Attracting Bees

Growing garden vegetables is a whole lot easier when you have honeybees to help with pollination. For one reason or another, some gardens aren’t as frequented by bees as others, which can result in limited yields due to insufficient pollination.

Growing garden vegetables is a whole lot easier when you have honeybees to help with pollination. For one reason or another, some gardens aren’t as frequented by bees as others, which can result in limited yields due to insufficient pollination.

If you’re growing squash or corn, honeybees are practically a necessity to get things pollinated. Sure, hand pollination can work, but bees are much more efficient than clumsy human hands. Adding flowers to your vegetable garden can make it more intriguing to bees.

Like butterflies, bees look for certain aspects when choosing a place to visit and feed. Here are some tips to bring more bees to your garden:

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• Choose a variety of colors. Bees have excellent color vision and are most attracted to blue, purple, violet, white and yellow flowers.

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• Plant groups of flowers together. A patch of flowers is easier for bees to visit than individual flowers spread out around the garden.

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• Add different plants throughout the season. Bees often feed on different plant species throughout their life cycle. Including a diverse variety of flowers will encourage visiting bees at different stages in the cycle.

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• Plant in sunny areas. Bees prefer sun over shade and need some shielding from wind.

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• Make native plants your first choice for attracting native bees.