April
Plant a Bee-Friendly Bee Garden
If you are not quite ready to become a “Beekeeper” but would still like to be part of the solution, planting a bee-friendly garden is another great way to help honey bees and other native pollinators. With rapid urban development limiting their foraging habitat, backyard gardens can offer a welcome supply of healthy nectar and pollen for all pollinators.
In the spring of 2012, we worked with a few of our neighbors to establish the first Bee-Friendly Garden Tour with an emphasis on replacing the typical grass lawns and parking strips with plants and shrubs that provide healthy sources of food for pollinators and humans. Cultivating plants that will attract bees is the most important task of a bee gardener. Choose flowers that bloom successively over the spring, summer, and fall seasons such as ceanothus, Russian sage, or asters in order to provide pollen and nectar resources to the native bees of all seasons. It’s a simple way of improving habitat and forage for the honeybees while beautifying your landscape and maintaining a cleaner and more sustainable environment for your community. We are hoping to expand the Garden Pollinator Tour (video) to surrounding neighborhoods and other Northwest communities so if you are interested in adopting the same program for your neighborhood, please send us an email.
Bee Friendly Garden Tour (story)
Bee Friendly Garden Tour (video)