Plants for Pollinators – Keeping Backyard Bees

Garden Plan for Attracting Pollinators

Claire Jones — Wed, 24 Jun 2020 10:40:18 +0000

Many pollinator species have suffered serious declines in recent years. Unfortunately, most of our landscapes offer little in the way of appropriate habitat, forage, and housing. Even the most beautiful gardens are not always healthy ecosystems for pollinators. Design choices, plant selections, and maintenance practices can make a huge difference in creating your own healthy […]

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Establishing a Successful Bee Garden

KBB Editor — Wed, 24 Jun 2020 10:23:17 +0000

The following is an excerpt from Keeping Bees and Making Honey by Alison Benjamin and Brian McCallum (F&W Media, 2008). This spectacular book offers an in-depth profile of nature’s most effective pollinator and covers all aspects of modern beekeeping, including where and when to get your bees, different types of hives, how to harvest and […]

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Bee-Friendly Plants: Catnip

KBB Editor — Thu, 26 Mar 2020 17:00:58 +0000

The international bee crisis is threatening our global food supply, but this user-friendly field guide shows what you can do to help protect our pollinators. The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation offers browsable profiles of 100 common flowers, herbs, shrubs, and trees that support bees, butterflies, moths, and hummingbirds. The recommendations are simple: pick the […]

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Bee-Friendly Plants: Lupine

KBB Editor — Thu, 26 Mar 2020 16:43:20 +0000

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Bee-Friendly Plants: Fireweed

KBB Editor — Thu, 26 Mar 2020 16:13:59 +0000

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Don’t Mow the Goldenrod

Jennifer Sartell — Mon, 09 Dec 2019 13:55:08 +0000

I have allergies…let…me…tell…you…do I have allergies. Indoor, outdoor, seasonal…everything makes my sinuses upset. When I was a kid I did the whole allergy shot ritual, which seemed to do absolutely nothing except make me afraid of needles. I lived at our ENT specialist, tried every allergy medicine, nose spray, antihistamine there is and after all […]

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How to Keep Your Backyard Safe for Bees

Kacey Mya — Fri, 15 Nov 2019 20:53:30 +0000

No one can deny the benefits that bees give to the world. The world’s food industry depends on them for proper pollination to feed people around the globe. Plants depend on bees to spread their pollen and many homesteaders appreciate the extra help with their crops. Bees are all around helpful to have if you […]

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Winter Aconite — The Early Spring Bee Flower

Claire Jones — Sun, 27 Jan 2019 15:09:36 +0000

Sunny yellow blooms fringed with a green ruff green poking through snow is my first sign that spring has sprung. Eranthis hyamalis, in the buttercup family, is a spring ephemeral, which means that it is a short-lived plant above ground with a burst of blooms, and disappears, remaining under ground until next winter. Beaming a […]

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Top 5 Plants for Late Season Nectar

Claire Jones — Sun, 21 Oct 2018 18:59:23 +0000

Editor’s note: The author’s garden is likely in plant hardiness zone 6b or 7a. This is reflected in the plants selected this post. Nectar dearth is a phrase that you hear frequently in beekeeping. Simply put, it means that instead of your honeybees finding readily available nectar and pollen-producing flowers, they are chowing down on their stored honey. […]

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Nature’s Way of Overwintering Bees

Jennifer Sartell — Thu, 27 Sep 2018 19:26:25 +0000

The garden is starting to dwindle. The other morning I woke as the sun was coming up and, I couldn’t tell for sure, but it looked as though we had a bit of frost on the north side of the lawn. The tomato plants are turning black and there are dots of gold and red […]

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