I’ll just write whatever pops into my head.

First of all—I’m just gonna say it—how is it May already?? Yikes. Time is slipping away.

May is the month of flowers, right? You know, April showers bring May flowers? Based on the steady April showers we’ve been getting, I’m expecting an overabundance of blooms.

May is the month we celebrate mothers more than normal. It’s my son’s birthday month. And this May, in only a few days, he will graduate with his master’s degree.

We have lots to celebrate in our family!

Continue Reading

How to Make an Insect Hotel (and why you should)

March 14, 2019 By Talya Tate Boerner 7 Comments

I discovered my first insect hotel at the Denver Botanic Gardens in 2018. Since then, I’ve been enamored with them. Not only do insect hotels provide a bit of garden whimsey, but they attract solitary native bees, wasps, and other beneficial insects desperately needed for pollination.

D*e*s*p*e*r*a*t*e*l*y.  

Pollinators are on the decline for various reasons—mostly due to habitat loss. Without pollinators, we may as well call it a day. Pollinators are essential to the creation and maintenance of the earth’s ecosystem. Eighty to ninety percent of all flowering plants need pollinators. Pollinators are responsible for 1 out of every 3 bites of food we eat.

This is not fake news. Take a look at this crop list from the University of Arkansas Research and Extension Office.

Crops pollinated by bees

Umm. Coffee and watermelon?

Yikes.

What constitutes a pollinator?

We often think of honey bees, right? But a pollinator is anything that moves pollen from the male part of a flower (stamen) to the female part of the flower (stigma). Pollinators include birds, solitary bees, wasps, moths, spiders, lacewings, roll poly bugs, ladybugs, fireflies, bats, hoverflies, earwigs, small mammals, and the wind.

After seeing insect hotels in Denver, I attended my first make-and-take insect hotel class at the Botanic Garden of the Ozarks (BOGO). Before I show you the hotel I created, take a look at these examples in Denver.

How to Make an Insect Hotel

These are very large and partially decorative, but even so, these Denver versions provide insect nesting places as well as education to those of us visiting the garden. It’s because of these that I first became interested in insect hotels.Continue Reading

Sunday Letter: 09.16.18

September 16, 2018 By Talya Tate Boerner 14 Comments

Sunday Letter 09.16.18

Dear Sunday Letter readers,

Are you kidding me? September is half over and I’ve done nothing. Well, I finished painting our little cottage. I worked on my next article for Front Porch Magazine. (Thank you Arkansas Farm Bureau for allowing me to write my regular Delta Child column.) I pulled weeds and planted some lettuce and vacuumed the downstairs.

Yesterday, I watched football. Looks like I’m gonna need a new fall sport. And that’s all I have to say about that.Continue Reading

Talya Tate Boerner


Hi! I'm Talya. Writer, Reader, Arkansas Master Naturalist / Master Gardener, Author of

THE ACCIDENTAL SALVATION OF GRACIE LEE (2016)

GENE, EVERYWHERE: a life-changing visit from my father-in-law (2020)

BERNICE RUNS AWAY (Now Available!)

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Talya Tate Boerner books
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