Without the pollinating insects like bees, many garden plants would not be able to survive. It is thanks to the pollination of flowers by bees that plants can reproduce and we enjoy delicious fruit. Therefore, it is worth creating abee-friendly gardenand learn how to protect these insects from extinction. Learn a few simple rules that will help youinvite your bees to your garden !
Bees do useful work pollinating flowers
Why create a bee-friendly garden
About 20% of plants are pollinated by wind and 80% by insects, most often by bees.Bees are deliberately used in agriculture and horticulture to pollinate plants , as this increases the yield by up to 50%. For this reason, it is believed that the contribution of bees to increasing the harvest is many times higher than the value of the honey they produce. This is an important reason whybee-friendly garden
Pollination of plants, which consists in transferring pollen grains from flower to flower, is an additional effectwork done by collecting beesBy sitting on subsequent flowers, they collect nectar and pollen necessary to feed the future generations of bees, and at the same time they perform a task useful for plants, i.e. pollination.
In our climate zone, nearly 90% of plants are pollinated by insects.The most important role in pollination is played by the honeybeeIn addition to increasing the yield of plants, pollination also improves their quality, e.g.increases the weight of seeds, improves their uniformity, strength and energy of germination, increases the content of sugars and vitamins in fruits produced from pollinated flowers. So the desire to harvest abundant and tasty crops from the garden is another reason whyit is worth having a bee-friendly gardenOnly then can you fully benefit from the help of these industrious insects.
Taking care of the garden, let's also take care of bees
How to create a bee-friendly garden
To create a bee-friendly gardenwe must provide these insects with adequate shelter in our garden, access to food, i.e. flowering honey plants, and take care of their safety, avoiding the use of chemicals plant protection products, and based on natural methods of cultivation and protection of plants, harmless to bees.
Here are the basicrules that should be followed in a bee-friendly garden :
- Avoid the use of chemical plant protection productsChoose only preparations safe for bees (the so-called selective), use them in accordance with the label - instructions for use and observe the prevention periods for bees (periods from spraying until the flight of the bees, which prevents their poisoning). It is best to choose natural preparations based on plant ingredients for plant protection.
- Mineral fertilizers should be replaced with natural fertilizers , such as biohumus, compost or manure.
- Plant in the gardenflowering honey plants, liked by bees.
- At the edge of the garden, leave a fragment of a wild meadow in which beneficial insects will find shelter. A deliberately sown flower meadow is also a good idea, which can replace even a small fragment of the lawn. Such meadows are easier to care for and it is enough to mow them once or twice a year.
- Some bee species appear only in spring, others in summer, and still others are present throughout the season.Therefore, if you want to have abee-friendly garden, it is worth growing plants that bloom in different periods , so that all the time, from spring to autumn, bees can find flowers full of nectar that are attractive to them.
- Apart from the nectar from flowers,bees also need water to live , so it is worth having a pond in the garden or arranging moist, shady nooks under the trees.
- It is also worthto build houses for beese.g. from reed pipes, tied in bundles and hung in various places in the garden. In such houses, even a wild red mason bee can nest.
If we find it too complicated to make a bee housewe can buy ready-made insect houses , which are more and more often available in gardening stores. However, it is worth paying attention to the correct implementation of such a ready-made house so that it not only serves as a decoration, but also favors the nesting of wild bees. Properly made houses for bricklayers and other useful insects , from a proven manufacturer, are available in the shop of our guide.
