WINNER – COMMUNITY EDUCATOR 

Balegrow winner of the EEV Environment Education Awards
Bees

Bring on the Bees…

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If you find yourself going through a stage of having anabundance of flowers in your veggie patch, butnot a lot of fruit, you may need to increase the bees in your garden.
For flowers to fruit, the flowers need to be pollinated, and natures way to pollinate is the transfer of pollen via bees. The process bees undertake while collecting nectar for their colony, completes this much needed process. As the bees move from flower to flower collecting, they are simultaneously pollinating your flowers.
Veggies such as pumpkin, zucchini, squash and cucumbers all need to be pollinated by our friendly honeybees. The variety of plants I mentioned have male and female flowers. The pollen from the male flower is transferred to the female flower via the bees collecting nectar for themselves. And in doing so fertilize to produce fruit.
How to increase your bees

  • Create more opportunities by giving bees more flowers. A great way to do this is to plant some lavender or other varieties for plants that produce a large amount of flowers. This will encourage bees to your garden.
  • Be careful of the insecticidesyou may be using in the garden. Choose only ones that are not toxic to bees.
  • Apply insecticides during the timesbees are least active in your garden.
  • If you have the space, and you are not afraid of bees… set up your own beehive. You can purchase a hive on line orsource one locallyandwith easy to follow instructions.
  • Handpollinate.This is the process of which you take the male flower and shake or touch the center of one with the center of another.

Bees are vital to our food supply, so be kind to the humble hard working bee, and you and your garden will be rewarded!