While the news about bees continues to seem grim, there are things you can do to improve their chances of survival and encourage a healthy growth of bee colonies, that will reward you with a fine harvest.
Grow your own food.
You may already be doing this, but by growing your own food in your garden, you take yourself and your family out of the business of Big Ag (commercial agriculture), responsible for the poisoning of bees. If you need to buy some of your food, buy local and Naturally Grown. It’s not easy to grow everything you need to keep your family well fed and healthy, but even with your best efforts, you would need to supplement your diet with foods purchased elsewhere.
Support local farmers.
Farmers who do not use pesticides, herbicides and commercial fertilizers therefore, do not contribute to CCD.
Grow your own vegetables naturally.
Don’t use insecticides to keep pests at bay. Use the natural methods that worked for centuries before synthetic compounds surfaced. You should be able yield impressive crops with natural methods.
Find a local beekeeper.
Apiary on a small scale is dwindling. Find and visit a beekeeper in your area to learn about bees. Purchase your honey from this keeper to help support him or her and their local endeavor. An added bonus; eating local honey has been shown to improve seasonal allergies.
Grow bee-friendly plants.
Besides your vegetable garden, grow plants that attract bees. This will give them good sources of pesticide-free pollen and will encourage bees to take up residence nearby. Some of their favorites are clover, lavender, yarrow, alfalfa, purple coneflower, bee balm, spearmint, goldenrod and thyme. In addition to their likeable plants, you can provide a safe environment for them to live. Natural bees use many things for shelter: dead trees, underground tunnels and burrows abandoned by other animals, or you can purchase bee blocks, blocks of wood with different sized holes drilled in them to place in your gardens, as an appropriate bee home.
Let some of your vegetables bolt. If you have enough plants, let one or two of each type of vegetable in your garden bolt. When they seed in the fall, it will give bees a chance to stock up on food for the winter. With enough food, they have a better chance of rebounding in the spring.
What is bolting?
Bolting is the plants survival mechanism, which occurs when mostly vegetable or herbs, experience a rapid growth from being mostly leaf base, to becoming flower and seed based. Most plants bolt due to weather change in their environment; as the weather rises above plant survival, plants will try to produce the next generation (seeds), as quickly as possible. If the ground temperature rises above abnormal temperatures, the plant changes its growing mechanism to survival mode from continuous leaf growth, to enhancing the plant growing cycle of producing flowers and seed rapidly, therefore abandoning its leaf growth process. Some plants that are known for bolting are broccoli, cilantro, basil, cabbage and lettuce.
Can you eat a plant after it bolts?
Once a plant has fully bolted, the plant is normally inedible. The plant’s entire energy reserve is focused on producing the seeds, so the rest of the plant tends to become tough and woody, as well as tasteless or even bitter. Occasionally, if you find a plant in the very early stages of bolting, you can temporarily reverse the process of bolting, by snipping off the flowers and flower buds. In some plants like basil, the plant will resume producing leaves and will stop bolting. In many plants, such as broccoli and lettuce, this step only allows you some extra time to harvest the crop, before it becomes inedible.
Preventing bolting
Depending on your plant requirement, bolting can be prevented by either planting early in the spring so that it grows during the late spring, or late in the summer or during early fall. You can also add mulch and ground cover, as well as watering regularly in order to keep the soil temperature tolerable.
Grow your own food.
You may already be doing this, but by growing your own food in your garden, you take yourself and your family out of the business of Big Ag (commercial agriculture), responsible for the poisoning of bees. If you need to buy some of your food, buy local and Naturally Grown. It’s not easy to grow everything you need to keep your family well fed and healthy, but even with your best efforts, you would need to supplement your diet with foods purchased elsewhere.
Support local farmers.
Farmers who do not use pesticides, herbicides and commercial fertilizers therefore, do not contribute to CCD.
Grow your own vegetables naturally.
Don’t use insecticides to keep pests at bay. Use the natural methods that worked for centuries before synthetic compounds surfaced. You should be able yield impressive crops with natural methods.
Find a local beekeeper.
Apiary on a small scale is dwindling. Find and visit a beekeeper in your area to learn about bees. Purchase your honey from this keeper to help support him or her and their local endeavor. An added bonus; eating local honey has been shown to improve seasonal allergies.
Grow bee-friendly plants.
Besides your vegetable garden, grow plants that attract bees. This will give them good sources of pesticide-free pollen and will encourage bees to take up residence nearby. Some of their favorites are clover, lavender, yarrow, alfalfa, purple coneflower, bee balm, spearmint, goldenrod and thyme. In addition to their likeable plants, you can provide a safe environment for them to live. Natural bees use many things for shelter: dead trees, underground tunnels and burrows abandoned by other animals, or you can purchase bee blocks, blocks of wood with different sized holes drilled in them to place in your gardens, as an appropriate bee home.
Let some of your vegetables bolt. If you have enough plants, let one or two of each type of vegetable in your garden bolt. When they seed in the fall, it will give bees a chance to stock up on food for the winter. With enough food, they have a better chance of rebounding in the spring.
What is bolting?
Bolting is the plants survival mechanism, which occurs when mostly vegetable or herbs, experience a rapid growth from being mostly leaf base, to becoming flower and seed based. Most plants bolt due to weather change in their environment; as the weather rises above plant survival, plants will try to produce the next generation (seeds), as quickly as possible. If the ground temperature rises above abnormal temperatures, the plant changes its growing mechanism to survival mode from continuous leaf growth, to enhancing the plant growing cycle of producing flowers and seed rapidly, therefore abandoning its leaf growth process. Some plants that are known for bolting are broccoli, cilantro, basil, cabbage and lettuce.
Can you eat a plant after it bolts?
Once a plant has fully bolted, the plant is normally inedible. The plant’s entire energy reserve is focused on producing the seeds, so the rest of the plant tends to become tough and woody, as well as tasteless or even bitter. Occasionally, if you find a plant in the very early stages of bolting, you can temporarily reverse the process of bolting, by snipping off the flowers and flower buds. In some plants like basil, the plant will resume producing leaves and will stop bolting. In many plants, such as broccoli and lettuce, this step only allows you some extra time to harvest the crop, before it becomes inedible.
Preventing bolting
Depending on your plant requirement, bolting can be prevented by either planting early in the spring so that it grows during the late spring, or late in the summer or during early fall. You can also add mulch and ground cover, as well as watering regularly in order to keep the soil temperature tolerable.
Horticulture is the original green industry and in that spirit, there are steps we can take to be part of the solution and help encourage healthier pollinator communities. We can be smarter in how, when and even where, we apply insecticides and as an industry, we are well-suited to help in creating more habitat and forage opportunities for pollinators.
Furthermore, responding proactively will help us preserve insecticide tools, that are critical to plant production and pest management, providing healthier plants and better enjoyment by consumers.
For these reasons, our healthy pollinator initiative has two primary components. Our plan includes the following steps:
http://www.honeybeehaven.org/
Furthermore, responding proactively will help us preserve insecticide tools, that are critical to plant production and pest management, providing healthier plants and better enjoyment by consumers.
For these reasons, our healthy pollinator initiative has two primary components. Our plan includes the following steps:
- Developing a bee and pollinator stewardship program that improves the circumstances surrounding pollinator health concerns, protection and promotion of pollinators and their ecosystems.
- Spreading the word to our horticulture customers, to view how our program has a positive impact on pollinators, while mitigating the spread of invasive pests that threaten our natural environment.
http://www.honeybeehaven.org/
Walsh Botanical's is a Certified Wildlife Habitat - #0175747
Since 2013
Importance of Bumble Bees
Since 2013
Importance of Bumble Bees
