Bring in bees!
All types of bees are good for your garden. Attract more kinds by avoiding insecticides and providing a welcoming habitat. With some of the more common solitary bees, the female burrows into the soil an inch or two, stocks the hole with pollen and lays an egg. Provide areas not covered with mulch for them. Mason bees lay eggs in 5⁄16-in.-diameter tubes. Gather hollow grass stems or rolled-up pieces of paper, tie them together and wedge them into tree branches. Cover the bundle with a wood plank to protect it from rain and other weather. Honey bees are much more social and need manmade hives or hollow trees for building their elaborate nests.
And don’t forget to grow bee-favorite flowers, such as:
- Agastache (Agastache spp. and hybrids)
- Aster (Aster spp. and hybrids) (in photo at left)
- Borage (Borago officinalis)
- Cosmos (Cosmos spp. and hybrids)
- Sunflower (Helianthus spp. and hybrids)
