|
|
Plan for blooms season-round. In your yard and garden include plants that bloom through as many seasons as possible, this provides bees with a constant source of food.
For example:
* Spring blooms of crocus, hyacinth, strawberries, bloodroot and daffodil
* In the summer bee balm, cosmos, echinacea, snapdragons, foxglove, and hosta
* For fall, zinnias, sedum, asters, witch hazel and goldenrod are late bloomers
Select single flower tops rather than double flower tops such as such single impatiens instead of double impatiens. Double headed flowers look showy but produce much less nectar and make it much more difficult for bees to access pollen.
Plant native flowers. Native flowers help feed your bees and are uniquely adapted to your region.
Rethink your lawn. Replace part of your lawn grass with white clover. Advantages of white clover are it stays green all summer with little or no watering,
it requires little or no mowing and
never needs fertilizer or herbicides, it grows well in poor soil and out-competes other weeds. In mixed grass-clover lawns, clover will reseed itself adequately to maintain a consistent presence. In pure clover lawns it may require reseeding every 2-3 years to maintain an even stand.
Buckwheat Fagopyrum sagittatum
Land owners consider not mowing your land until after the frost!
This field will feed a lot of honey bees and native pollinators.
This field has been mowed in the height of it's abundance.