Bees have been in the news this spring. Each week I see another article about the struggles of bees and beekeepers. Unfortunately, the challenges for professional beekeepers are being confused with advice for making our yards and gardens bee-friendly, when in fact there is very little connection. Professional beekeepers move their colonies to a sequence of agricultural crops during the spring and summer to provide crop pollination, so those bees are not usually foraging in our neighbourhoods. However, the growing interest in the bees that frequent our yards and gardens does provide a great opportunity to explain the benefits of encouraging bees and beneficial insects in the yard and garden.
Plant a diversity of flowers that bloom all season long
Honey bees, bumble bees and many different species of smaller native bees are important for pollinating native plants and ornamental plants in your yard and garden. A healthy population of bees is critical for pollinating fruits and vegetables in the orchard and garden. The best way to encourage bees is plant a variety of annual flowers, perennials and flowering trees and shrubs so that you have a steady progression of flowering plants from early spring through summer and fall.Although some annual flowers like marigold, verbena and salvia are better than others for bees, almost all annuals are visited by bees, and they bloom all through the growing season. Perennial flowers, like salvia, any of the mints, coneflowers and daisies, are very good for bees, and some of them, like hardy mums, are frost-resistant, so they will continue flowering through late September and October. Flowering trees and shrubs are very good for bees, too, especially ones that flower in early spring before most annual and perennial flowers are blooming.
Bee-friendly plantings will benefit other beneficial insects
Another important benefit of growing flowering plants is that they provide nectar and pollen for hundreds of species of tiny parasitic wasps and predators that help to keep plant-feeding insects under control. You have probably noticed that trees in woodlots and in the forest are not usually plagued by hungry insects. That is because of predators and parasites that naturally keep them under control. Many of these parasites need pollen or nectar to sustain them in the adult stage when they are searching for caterpillars, aphids and other plant-feeding insects to deposit their eggs inside of. Predators also need pollen to supplement their diet or to sustain them at times when prey is hard to find. So, providing a variety of flowering plants will help predators and parasites that naturally keep plant pests under control.Click here to read the complete article at msue.anr.msu.edu
