Since we started keeping bees last spring, I have been wanting to add more flowers and plants for the honey bees to eat on, so I was very excited when I found The Bee-Friendly Garden.
The one thing that surprised me, was that it was not focused on honey bees. I assumed (You know what happens when we assume....) that it would be because we raise honey bees and that is my focus and because honey bees are a big focus in today's world with colony collapse disorder being widely talked about. However, this book reminded me that there are over 20,000 different species of bees in the world and we really need them all. And here's why, honey bees do not and cannot pollinate everything that needs pollinating. They are not big enough to vibrate the pollen loose on tomato plants. I don't know about you, but I love tomatoes, so I'm thankful that the big bumblebee is around to take care of pollinating tomatoes for me. This books gives suggestions on how to plant for native bees as well as honey bees.
This book is also incredibly in-depth. The authors cover everything from different bee species to why some flowers appeal to some bees more than others based on the flower's structure and the bee's features. Like, did you know that bees prefer flowers that are blue, pink, white or yellow because they see in the ultraviolet end of the color spectrum? They break down the types of flowers that bees are attracted to into annuals, perennials, trees, vegetables and shrubs.
As you can see, I have several pages marked with useful information so that when I head to our local nursery I will know what I'm looking for!
The other bit of information that I found extremely helpful was in the back of the book where the authors break down what native plants are good for different regions of the United States. The reason, I learned, that you want to try to plant mostly native plants in your bee garden is to reduce the need for chemicals in your garden which we all know is harmful to the bee population. Because native plants have grown to withstand the climate, soil and pests, there should be less need to use pesticides, herbicides or artificial fertilizers.
Anyone, and really it should be everyone, that is interested in how they can help our bee population should pick up this book and plant bee-friendly flowers. The authors show large gardens as well as small urban ones, so a small area is not an excuse for not doing your part!
You can find out more about the authors here.
You can find out more about the book here.
Disclaimer: I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review. The above post does contain some referral and affiliate links which means if you use the link and decide to purchase an item, I receive a little money from the company, at no extra cost to you, to help keep the blog going. Thank you for supporting the blog!
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[…] Progress: Since I wrote last, I finished Some Girls by Jillian Lauren. I was a bit disappointed in this book. It was an incredibly interesting read, but I went into it thinking that it was going to be more of a redemption story than it was. After listening to Lauren on The Happy Hour with Jamie Ivey, I was able to hear her describe her whole story, which did include that redemption that I was expecting in the book. I want to read Lauren's book, Everything You Ever Wanted because it chronicles the next chapter in her life. I also finished Wild and Free by Jess Connolly and Hayley Morgan. It was good, you guys. You will want to read it. And I'm so excited that I'll get to hear Hayley speak at the Cultivating Lovely conference on Friday. Stop by the blog tomorrow for my full review of the book and to find out how you can pre-order and get free goodies when you do! And I finished reading The Bee-Friendly Garden. You can find the review for that book here. […]