Bees & Gardening

One of the important factors in doing gardening is to make the pollination process very easy. One of the easiest steps you can do to make this happen is to make your garden bee friendly. Bees are one of the pollination agents that the nature has provided us with. As a rule of thumb you should plant plants which are rich in pollen and nectar to attract the bees. Planting bee friendly plants can be a win-win situation. Not only will the bees benefit from the nectar and pollen, the pollination of the plants will occur faster and we will get the food as desired. The greater the number of such plants it is better for your garden. The least number of planting you can do is to plant a plant for each season.

A three forth of the total foods we eat needs pollinators such as the bees. For plants like nuts, fruits, vegetables bees are essential. Though they are immensely beneficial gardeners, their contribution in the flowering season goes unnoticed and ignored. We have all heard about the disappearance of honeybees but other species of bees are also declining throughout the world. It is for our own necessity we need to build more and more bee friendly garden. Just by doing a bit we can make a big difference.

It is usually a misconception that the bees flourish in national parks or other wild animal conserved area, they love to stay in urban settings where the flights are usually short and they can get a variety of plants and flowers. They are most likely to thrive in patio garden or backyard than on huge area devoted to single crop.

It does not matter if you are doing your gardening in your backyard, in containers or you have a wide area dedicated to it. You can always put plants which are bee friendly and encourage the bees.

Making your garden bee-friendly ensure a good supply of food for bees at their crucial times like when the nest is growing and the queen is laying eggs. When you are planning for planting flower plants to encourage the bees just remember a few points. In some flowers the petals form a long tunnel which can be sometime very long and narrow for the bees to reach to the nectar. Some flower petals are very tightly packed and also hinder the accessibility to nectar for bees. It is advisable to avoid such plants.

Please do not use any pesticides in your garden. Though these are not meant for killing bees and most of the time termed as “bug-killers”, it can definitely hurt them. For pest control rather try companion planting. I have discussed about that earlier. You can find it here.

Is your garden is a heaven for bees? How do you offer suitable environment for bees? Share your passion and also encourage fellow gardeners to encourage wildlife habitation in the garden.