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How to Help Bees and Other Pollinators
Only use natural pesticides and fertilizers. Avoid using herbicides and pesticides in your garden. Ladybugs, spiders and praying mantises will naturally help keep garden pest populations in check. Recent scientific studies are confirming that overuse of pesticides is contributing to the decline of honeybees ,along with loss of habitat and varroa mites. Create a "bee bath." Bees need a place to get fresh, clean water. Fill a shallow container of water with pebbles or twigs for bees to land on while drinking. Make sure to maintain the container full of fresh water to ensure that they know they can return to the same spot every day. Not much garden? You need only a small plot of land, it can even be a garden in a few pots on a deck to create an inviting oasis for bees. Provide homes for native bees. Leave a garden patch in a sunny spot uncultivated for native bees that burrow. Most native bees are ground nesters. Plant a variety of annual and perennials best suited to your local climate so bees have a constant source of pollen through the growing season. Native flowers, herbs and wildflowers will all provide a variety of pollen sources and, once established, better weather rapidly changes in climate. |
Honeybees visit flowering trees as well as bushes and plants to get nectar. In the process, honeybees move pollen and help plants reproduce by growing seeds in fruits and vegetables. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)
Some of both native, and honeybee, favorite flowers to plant include:
Spring: crocus, hyacinth, borage, calendula and wild lilacs. Summer: bee balm, cosmos, daisies, echinacea, snapdragons, herbs. Fall: zinnias, sedum, asters, witch hazel and goldenrod. |