#bee garden

[heatherluvsart]

Seriously I may have a problem stalking bees

[serenafisher]

Modeling inspiration for the flowers: Superb CG ArtStation - Superb CG

[forestduck]

[crazycatsiren]

My lavenders bring all the bees to the yard... and they're fat and fuzzy!

[povelgia]

🐝🌼 Bee garden.

(Caught a orchid mantis in the pic too 🌸)

[elminx]

This afternoon I put my first batch of herbs into the dehydrator for the season. Just a small harvest of english lavender, lemon balm, chocolate mint, and spearmint. All of it from my lovely front garden and my tea garden which makes me immensely grateful.

The lavender will be used primarily for my magic - it is a long-time favorite herb which is why it was high on my list to grow in the bee garden. All of the mints will be used for both magic and tea. Someday when I'm ready, I'll explain more about my anti-anxietea - how I've learned to make it and how I am now learning to grow it.

This part of the process is important to me. I can infuse my energy and intention into every step of the process.

Soon, my farm share will be in full bloom and I can add their outdoor plants to my collection. This week we got a handful of basil which went into our lamb's quarters pesto. We also have a copious amount of cilantro which I am excited to cook with in the coming week.

Plus, calendula! (That's on my list to grow next year)

[anipgarden]

Flowers for Bees!

Hey, all! 

Spring is coming up sooner than we know, and its about time for people to start planning their gardens! With news about climate and the state of bee populations, I know a lot of people are wanting to make pollinator gardens to help bees in their area, but may not know what to do asides from ‘plant flowers.’ 

So I set out to look at a bunch of websites, and use those sources, alongside my own experience as a gardener, to recommend a nice list of plants to include for a bee-friendly garden!*

Amongst all the websites I looked at, these are the ones that popped up! Bolded plants are ones that appeared a lot during this research--across at least 3 different sites, but sometimes as often as across 7!

Asteraceae (a family of plants containing asters, ageratum, calendula, coneflowers, coreopsis, cornflowers, cosmos, daisies, dandelions, echinops, goldenrod, joe-pye weeds, liatris, rabbit brush, rudbeckia, sunflowers, thistles, yarrow, zinnias, etc.)

Bluebells

Borage

Butterfly Bush (sometimes referred to by its genus, Buddleia)

Caltrop

Chives

Clematis

Clovers

Cotoneaster

Creosote bush

Crocus

Currant

Elder

Fabaceae (a family of plants containing alfalfa, clover, lupine, peas, peanuts, wisteria, etc.)

Fennel

Flowering Gum

Foxglove

Grevillea

Hebe

Hellebores

Honeysuckle

Hostas

Huckleberry

Lamiaceae (a family of plants containing agastache, basil, bee balm (sometimes referred to as its genus, Monarda), coleus, hyssop, lavender, marjoram, mint, oregano, rosemary, sage (sometimes referred to a its genus, Salvia), thyme, etc.)

Lilac

Lilies

Marjoram

Mignonette

Nasturtium

Oregon Grape

Pansy

Penstemon

Peony

Phlox

Pincushion flower

Poppy

Primula

Pussy willow

Queen Anne’s Lace

Red Maple Tree

Rhododendron

Rose

Scorpion-weed

Sedum

Siberian Squill

Snapdragons

Snowberry

Snowdrop

Sweet William

Thrift/Sea Thrift/Sea Pink

Tulip Poplar Tree

Verbena

Wallflower

Wild Buckwheat

Witch Hazel

I, as a gardener in Florida, have personal experience growing plants for pollinator gardens, and have noticed bees frequenting sunflowers, lavender, Mexican heather, bee balm, coneflowers, lantana, marigolds, milkweed, and zinnias a lot. This isn’t necessarily to dunk on other plants on the list--a lot of them I’ve never even seen in person, let alone had a chance to grow in a garden! See which ones would thrive in your area and give them a shot!

Another post is in the works regarding general planting advice, since this post is getting a bit long. Afterwards, there’ll be another post about things you can do for bees that don’t simply include planting flowers!

I hope this list is helpful to you! By all means, feel free to hop into my inbox and ask for further advice, or seek out resources on the internet as well! Happy gardening!

Sources: x  x  x  x  x  x  x  x  x  x 

* Bee friendly, but I didn’t specify a particular species, so it may be a bit honeybee-leaning. If there’s enough interest, I’ll start making posts for native bees specifically. 

EDIT: Hello friends! I just want to make a quick amendment to this post--I wrote it really quickly, about 2 years back, to procrastinate a homework assignment, and missed a few points I should have made in my rush. First things first, while this list contains a lot of popular bee plants, please make sure the plants you ultimately use in your garden are native to your area--at the very least nonnative, but native plants will be more helpful for bees in your area and be less finicky in their care! With that in mind, I used a lot of sources--some of the links are defunct now, unfortunately--from a lot of different places! Even though I'm Floridian and most of my experience revolves around gardening in Florida, when I make posts like these I try to consider that not everyone seeing it will be in Florida--or even the United States! One of the sources I used had an Australian domain name, and many of these plants have wide reaches of where they come from and where they can survive! With that in mind; if you see a plant on this list that is invasive in your area, it may be perfectly calm and native in someone else's area; whether it be my area, or in another country. Please don't take to the notes to yell at me for including it!

Addendum aside, I hope this post is helpful to you!

[the-ablest-navigators]

Good morning from my garden!