Bee Friendly Gardening By Dartanya Helgeson
A
s a beekeeper, I am often asked, “What can I do to help honey bees?” Over the years, I’ve refined my elevator speech down to five simple words: Plant more and spray less!
While an emerald green lawn looks good to our eyes, it’s the nutritional equivalent of a parking lot to bees. Behind that luscious green color is a chemically enhanced monoculture that provides them with nothing in the way of food or even building materials. Honey bees, native bees, butterflies and insects in general all benefit from plant diversity. Honey bees not only collect nectar and pollen, but they also use sap and other plant juices to make propolis, the glue that seals up cracks in their hive to keep out pests and moisture. By replacing a thirsty, pesticide-dependent lawn with a selection of landscape plants, you can reduce yard maintenance as well as enhance its beauty for bees and people alike. Bees need a wide variety of trees, shrubs and flowering plants for a healthy, balanced diet. Choose plants that flower at different times throughout the year and, whenever possible, select perennials that bloom year after year. Most annual flowers are bred for showy petals and not for insect pollination, so look for plants that have clusters of many smaller flowers instead of large, single ones. It is always better to have three of one species than three hundred!