I know it’s really late in the season to be planting a
garden; it’s the middle of fall and winter is nearly upon us. After discussing
the bee crisis thing with a friend, however, we thought it would be a great
idea to a) take advantage of the rest of the snow-less weather for a
bee-friendly garden and b) to start planning for spring. So I’m writing this
chronicling the beginning of our venture, with much more to come.
My friend and I aren’t the gardening type, really. I’ve
planted a few geraniums along my parents’ walkway in my day, but that’s the
extent of it. Still, we love the idea of tilling the soil, working the land,
and being as outdoorsy as two city girls can manage.
So far, we have access to the backyard behind my apartment
building and, more fitting as the weather grows colder, a little plot of land
in a greenhouse through Chicago’s
city garden effort. I borrowed a trowel and the bitty rake thing from my mom,
and we’re going to get some soil from Home Depot tomorrow, as well as some
plants.
But what sorts of plants attract bees? According to Urban Bee Gardens, bees
dig flowering plants, and lots of different kinds of them. It’s also important
that the variety bloom through spring, summer and fall to provide pollen for
the bees for as long as possible. The folks over at Pollinator’s
Paradise say that bees are attracted to plants in the rose family, like
strawberries, raspberries, and roses, obviously. Bees also like radishes, sage,
buttercups, goldenrods, as well as a huge number of other flowering plants. I
found a list
of plants that we could plant in the fall that includes daisies, lavender and
forget-me-nots, but I’m pretty sure those won’t bloom before winter.
Pesticides, obviously, are out of the picture. Not only are
they bad for the environment and bad for our bodies, but we’re planting the
garden for the bees, not to keep them
away. We’ll enjoy the gorgeous flowers too, of course.
So, fair readers, do you have any advice for our budding bee
garden project? Or maybe you’d like to start one on your own and we can walk
through it together. We’re quite clearly
in the beginning stages, mostly learning about plants and gardening in general,
but the bees can use all the help they can get!
I have planted roses and not only bees it also attracts beautiful butterflies in the garden and that makes the garden come alive.
I remember in my school when we were kids there were some bees around, specially where the daisies were plant. I think they are attracted to yellow, so you might try that.
bees are attracted to red too as I always keep seeing them around the red flowers…
Almost anything that blooms, especially seasonal bloomers like wildflowers, fruiting trees & garden fruit.
I don’t have any advice but well done for trying to help the bees, I will try to add a few more plants for them too.
our garden is bee heaven… damask roses, lavender, jasmin, honeysuckle, figs, greengages, grapes, sage, rosemary,lilly of the valley, marigolds.. and wh knows what else. Our garden is not very organised, but is always a riot of colour and scents… As atula says it attracts butterflies too, the hazlenuts attract squirells, and we have our little bit of wilderness in the city