Bee Mine
Photo by andreas., under a Creative Commons license
No doubt you’ve heard about the mysterious ailment that has been wiping out up to 80 percent of beekeeping colonies across North America and Europe. Known as “Colony Collapse Disorder,” the bee losses have stirred beekeepers and conservationists alike into a panicked frenzy. We should be doing the same, considering that a study last year concluded that pollinators such as bees, birds and bats affect 35 percent of the world’s crop production, increasing the output of 87 of the leading food crops worldwide.
“If the tireless apian workers didn’t fly from one flower to the next, depositing pollen grains so that fruit trees can bloom, America could well be asking where its next meal would come from,” says Kevin Berger in Salon.
While the eggheads continue to debate about what’s causing the bees to vanish en masse—cell-phone signals? pesticides? Dick Cheney’s all-encompassing, life-extinguishing aura of evil?—we can still invite bees into our gardens by creating a chemical-free botanical sanctuary they can’t resist. (Organic beekeepers, it seems, have been reporting no losses.)
Here are some suggestions from Greenlight on how to encourage bee frolics on your home turf:
Start by planting things that will be attractive to bees. Check out the Urban Bee Project’s recommendations for plants that will do well in your area. In my garden, I can attest that bees love blooming lavender.
Create as much plant diversity as possible1.
Plan your plantings to bloom over a long season—so there will always be flowers.
Keep in mind bees’ preferences: no mulch (bees tunnel into bare soil) and a slightly wild look. How far you go with calculated neglect is up to you. This is not permission to refrain from weeding and mulching your garden.
You can also find a trove of tips at the Urban Bee Project.
Additional resources:
1. How to Invite Bees into Your Backyard
2. How to Green Your Gardening
Related articles:
1. Lawn & Order
2. Leave Me the Birds and the Bees, Please
1Gardens with 10 or more species of attractive plants have been found to entice the most bees.
AnnaMarie said,
July 1, 2007 at 12:08 pm
I just read an article on Colony Collapse that basically came down to stress to the bees from being forced to work non-stop and year round. Plus commercial bee keepers take all the honey and feed them High Fructose Corn Syrup. Idiots.
Backyard Beekeepers don’t seem to be seeing the Colony Collapse, might be because we actually treat the bees like the partners in gardening they are. Just a thought.
Another Beekeeper said,
July 2, 2007 at 9:50 am
CCD is a really popular bogeyman right now, but NONE of the beekeepers I know have had it happen to them, and I’m part of a beekeeping club with about 150 members, and I’m on an organic beekeeping list with 1400+ members. Everyone who has thought they had CCD seems to have had mites, or winter-starved bees, or something else that is explainable-it’s still sad to find a dead hive, but I’m not really convinced that CCD is as bad as the news makes it sound. We have enough problems with mites and pesticides, though, so I’m always grateful to anyone keeping an organic garden.
Recently, my bees have been harvesting nectar and pollen from asparagus of all things-so don’t feel like you just have to give them flowers! They also love raspberries, apples, soybeans, and lots of other tasty things.
Tiny Choices said,
August 9, 2007 at 1:07 pm
[...] The Worsted Witch has some great links to tips on how to invite bees into your garden. [...]