Plants for Bees and other pollinators, including honey bees, narrated.
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- Опубліковано 6 жов 2024
- Today is a special edition instead of the normal Q&A episode.
I walk you through my landscape and show what forage is available to my honey bees as well as native pollinators.
Each plant/topic is listed below with a time-stamp for your convenience.
If you like video presentations like this, please let me know in the comments.
If you prefer the standard Q&A format, also let me know. Thanks!
00:15 Black-eyed Susan
00:34 White Clover
02:26 Golden Rod
04:05 Joe-Pye weed
05:36 Elderberry
06:18 Dwarf sunflowers
07:27 Bee Mimic Fly
07:49 Sun flower
08:32 Giant hyssop
09:38 Red raspberry
12:02 Cosmos
13:05 Meadow knapweed
17:34 Maximilian sunflower
19:58 Firefly
20:49 Milkweed
24:00 Queen Anne's lace
24:53 Thistle (www.newworlden...) Burdock is a thistle.
25:46 American pokeweed
28:42 Solitary pollinator house
28:51 Catnip
30:04 Self-heal
There are many varieties of plants that provide for a wide range of pollinators. Today's reference is a new book by the Xerces Society
100 Plants to Feed The Bees
Provide a Healthy Habitat to Help Pollinators Thrive
amzn.to/3cmTcfd
For those wanting to know what plant identification app I use, here it is:
play.google.co...
This is an affiliate link, I may earn from qualifying purchases.
There is a small patch in my street that the owner doesn't mow, it was full of nettles but we asked if we could sow cosmos, rudbeckia and echinacea. So now, that patch is full of flowers and nettles every year.
That's great news, if that spread continues it will really help pollinators.
Imagining a bee goofing off, that really brings a smile to my face
This video has provided the best 30minutes of bee and plant interest ever! Thank you.
The calming voice and the sights and sounds are just what I needed and I have subscribed straight away. Now all I need is 8 acres and some seeds! Haha
Blessibgs and peace from UK sir
Thank you so much :)
Videos like this get me looking forward to spring and replanting my different areas that I have let go the last couple years. It also got me to thinking about the different plants I used to see around when I was younger. My grandmother had a row of sweet pea bushes growing in her yard that was always covered in bees and wasps in the late summer, I think I have just the spot to plant a few of those. Thanks for helping me get green thumb out of storage.
As an avid gardener, i jusy loved this video. Thank you so much.
You are so welcome! and thanks for sharing about the square stem on mint. :)
The visual clarity of this film is great. I fully enjoy watching it.
Thank you.
Wow! I can’t wait for my yard to have this kind of established beauty!!
Thanks for bringing me here Larry! from at Larry Satchwell
I'm working on adding pollinator plants for all seasons. I started Anise Hyssop from seed and after it was planted over an old tree stump, its covered with bees in the morning. Growing Salvia, Asters, Mountain Mint, bee balm, sunflowers, fruit trees and clover in addition to vegetable plants. My apiary is around 20-25 hives and a dozen nuc boxes.
Thanks for sharing those fantastic results!
Great video. I have over 5 acres for weed or wild flowers, but I can't seem to grow anything. The only flower I had are the sun flowers, small wild sun flowers, and few cactus. I collect lots of dandelion seeds to throw into my land, only got 2 plants alive. Later they died. All around outside our neighbor hood area has plenty of wild flowers. Right now I was able to grow some honey suckle around my garden fence, some garlic chives and bee balms, some fruit trees like apple, pear, peach, and blackberries, but want to grow plants that produce flowers all year round for the honey bees.
Have you considered joining, or reaching out to a garden club in your area? There may be members who can help you determing what will grow best on your land and in your soil conditions. That's where I'd start.
Truly an amazing place where you live. Don't ever leave, cherish what you have.
And again beautiful footage you shared with us. The way you 'catch' nature in your lens is magic.
Thank you, Wendy, I am always content to bee here :)
With the drought here in Texas, this year has been disappointing. It was so pleasant to see the bees and the beautiful flowers. Thank you Fred.
Sorry to hear that, I hope things change for the better soon.
Great info, footage, and side commentary. Very well done and thank you for the insights!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Fred, thank you! I like the video presentations like this. It is informative, helpful and visually pleasing and pleasant to watch and listen to. Gives one some things to think about for their particular situations and for further investigation and research.
Thank you for that valuable feedback :)
Also in case you don’t mention it in this vid, I want to shout out for ironweed! It showed up in our natural meadow and the butterflies flock to it like crazy for the 2-3 weeks that it is peaking. Great stuff! My thistle is known as nodding or musk thistle and it looked absolutely ablaze with great spangled frits during the peak season and looked glorious against mullein, who I call Queen Mullein. I LOVE vids like this!!
Sounds like you're living in a great part of the world :) Thanks for sharing!
@@FrederickDunn Ozarks of Missouri. 6b
I listened to this video while I was driving, but I so wanted to see all of the flowers in your garden estate that I watched the video again once I got back home. Very beautifully done and so peaceful and relaxing to watch after a long stressful day at work! Thanks so much! 👍😉
Thanks Rob! I didn't add this one to my Podcast as it's heavily visual. Friday I'll be back to the standard Q&A for those listening while driving :)
This was lovely, a feast for our eyes as well as for your bees! I enjoy all of your videos, from Q & A’s to ‘field trips’ , all are beneficial to your viewers who want to learn about honey bees. Thank you for the effort and time you invest in your videos!
Glad you enjoyed it! And thank you for the feedback.
Here at Cleburne, we are restoring a very old naturalized micro-meadow for the pollinators. We encourage native plants and have really enjoyed the entire season’s growth and changes. Also, our yards here (more than one family lives here now) are being sown with white clover. We don’t have to mow anymore and the pollinators just love it. It is possible to live WITH nature and not against her!! 👍👍👍
I am a huge fan of no-mow lawns. I like what you're doing!
Poke weed berries used to be a huge source for dyes for native Americans. I have never seen bees do anything with it however.
Meadow knapweed can be very invasive. I have a gigantic field of it and was just able to make a super worth of knapweed honey. I do not enjoy it but am going to pass it around to some people and see how they feel about it.
We would make sling shots and use poke berries for ammo. This was paint ball au naturale!
What a wonderful narration. Beautiful and inspirational. I’m learning so much and this warms my heart. ❤
Wow, thank you!
My wife raises milkweed for monarchs, now for the bees also. She raises the monarch’s from egg to Chrysalis in clear plastic boxes. She’ll usually raise 100-200. Thanks for the videos
You're right about Nepeta - mostly bumblebees. Gerrie ,Seattle.
This is the second time I've watched this great video! Thanks for posting. I have big plans for this coming spring and fall!
Glad it was helpful!
That thistle was burdock. Growing up in England the only soda available was dandelion and burdock.
Love clover! Smells so sweet in the spring! Does not grow tall. It USED TO BE included in grass seed because it puts nitrogen into the soil. But CHEM companies encourage you to add their chemicals instead, plus a poison to kill clover, other plants, and often insects.
When I was a kid, we made pokeweed ink…might be fun to try with grandkids. I do recall it was a bit of a mess, and it worked better on canvas/fabric than paper. had read that the Declaration of Independence was written in pokeweed, but the Archives indicate it was iron gall ink. It is toxic! although Amerinds would use it for dye and paint for horses and persons, so I’m not sure what the effects are.
I thoroughly enjoy your content, and love to see what’s possible in our landscape. I am quickly learning that natives seem to take 2-3 full years to establish (I am resurrecting old farm land), so patience can be important.
Good quality and informative video Fred. Here is one common honey flower what we use here in Finland. It's called Lacy Phacelia. The Finnish name is "Aitohunajakukka" and the translation is "true honey flower"
Thank you so much once again for being so generous with your knowledge, time and experience. I have 23 acres in mid-Missouri and as I walk it, I feel bad that I am so ignorant of the plants that are all over the place. And as to insects? Just the common names. It makes me realize I need to study more the wonderful resources that the MO conservation department provides. I am considering joining the native pollinator programs. Just finding the time to get it organizes. You are inspiring me. thanks again.
I'm so glad that you found inspiration in this video. I hope your 23 acres becomes a pollinator sanctuary :)
Gosh thank you so much. Loved it.
I clip off clusters of poke berries and dry them out. I put a cluster or two in my smoker along with my pine needles in the fall. If I have any leftover i'll use them in the spring. I think it has helped with varroa control.
I'm curious about what made you think that could/would impact varroa? Thanks for sharing.
@@FrederickDunn I saw this oldtimer talking about it a few years ago. I'm 70 myself so I guess this includes me too. I'm just experimenting with them. I think it has helped. I only have 3 hives and they are really healthy.I'm not recommending this to anyone', I'll continue to observe and let you know how they are doing. Take care and I love your podasts.
New subscriber your channel. Looking into starting a apiary next spring so have been binge watching your videos. Found you because I am considering a Flow hive and maybe one or two Langstroth hives in my back yard. I live in the south western part of Pennsylvania so know all of these native plants. I remember as a kid being covered with purple stains from the battles we had throwing the Poke weed berries at each other. Thanks for all your very informative videos!
Hi David, thank you for subscribing and welcome to my channel! I'm glad to be a part of your beekeeping education :)
Thanks for your presentation
Thank you for watching :)
Very relaxing Fred, love seeing your bees out and about. Seems every country in the world has goldenrod at least in China, Montana, Switzerland and Florida. Hard to get seeds for planting. Again thank you Fred like a grown up Mr. Rodgers to me thank you
Thank you so much, and I'm glad you are enjoying this style of presentation.
Anything that looks like a sun seems to be a good bet for the pollinators ❤
Awesome compilation of footage and so much info Fred. Great work! P.s. those red raspberries looked so yumm:))
Thanks so much!
@@FrederickDunn very welcome!
Very cool. Thank you. I am converting as much of my 25 acre homestead to white dutch clover as my husband will tolerate. I’m up to about 4 acres. We farm thousands, so he doesn’t mind much -except my milkweed patches make him gnash his teeth. Your video reminded me that now is a great time to go snag some dead goldenrod heads (and joe pye, rough blazing star, etc) to collect seed for my grove border - that’ll really get his goat next year. He’s ok with it, just adjusting rather slowly 😂
Don't forget some Anise Hyssop :) it yields nectar from June through October :)
Beautiful land, I love all the colors of the flowers. Thanks Fred
Thank you!
I don't have anything more to add than the others who posted comments, just DITTO and THANK YOU
Thanks!
Fantastic presentation Fred, I love the variety of plants/pollinators around your property. Awesome footage thanks from 🇦🇺. 👍🐝🍯
we have poke weed,its like 10 feet redush stalks,people double boil the leaves to eat,seems to be perennial, you should talk about the trees too
I have learned a lot from your Q & A and will still follow your posts.
love this video, my neighbor is letting me plant 30 acres of flowers on his hunting plot for my bees and as a food plot to attract more deer
Wow, what a great opportunity!
Great Video! I love your property/gardens. It must take days to dead head the gardens!!! Joking! I have 11 of the plants shown growing on my property including the maximillion sunflower, Joe pye weed, golden rod and Thistle. BUT my property is only 45' x 150'. City living! My bees tend to take off and head to the lake (Erie) to forage the wild growth. There is also a park loaded with Linden trees which is the main spring flow. Now we are heavy on Knot weed. This year I had a form of knot weed show up in the yard along with an evening primrose and a bunch of odd ball weeds. Trying to figure it out... then I realized when I brought in 6 yards of soil/manure blend from a farm to fill the raised veg beds I bought a seed bank!
On Poke Weed... I do have it only it hangs over the fence from my neighbors yard. When I see it it reminds me of my childhood. INK BERRY FIGHTS!! We used to grab the berry clusters, chase each other around and splat! Mom wasn't so happy but we had a blast.
Fun memories, thanks for sharing!
poke is native to my area. you can cook the leaves and are great with scrambled eggs. they do grown in the wild. the berries are poison if you eat them, however there a some birds that eat them.
gorgeous yard mr dunn n family
It's pretty cool to see Joe Pieweed and Goldenrod growing wild at your farm. Out west, specifically the PacNW I have to purchase those plants from the nearby nurseries.
Wow, I can't imagine buying them. I'm glad you enjoyed the video.
Love your garden tour. Very. Informative
Great video. I love seeing all the different plants and their pollinators.
Thank you!
What a location , stunning , thanks for sharing that was interesting 👍🏻
Pennsylvania.
Thank you for the new ideas for planting around my apiary. I already have many of the wild flowers, but no sunflowers or other flowers to provide nectar during dearth.
You are so welcome!
pokeweed - phytolacca americana is a taprooted perennial, birds love the berries. Burdock is interesting in that its generally a biennial and will die after flowering. These are both a bit thuggish, can block sunlight and hinder more desirable species from germinating. Cutting both back before setting seed will control the spread, burdock will usually die if you do this in the 2nd year right before it sets seed whereas the poke will have to be dug out. Both of these could also be cut back earlier in the summer and still have time to flower, if you simply want to control their height.
You can always tell plants in the mint family. They have square stems. Easy to feel the difference.
I learned much this time. I’ll have to watch with pen and paper.
Your thistle is actually burdock. The root is used in herbal medicine. I let pokeweed bloom, but pull it before the berries get ripe, because they are very messy. Loved your video.
Hi Sandra, yes, and Burdock is a thistle :) www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/burdock
Here in the south, the locals eat the leaves at a young stage of Poke. We even have the Poke Sallet Festival here in TN. . They boil it and change the water 3x. I tried 5x and my guts REALLY didn't like it. They fry bacon and then fry the Poke in the bacon grease and then add scrambled eggs. Hubby was raised on it.
Wow, that's very interesting! Thanks for sharing your history with that plant.
Wonderful information.
Glad it was helpful!
thanks for sharing. Beautiful property!
Thanks for watching!
I l❤️Ve your videoes Dear Frederick 🥰🥰🥰🥰
If you have enough land, and if you want to plant for a honey flow, try the several varieties of basswood trees and Lemon Queen sunflowers.
White Sweet clover (Mellitus) might or might not work in the Northeast. If you do plant it, it might be helpful to have gravelly limestone chips added to the soil.
Thanks Dave, I have Linden Trees, they take many years before they really produce.
Love the wildflowers. Nice video. Thanks
Thank you too
Another great and educational video Fred!!! Thanks!
Glad you enjoyed it! Always great to see your comments Rodney!
Also Fred, Catnip is a Mint and the honey bees love it. Thanks for the video.
Thanks, yes, I thought it's in the mint family. This variety isn't very appealing to my honey bees, but bumbles are on it whenever it blooms. Thanksf for sharing.
23:56 Another good story and identifier for Queen Anne's lace to tell it apart from similar plants is that Queen Anne never shaved her legs. :)
your cat nip has far less flowers then the kind i have....mine has hundreds, maybe thousands of tiny flowers on each plant. i wish i knew what specific kind it is, but its the most popular plant in my garden by far..... for all kinds of pollinators, including the honey bees, they love it.
@@aircobraman1375 yeah.... why wouldnt you be able to?
Just a heads up knapweed, Queen Anne’s and thistles (depending on species) are all non-native invasive species.
Thanks for sharing. I've heard that about Knapweed.
Queen Anne's lace, also known as wild carrot, is not considered invasive throughout the United States. However, it is listed as invasive in some states, including Connecticut, Georgia, Hawaii, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, Oregon, Tennessee, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, and West Virginia.
This seemingly delicate plant can crowd out native wildflowers and disrupt ecosystems by outcompeting them for resources like sunlight and water.
Burdock, on the other hand, is not generally considered invasive in the United States. There are two main species of burdock that are found in North America: greater burdock (Arctium lappa) and common burdock (Arctium minus). Both are native to Eurasia but have been introduced to North America and are now widespread. While burdock can be a nuisance in some areas, it is not considered to be a serious invasive threat.
I just found your website and lovey content. I am in the city and starting 1 hive (and 1 hive only). I wonder how many flowers do I need to plant in my small yard considering I want to also have some veggies and herbs and aesthetic is kind of important too.
Phenomenon photography by the way! Very interesting.
I think that if you have a small plot of land, you should concentrate on your desired vegetables. The bees will find forage that suits them. It's not worth substituting high nectar producing plants for those that you would consume. Every little bit helps the bees.
@@FrederickDunn Makes sense! Thanks!
Great video. Been looking for something like this and here it was! Thank you.
Glad it was helpful! Thank you for watching.
I keep honeybees in the UK - but loved your walkabout.
Poke weed grows down south a lot, it was used in early spring as clean out food because of it's laxative and fiber content, it's usually prepared like turnip greens and hand picked when the leaves are still young and tender, there's a country song where it's name is called "Poke salad Annie". birds eat the berries and poop purple splatters on your car if it's left outside under a tree.
Thanks for that additional information! VERY interesting for sure.
HaHa. I always thought Elvis was singing Poke Sally Annie
Tony Joe White orginally recorded Poke Salad Annie
Like many southern delicacies most were concocted, by the impoverished and poor with many mouths to feed, they learned passed the herbal and medicinal properties of most plants as well, such as Joe Pye weed, it's name for an Indian medicine man that used the weed to make concoction that halted a typhoid fever outbreak in colonial Massachusetts.
Thanks for the tour. Very informative.
Glad you enjoyed it!
This is an AMAZING video to share with us. Thank You!!!
Glad you enjoyed it!
@@FrederickDunn
I sure did!
I am trying/just getting started doing the same thing here on my 8AC property.
Doing with animals in mind though too.
Planted tons of white and red clovers last Fall. The white clover didn’t do much yet but is still blooming a little. The red clover, has been going gang busters all Summer so far. The honey bees can’t use it BUT the many bumble and solitary bees have been using it as well as every butterfly species known to man on the East Coast. There are dozens going out there at all times. Even keep seeing monarchs making more monarchs. Lol
My wood line on the edges have things like sourwood trees and blueberries. Same for Tulip poplars as well.
Looking to transform the 2AC front yard into a meadow…. And working in things like you were taking about into the pasture edges.
Exactly what I've been looking into.
Poke berry can be eaten when it first comes up 6 to 8inches tall called poke salad in the South cook like any other green(turnip, mustard etc). I have seen Grey fox eat the berries once their ripe.
Have to cook correctly must cook in 3 changes of fresh water to remove toxins. Berries are medicinal seeds are toxic, so don't chew up the seeds
Also, berries can be used for ink or dye
God bless you, beautiful man!!
This is my favorite video. Thank you.
Glad you enjoyed it!
My mother's father- "Paw Paw" used to pick Poke leaves and cook it to make "poke salad"
I am amazed by how many people have chimed in with their memories of poke-weed greens! Thanks for sharing.
Nice property, congratulations !
Thanks!
Poke weed is a highly medicinal plant, like any medicine toxic if you get too much. Poke can be eaten if prepared properly. The entire plant from root to berries has medicinal properties but must be prepared by someone who knows what they are doing.
What effect does it have?
My wife aunt would have me gather her young poke weed leaves. She said it helped her arthritis. Off plants that where less than 2 foot. Curious as to how you keep the saplings out of your perennial. It seems around here the maples and sweet gums grow faster than anything else. Beautiful landscape you have. Could get lost in that for hours.
That's interesting, I haven't had any issues with trees showing up in my perennial patches, but if they did I'd likely just pull them up.
@@FrederickDunn I've only had this problem in grass fields that didn't get mowed. In two years they can be mowed. It just seems they grow more than anything. Lol
Can't be mowed not can.
Great walk around Fred!
You should do a collaboration with Adam Herrington at “Learn your land” he is also in your state . I follow you both and think that you would bee beneficial to yourselves and your fans. Self heal and poke weeds self heal for cuts and scrapes and poke sallet good but lots of boiling before stir frying.
Thanks Timothy, I'll have to look into Adam.
African Blue Basil is a sterile hybrid (must be started from cuttings) of two other basil plants and one of the two best pollinator attackers on the planet. All kinds of pollinators. Not just honey bees.
nice video very very thanks
You're very welcome, thanks for watching :)
In the piedmont of NC, my place would be overrun with trees in 5 years if I didn't do some sort of management (mowing). trees can be invasive too. Also, non-migratory Canada geese eat up all the clover on my property. So, I'm looking toward arboreal sources of nectar, particularly basswood (linden). I've read that one mature basswood tree can produce 100gallons of nectar. basswood is also native to this area. with 100g from a single tree, what are we planting annual flowers for? I'd like to learn about other nectar producing trees. A procession of arboreal nectar throughout the season would be ideal; what trees would I need to have that? I'm also learning about plants with extra-floral nectaries. Not all plants produce nectar through flowers. There's not a lot of information about extra-floral nectaries in regards to honeybee forage.
I've planted three linden trees. Though they may produce abundant nectar as mature trees, getting them to that age is the key. They are often not predictable, but particularly for those with smaller plots, trees will be far more productive than just ground cover.
Nice bee garden.
Thank you.
Many thanks for making this video.
Glad it was helpful!
Oh gosh I thoight it was canadian thistle! I have them infesting my garden. Bees love their flowers, they smell pretty good. Too bad its invasive so i have to pluck it out.
I let all ‘weeds’ grow in my garden. We have drought at the moment, but my garden is still alive despite very little watering (waste water saved from washing fruits and vegetables).
Excellent job Fred loved it
Thanks, Gary :)
This is awesome Fred! Can you describe how you do your planting?
I'm a very casual planter, I just toss seeds mostly. BUT, when it comes to the sunflowers and cosmos, I till and broadcast the seed, then roll it in with a heavy roller. That's it.
Nice video. some where in this one or another one you mentioned where you get your seeds from.... I have watched another hour looking for it and thus I am here asking... where do you buy your bulk seeds... thanks.
Most of my seed comes from Eden Brothers, or Ernst.
@@FrederickDunn thank you so much.
Mint honey, according to wiki, tends to crystalize quickly. Catnip honey probably does too
I think catnip is in the mint family also. I'm glad Wiki answered your question.
Good morning Fred. Did you plant the clover growing on your place? If so, how did you prepare the soil for seeding?
No preparation, I broadcast seeds in spring just ahead of rainstorms wherever I want clover, particularly any sparsely covered areas. I also did all of the pond edges with clover the same way, and it germinated remarkably well.
Good morning, Today I logged on to the internet and watch grasshoppers .....well, if you know you know.
Normally basics are one hive on a acre, but like this I’m not sure
It’s hard to grow anything where I live in Texas. The deer and grasshoppers eat everything. Especially the grasshoppers. I planted 5 Shoal Creek Vitex trees this month and the grasshoppers ate them overnight down to bare sticks the day I planted them. Vitex and false fiddleleaf are what I see all the bees on around here during summer. False fiddleleaf grows wild here and nothing eats it. My parents and grandparents ate Polk weed all the time. That was a survival food during the depression. It’ll kill you if you don’t boil it and drain it off and rinse it and boil it and drain a second time. I have it growing on my farm. I never would take the chance eating it. Grandma made it all the time. I refused it and She said I’ve been cooking this before you were born and I haven’t ever killed anyone. I told her “Your getting old grandma and you might be getting forgetful and forget to double boil it”😂 My grandpa knew a guy who ate it raw and it made him deathly sick. Said it almost killed him. I walked around a huge nursery last week looking for trees flowering at this time (our dearth) to get an idea of some trees to plant this fall. They had at least 100 different Crepe Myrtles of different varieties blooming everywhere and I didn’t see one bee on any of them and I was really looking for bees. They had Vitex trees in 2 different locations and the bees were going absolutely nuts on those. Especially the bumblebees. I’m wanting summer flowering drought resistant trees to plant. I’ve made a big list of trees I’m going to try to chase down and buy this fall. Do you have any experience with crepe Myrtles and if bees like them? They’re one of the few flowering trees I see blooming here this time of year long with Desert Willow, Vitex and Chitalpa=(Catalpa x Desert Willow hybrid) I’d like to see you do a vid on honeybee trees. I can’t really plant flowers because I raise pecans and I have to mow the orchard to keep the grasshoppers under a little control. They flourish in high grass and reproduce like crazy. This is fire ant and grasshopper country in this hot dry sandy soil. I can grow flowering trees and mow around them.
Texas Sage blooms throughout summer and is as drought tolerant as they come. They get covered in tiny purple flowers and honey bees love them. They don't bloom continuously however but will bloom multiple times. It goes by a few different names but Leucophyllum frutescens is what you're looking for. I've never seen deer or insects mess with it either
If you want to try some native wildflowers Zexmenia has been my best performer in terms of deer resistance and drought tolerance in central Texas. I started it from seed this year and we've only had single digit inches of rain this year, and my Zexmenia still managed to put off blooms and will probably go until December. I don't have enough of it yet to get the honeybees attention but native pollinators visit the flowers a lot and it's supposedly a good nectar plant.
@@ryan_cowan I’m in Denton county and I know what you mean about the lack of rain. I had a total of just under 2” in June, July and August combined. I lost every bass in my pond in my pond last week because it got so low (4’ deep from 11’) and a oxygen depletion occurred. All bass between 3 and 8 lbs. I alway ate the ones under 3 lbs. Probably lost 25 bass. I can try growing those flowers you mentioned next to the pond where I don’t mow. I want to plant some crepe Myrtles because they’re drought resistant and are one of the best bloomers during summer but I haven’t ever seen bees on them which is unusual. You should try Vitex. There’s 3 varieties to look for to grow in Texas which TAMU have deemed Texas Superstars (Shoal Creek, Montrose Purple and Lecompte) Bees love those trees. I really want to plant pair of male and female Tupelo trees if I can locate some. That way they’ll produce fruit for my eastern bluebirds while feeding my bees also. I’ve got 9 bluebird houses. The bluebirds do a number on the grasshoppers. I’m right next to Ray Roberts lake which is entirely a wildlife refuge and that’s why the deer, hogs and grasshoppers are so bad. All the high weeds are a breeding ground for the grasshoppers and it’s blow sand here. They can lay eggs easily in sand. You can forget growing peaches here. They love peach trees. They’ll even eat the bark off the twigs and kill the trees. They have preferences on what they like to eat. They’ll destroy all my Asian persimmons and won’t touch the wild American persimmons. You’d think being so similar they’d eat both.
im a landscaper so im in gardens all the time and I personally never see bees or anything messing with crepe myrtles. I dont think they are heavy nectar producers, just big showy flowers. I would go for something else if you are trying to feed bees.
@@oddlyspecific186 I did some internet research on Crepe Myrtles where they did studies to see which color flowers the different species of bees were attracted to. Bumblebees preferred the purple and lavender flowers and honeybees pink, yellow and white. I’m like you. I haven’t seen bees working them. I looked at some around yards and parks in town and no bees on them. I broke off a flower and immediately took it home (still fresh) and set it inside a bowl that I feed pollen substitute during the dearth and my bees were everywhere and I never saw one bee get on that flower. They were within a 1/4” of it. I had to test it myself before I buy a bunch of crepe myrtles. Im going to plant around 15 more trees besides the 5 Vitex I planted. They say good bee trees will feed a lot more bees in the space they take up vs wildflowers in that same space. Bonus is certain wildflowers will also grow in the shade under those trees so you get much more food per acre. Double whammy.
For what you called thistles, compare to burdock (Arctium spp.).
Hi Zachary, Burdock is a thistle, there is a link in the video description if you'd like to know more about that.
Fred, how do you keep deer away from chomping all of those goodies?
By having more than they can eat. That soy field has been constantly browsed by the deer, I'm sure that's frustrating for the farmer.
I have blackberry plants but for some reason they are not attracted to bees. On the other hand they go wild with my sage plant, they love those little purple flowers. What variety of raspberry are those?
I don't remember what line of red raspberries those are since I began that patch in 1999.
What is a Melissa bee? At 32:32 you called the plant thistle, it's actually Burdock. Burdock is were the idea of Velcro came.
Hi Bill, thanks for that, yes, it's a Burdock thistle. www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/burdock
Fred, same family of plants, agreed. But, I would never call a lion a tiger or a house cat and vise versa. LOL! Burdock, as you know, is worked hard by the honey bees. I clip the seed pods from the ones near the yard, so they don't end up in my dogs fur. The dried pods work well in the smoker. Enjoy your videos... keep them coming. Oh, bought on of your coffee cups.
I remember on one of your videos you mentioned where you buy seeds for your meadows and garden. Can't find that video. Where do you get them again?
Eden Brothers.