Bee Gardening

Did you know that everything you needed to learn about planting a bee garden you learned in kindergarten?

I'm Iain Macleod from the Audubon Society of New Hampshire, and this is Something Wild.

That's right, I said a bee garden. Although bees aren't the first animals you think you want to attract to your yard, you might change your mind when you know that over a third of all the produce we eat is dependent on wild bees.

It's very simple to make a bee-friendly garden. First, plant flowers that bees like - generally the more native and heirloom varieties you plant, the better. Modern plants are heavy on the attractive flowers, but light on the bee chow.

Next, supply a water source. It can be a dripping faucet, a bird bath, or a nearby pond.

Then supply housing. It may surprise you to learn that of the nearly five thousand species of bees in the U.S., most lead solitary lives in the underground or in dead tree branches, so leave some bare ground - not lawn - for underground nesters. Better yet, make some mud! Build a mound of soil near your garden, and allow some water to seep up from a pan at the base.

For wood dwellers, make a bee house. With a drill bit of various sizes, simply take some scrap lumber and drill holes three to five inches deep but not all the way through the wood block. Nail these up securely in protected places under building eaves.

Finally, keep your pesticide spraying to a minimum - or, better yet, eliminate it entirely. I know, you're worried that your neighborhood bees are going to sting the hand that feeds, waters and houses them. Actually, most bees like to mind their own beeswax, and will leave you alone.

Who'd have thought those mud-pie skills you worked so hard on would end up helping you to save the environment?

Something Wild is a joint production of the Audubon Society of New Hampshire, New Hampshire Public Radio and the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire forests. For Something Wild, I'm Iain Macleod.