Gardening Guides
How to Give Essential Bees the Support They Need
It’s hard to grow fruits and veggies without these hardworking insects. Here’s what we can do to help bring them back
The huge reduction in bee numbers is causing alarm throughout the world. Experts point to a number of reasons for the collapse of so many bee colonies, including the disease-transmitting Varroa mite. Other factors are the increased use of pesticides harmful to bees, and a lack of flowers to produce the nectar that bees need to feed themselves and the rest of the family back in the hive.
Home gardeners aren’t planting as many flowering plants, and wildflowers aren’t as prolific as they once were. Without bees, a large percentage (some say 90 percent) of the fruits and vegetables we consume in the world wouldn’t be pollinated. But we don’t have to sit back and just let this happen. There are many steps we can take in our own gardens to provide food, water and refuge for bees and other pollinators.
Home gardeners aren’t planting as many flowering plants, and wildflowers aren’t as prolific as they once were. Without bees, a large percentage (some say 90 percent) of the fruits and vegetables we consume in the world wouldn’t be pollinated. But we don’t have to sit back and just let this happen. There are many steps we can take in our own gardens to provide food, water and refuge for bees and other pollinators.
Aim for successional flowering. Try to make sure there are plenty of nectar-rich flowers in the garden for as long as possible throughout the year, not just spring and summer. These asters will flower in autumn and early winter in many areas, as do dahlias, coneflowers and stonecrops. Winter-flowering nectar-producing plants include red hot poker, and Leucospermum and Protea species.
Focus on nectar- and pollen-rich flowers. Some flowers have evolved to be pollinated by bees, particularly many herbs such as sage, thyme and lavender. Blooms with open petals in a single row and upright stamens — such as sunflowers, dahlias, daisies and cosmos — make access easy for foraging bees. Bees also are attracted to certain colors, yellow being one of their favorites, along with blue, purple, violet and white.
Plant in big groups. Grow large clumps of pollen-rich Salvia in your garden, and you’ll be amazed at how many bees will visit the flowers. Rather than dotting flowers around the garden, plant them in large sweeps or clumps to make the blooms easily identifiable to bees. This also looks more interesting.
Grow flowers in a variety of shapes. There isn’t one shape that fits all when it comes to bees. There are actually many species, all varying in size and tongue length. It’s best, therefore, to provide variation in food sources (for example, flower shapes) to cater for a range of bee species.
Grow wildflowers. Create a wildflower meadow if you have the space, or plant wildflowers along the roadside. Perhaps you might even think about replacing the lawn with a wildflower meadow. Or keeping the grass long in places so that pollen-producing weeds such as dandelion and clover can flower and provide vital food for foraging bees. At the very least, mow your lawn less often to give those bee-friendly lawn weeds a chance to flower.
How to Design a Meadow Garden Everyone Will Love
How to Design a Meadow Garden Everyone Will Love
Keep some weeds. Telling gardeners not to remove weeds, particularly those in flower, would once have been considered heresy. But with nectar-producing flowers in such short supply, weeds have become an important food source for foraging bees. If the bees are regularly visiting weeds growing on your berm or at the back of the garden, try to resist taking out the spade. This cow parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris) is considered a weed in many places but is a great bee attractant and often planted in orchards.
Plant trees. To make foraging more efficient for bees, it makes sense to have a large number of flowers in one place. That’s why trees and large shrubs are an important food source for hungry bees. Try to plant species that flower in late winter and early spring when there’s not a lot of other food around for bees.
Especially fruit trees. Fruit trees are rich in nectar — particularly stone fruit trees like nectarine, apricot and plum, as well as citrus species like lemon, grapefruit and orange. But not all fruit tree cultivars are alike in the bee world. If you’re planning to grow fruit trees in your garden, make sure you choose those that are most attractive to honeybees — heirloom varieties, for instance, and those with single, not double, flowers.
How to Plant a Fruit Tree
How to Plant a Fruit Tree
Give them a home. Despite our perceptions of bees being sociable creatures, mainly living in hives, the reality is that a large percentage of the bee population is very much the opposite. These so-called solitary bees nest mainly in holes or tunnels in the ground or hollow branches. To attract these bees to your garden, consider making them a hotel like this one, or invest in a ready-made model.
Eliminate pesticide use. Most pesticides are designed to kill insects — any insect, including beneficial ones like bees. If you must use them, spray only when bees aren’t active. And check the label; some pesticides are way more harmful to bees than others.
In an ideal bee world, gardeners would buy organic, pesticide-free plants, seeds and bulbs, and grow them without using insecticides.
In an ideal bee world, gardeners would buy organic, pesticide-free plants, seeds and bulbs, and grow them without using insecticides.
Give them water. Bees usually collect water in the form of dew from leaves, but sometimes in dry periods, they’ll look for it elsewhere in the garden. Creating a shallow pond where bees can land on the edges to collect water is a good idea. Or install a water feature that has a shallow area. If you have a birdbath, fill it with glass beads, pebbles or marbles so that bees can drink without drowning.
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How to Design a Garden for Native Bees
Beekeeping Without a Hive
Browse gardening tools