Planting a honey bee and pollinator garden can be satisfying, rewarding, and enjoyable. It can produce higher yielding edible harvests for you, as well as being a valuable food source for insects. So many good and wonderful things, all happening right in your very own sunny and beautiful pollinator paradise!
Honey Bees will visit 2 million flowers in order to produce one pound of honey. They need to collect nectar and pollen as soon as plants start blooming, until the first frost. It takes a wide variety of plants to support a healthy hive of 40,000 to 60,000 honey bees.
General Gardening Advice for your Honey Bee and Pollinator Garden
- Don’t use pesticides. Most pesticides are not selective. You are killing off beneficial insects along with the pests. If you must use a pesticide, start with the least toxic one and follow the directions very carefully!
- Choose a variety of plants that bloom all throughout the growing seasons for your soil type and weather conditions. Keep in mind that bees prefer a sunny location sheltered from wind. Plant fruiting trees, and shrubs their blooms are a good source of nectar and pollen.
- Select a wide variety of flower colors, shapes, and plant types. Bees are attracted to blue, purple, violet, white and yellow flowers, but will also go to other colors.
- Plant flowers in mass of the same species for ease of bee and pollinators locating them.
- Design your garden with native perennials which will naturalize, and you’ll be able to share.
