Create a Buzz in Your Garden - 6 Tips for Attracting Bees

A bee garden? Why would I want more bees in my garden, you ask? Well, let's put this in perspective! Biologists are agreeing we have a problem with losing our bees in North America. The native bee population is being hit hard and killed off. If we can't keep the bee population growing our food crops will be in trouble too. Think of all the crops, flowers, and other plant life that depends on bees for pollination. Oh, yeah, and humans! It's the "House that Jack built" and the domino affect can be something that you might not ever have thought of before, like food on your table. Exotic diseases, pesticides, and parasites are talking a toll on our bees. Native bumble bees that were shipped to Europe in the 1990's and bred for the hot house tomato industry returned back to us with a parasite that appears to be responsible for alot of this awful decline in bumble bees including potential extinction. In addition to that, there is climate change they have had to deal with.

At the Rocky Mountain Biological Lab in the high altitude town of Gothic, Colorado, scientists are seeing an increase of bumble bee species moving uphill. When the warming trends occur and early snowmelts have pushed the bumble bee from 7000 feet up to the gothic area at 9500 feet and higher. What this means is there is an increased competition among all species and it could mean extinction for those that need to live at the highest elevation. There are more and more reports about honey bee colonies being abandoned without leaving any bee corpses behind. Bee farmers are still trying to ponder over this mystery. Some say it is pesticides and others are concluding parasites. You can read more about bee concerns by clicking "here".

We have a terrible trend growing here. And everything we do on an individual basis helps. Many gardeners love the idea of creating butterfly gardens which is important to our environment. However, you should consider reinforcing that with a bee garden.

Here are 6 tips for attracting native bees to your garden:

1. Select 8-10 species of native plants for your area. You can go to www.audubonmagazine.org to help you create the native bee habitat. Plants like sunflowers, purple lupine, Californian poppy, bee-balm, and salvia are just some examples of attracting bees.
2. You want to plant pollen type varieties of plants and flowers.
3. Pick plants that will flower at different times of the year.
4. If you have a vegetable garden, plant flowers in between your vegetables patch so it will encourage bees to pollinate and you will have better yields.
5. Provide a nesting habitat in the form of "beeblocks" as well as dead branches for boring bees and bare ground for ground nesting species. Go to http://www.xerces.org/Pollinator_Insect_Conservation/index.htm for more information.
6. Most of all, avoid pesticides.

Now, some of you may frown on the idea of attracting bees because of the fear of getting stung. Most times, it's a matter of being aware of your habitat and the bees will not hurt you. But if you do get stung, ask yourself this; which is better food on my table or possibly getting stung by a bee which according to the bee keepers - the chances are the same as getting struck by lightening.