Bee Useful
photo: A patch of star thistle in the foreground, a patch of goldenrod in the background among apple trees, pear trees, grape vines, wild asters and other wildflowers. Also note the beautiful clover and dandelion plants making the lawn greener. (Click on image to see enlarged.)
These are some photos that I took this summer of my father’s backyard. He always plants patches of bee friendly flowers throughout his property. This year, as a research project and for fun, he tagged flowers in a patch of star thistles at the start of their bloom and recorded how many consecutive days each individual blossom would remain open. These amazing looking patches of plants demonstrate a massive untapped potential waiting to be harnessed wherever manicured monoculture lawns prevail.
Some reasons why people should be planting gardens or patches of nectar and pollen producing flowers include:
- they require far less maintenance than the average lawn
- they can be used to produce fruit, vegetables, herbs, etc. for consumption
- they are far more eco-friendly than a manicured lawn
- they are fun to observe and interesting to study
- they look awesome
photo: Star thistle tagged so that bloom duration can be measured.
photo: Golden honey plant flowers.
photo: White asters.
photo: Purple asters.
photo: Closeup of a honey bee on goldenrod.