I'd rather BEE in the garden

[DrakeMaiden]

For those of you interested in attracting more bees to your gardens -- for pollination, of course -- you might want to visit this site about gardening with bees in mind. The site is geared towards Californian readers, but many of the plant suggestions and most of the information is relevant to others.

While I have noticed that the weeds that grow in our fields (where I have not yet gotten to cultivating) have been beneficial to keeping the bees in pollen, and I have a good idea of which garden flowers the bees really like, I had not realized that mulch can be a bad thing for some soil burrowing bee species.

There seems to be evidence that insecticides (article in PDF) , some of which are used to coat corn and sunflower seeds are causing the Honey Bee Colony Collapse Disorder and that other bee species are probably equally susceptible to these chemicals.

Recent research done on imidacloprid looked at crops where imidacloprid was used as a seed treatment. The chemical was present, by systemic uptake, in corn and sunflowers in levels high enough to pose a threat to honey bees. Bonmatin et al. (2003 and 2005).

Purchasing organic seeds of these crops might be a good precautionary measure.

 

[PAChickenChick]

You must be a mind reader...cause just yesterday I was thinking that we must not have enough bees around. So I did a search on here to find out what kind of plants I could put out to attract the buggers...and lo and behold...here is your post from yesterday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you!!!!

 

[DrakeMaiden]

That just warms my heart! I mean that seriously and I don't mean to be cheesy about it. I'm really glad I could offer you the info and I just love how the timing worked out!