Now's The Time To Bee-gin Thinking About Bees

It's never too early or too late in the gardening year to think about bees.

I'm been perusing the garden catalogs like most of you. Have you noticed that all the plants look wonderful! All of them! Even ones I know wouldn't thrive in this garden. I am plant and garden starved and that's making it hard to be a smart gardener. It's taking a bit of effort, but, I'm steering myself toward plants that are known to attract bees and other pollinators.

I almost always choose plants that are native to Middle Tennessee and the Central Basin. It makes sense to plant Middle Tennessee natives. They can take the Clay and Limestone nearly neutral clay soil that's sticky and gooey all winter and dry as concrete all summer.

You've probably noticed that I said, "I almost always choose native plants..." There's always room for a few garden friendly exotics in my garden. They are welcome here as long as they aren't invasive and they provide plenty of pollen and nectar for pollinators. Looking good is also a plus!

Monarch Butterfly caterpillars eat the leaves of Asclepias tuberosa

My favorite bees are the lovable Bumbles. They are my hardest garden workers. They start visiting the garden when the first dandelions bloom in late winter and stay until the last asters disappears in late fall. They need nectar, pollen, water, shelter from wind, rains, cold and nesting sites. Bumbles are generalists and will visit almost any nectar producing plant. Native and non-native.

Bumbles are delightful, but, they aren't the only pollinators in our gardens. You may already have noticed a diversity of pollinators busily working in your gardens during the growing season. There's bee imitators, moths, flies, beetles, butterflies, birds, bats and the tiniest little bees!
Plant for them all, you'll be rewarded with seeds; they'll pollinate your fruits and vegetable crops; and, they'll bring you joy.

Bat faced Cuphea was planted in a container

The more diverse our flower plantings, the more it can support resident pollinators. So, I am going to make sure that any plants that go on my "purchase early from catalog to get the savings" list are pollinator friendly.

xxoogail

This is the first in a series of Monday posts on native bees in the garden.



This post was written by Gail Eichelberger for my blog Clay and Limestone Copyright 2011. Please contact me for permission to copy, reproduce, scrape, etc.