06/19/2026
Yesterday I was turning the soil over in my garden and planting a few things. Before I started, I noticed a little hole borrowed into the ground (3rd pic) near the radish plants I was planning to thin out. I didnβt know what could have made it, but assumed it was a little shrew or something. In the first few minutes of turning over some soil, I spotted this flash of green at the corner of my eye. Youβd think I might not have noticed with all the weeds that are in my garden right now, but I reached over to pick it up and take a closer look and noticed that a bunch of fresh little tiny, perfectly cut leaves were on the ground right beside this little rolled up.. something. When I picked it up, it had some weight to it and clearly had something inside. I figured it was some sort of bug.. maybe a caterpillar π so I put it back down in the same area I found it, covered it with some soil and made a little mound of dirt so that I would know where it was and not disturb that place again.
But first I snapped some pics and when I looked it up, I found out it was a leaf cutter bee cell π
Of course that sent me down a rabbit hole (no pun intended) of reading about them because I was nervous that I had just accidentally ruined this little guyβs house. I wanted to be sure I had done the right thing by putting it back and covering it in dirt.
I learned that a female leaf cutter be rarely burrows into the ground (the hole Iβd found earlier was clearly made by her! Lightbulb π‘ moment!) to leave just one of these, so there are probably several scattered about that little section of my garden that is already planted with radishes, beans, Swiss chard, lettuce, green onions and sage! What a smart little bee that mama is!
Iβll now be extra careful to not disturb that section of the garden anymore, and I decided to leave at least one of each of those plants mentioned above to go to seed for the bees. I felt so terrible about disturbing this perfect little cell but from what Iβve read, it should still be ok.
Since I donβt really trust my memory and was worried that rain might wash away my mound of dirt, I went back out this morning and marked the spot with some little rocks just to be safe (last pic).
What an absolutely amazing job this bee did cutting the perfect leaf parts for her baby though! The little end cap is the most amazing little circle that fits into the cell meticulously. I was really just in awe of how perfect it looked!
