Help Native Bees: Plant this Easy-to-Grow Flower
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- Опубліковано 26 жов 2024
- Our native bees are in trouble due to human-caused habitat loss and lack of forage. Bumblebees, sweat bees, ground nesting bees, mason bees…all need our help. Making space in our gardens and public spaces to plant flowers that native bees enjoy is an important way we ALL can support our pollinators.
Growing pollinator food is a small but important way to live the permaculture ethic of Earth Care.
Phacelia is a genus of flowering plants native to North, Central, and South America. Also called “bees’s friend”, these important delicate flowers provide excellent forage for native bees. Here are loads of tips for growing them in your garden both for your visual enjoyment and for our pollinator friends.
I got my perennial phacelia (P. californica) at www.Xeraplants.com
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Im totally on board with our bees ❤❤❤ i have over 45 lacy phacelia seedlings growing nicely right now ready to be planted when they're a bit bigger. Im so excited 😊 i focused on the pollenators this year and will continue to do so. 🐦🦋🐝🌻❤
Who the hell would wanna get rid of honeybees? I miss them!! I live in Tuscaloosa, AL and I haven't seen a honeybee in 10 plus years. And as you said this absence is absolutely due to everyone wanting a lawn and the absolute ubiquity of monoculture. Glad to see someone on UA-cam who is right on about this topic. You have a wonderful channel and I appreciate the tips as well. Thanks.👍
YESSSS
That was a great video. Not only did you introduce a new plant I never heard of before, but you nicely transitioned to a discussion of how we need to do more to encourage more bees. I've always found your garden to be one of the nicest looking permaculture gardens on UA-cam. Too often, permaculture seems to equate to rank, overgrown, weedy places. You show permaculture can be both functional and beautiful. Thanks!
Thank you so much for your kind words! I really appreciate it! I truly believe permaculture systems can be beautifully designed AND functional and productive.
Ive found that pollinators prefer "weed" flowers. I have a wild looking garden but pollinators love it.
You remind me so much of Kat from the Box of Oddities podcast. It's a great compliment, trust me. 🤗🥂
Phacelia nemoralis is my fave, the bloom color is more boring but it more than makes up for that by attracting so many native bees, it's flexible about sun, and it's very cold tolerant, mine have been snowed on and kept their foliage. Short lived perennial.
I like to sow phacelia on new garden beds, where I planted small perennials, to fill in the gaps. This year I did that in my new asparagus/strawberry patch. The snails still have not found the strawberries or the asparagus. :D And the bees just go nuts on that bed!
Thank you. Bees 🐝 are so wonderful! They love hyssop in my garden. I let mine re-seed. Your flowers remind me of hyssop. I’ll try to locate your recommendation and plant for more food for the bees.
I “ liked” & subscribed. Thank you for caring for the pollinators.🪴
Hello there, been watching your vids and enjoying them. Thanks for creating them!
Without getting into the whole reasons why I think we should cease keeping honeybees I'd like to offer this observation.
I run a regenerative farm with tons & tons of forage & habitat for all bees throughout the season. Once I ceased keeping honeybees I saw a massive explosion in the native bee and other polinator populations. No other changes were made just the removal of honeybees. I do think at some point when native polinator populations are strong again that honeybees might be an ethical choice for people to do but not now.
Where your argument about planting lots and lots of forage falls apart is that it just provides more food that the massively larger numbers of honeybees can consume, keep note of the colony population differences and our ability to recover lost honeybees vrs say bumblebees. There's a whole industrial system geared to supplying new honeybees and colony expansion is super cheap and easy and we don't have that ability with our native polinators. That may change but for now we are pretty much helpless to expand their numbers like we can honeybees.
So to me the ethical choice is to avoid them until we've planted and habitat restored our way out of this crisis. I'm now focusing my efforts on learning everything I can and hope to get to the stage of managing bumblebee colonies and breeding for probigation.
Anyways longer winded than I wanted but it's a topic I'm keenly interested in.
Plus are we to rely on other people doing a good job of balancing the needs of both? Sounds good but it didn't work staving off all the environmental disasters we've created and extinction is rather permanent, something honeybees are in no way at risk of experiencing.
feed the bees! I think you've said before how permaculture include design to increase efficiency. So of course efficiency to an aesthetic space should be included. Great tip with underplanting and "stacking" wildflower blooms together. Great video!
oh, and congratulation to 10tsd subscribers :)
so nice....great
Hi Angela! I live in Bothell, WA. I am a native plant nerd, and native bee lover! I love that you understand the benefits of native plants!
I love the honeybees too! Feed the bees! So interesting how similar Phacelia and Comfrey look. Thanks for the advice of how to grow Phacelia in a pretty way!
I have a totally unrelated question: Do you have a favorite sunscreen? This time of year, I love being outside (FINALLY SUNSHINE! 😎). I keep going back to less natural sunscreen because everything else is sticky or smells bad. Your skin is so pretty and healthy, so I was just curious if you have a healthy recommendation.
Zone 8b rulz! 😆
Also grow borage and vipers bugloss...
thanks! Im always looking for flowers that bees like.
Thank you for helping us learn to create a beautiful yard that helps other creatures. I've learned a lot from you. How can we help yards recover from insecticide and herbicide use? How quickly do natural methods work against pests?
Also, I am in a situation where I can't get rid of the lawn. Clover or alternative grasses aren't allowed. I've thought of trying to add early spring bulbs to it. I hope that could help make it less of a monoculture. I am planting more plants for pollinators, but I'd like to get more over time.
What are some ideas to plant for spring through fall bee forage in the Willamette Valley area? Edited to add that is like to see a video around this.
Thank you for doing this video. I'm in the process of designing rain gardens for my new property, and figuring out where to put plants that can either feed us, or feed wildlife, or both, while reducing the runoff water.
Thank you Angela. Great information. You've inspired me to add some Phacelia and wildflowers to my garden. I definitely want to transform my mostly "lawn" 1/4 acre using permaculture principles. I strongly agree - we must do everything we can to sustain and expand bee - friendly gardens and plantings....for all species of bees but especially our native bee population in the Pacific North West (I'm a couple hours north of you on the I-5 ) . Really like your videos - keep up the good work.
In my central FL garden, Anise Hyssop and Gilardia are the two busiest plants in my garden right now.
Anise hyssop and holy basil are hot spots for the natives for me. I just love letting all the weeds go to flower as well! Love you sharing your knowledge Angela. 👍🌱
Anise hyssop is such good bee food! Gaillardia won’t be blooming here until the very end of summer but is a great choice, too! The more options we can give our pollinators the better!
Thanks! I learned a lot
If you live in the south east of the US, you'll want to grow Monarda punctata (spotted bee balm), black eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta) , Asclepias incarnata (swamp milkweed), tickseed (I like Coreopsis lanceolota), Solidago odora (goldenrod), Liatris (blazing star), Salvia coccinea (tropical scarlet sage), Partridge Pea (Chamaecrista fasciculata). If in Florida specifically grow Helianthus debilis (dune sunflower).
If you want bee houses, opt for smaller ones spread around the yard and not huge bee hotels that promote the spread of disease and parasites. Leave piles of debris around the yard for bumble bees.
And for the love of god don't use pesticides or buy plants from big box stores. Go to native nurseries who clearly state they do not use pesticides or fungicides. The Xerxes Society did a study where they tested plants for big box stores and local nurseries, and they found that not only did all the plants have harmful pesticides, but also plants marked "pollinator friendly" had even MORE of the amount of pesticides in them than ones not marked with this designation.
Hi there!
I was wondering if you grow potatoes în your garden and if you find space for this crop as well?
I know that those potatoes that you buy from shops are all sprayed with lots of nasty chemicals.
I do! I love La Ratte and also All Blue and we grow Yukon Gold as well