Honey bees are important to your garden because they are the number one pollinators of crops grown for consumption. They are also responsible for pollinating flowering plants as well. So the honey bee is very important. I am sure that most people do not spend a lot of time thinking about honey bees and neither have I until recently any ways. There has been something killing off the honey bees in the last three years they have labeled it colony collapse disorder. Estimates are that over the last several years over 50 billion honey bees have died. This can have a very serious and dire economic as well as food supply consequences for the world food supply. While no one has been able to say for sure what is going on it is being studied at a feverish rate to find the cause and a cure for this problem. It really could be anything or a combination of things.
What can we as gardeners do to help with this decline in the honey bee population well globally not a whole lot but locally we can do our part to help keep the honey bees healthy. Stop using pesticides on our gardens and lawns would be high on the list of things we as individuals can do. The search for the perfect green lawn that is completely weed free and better than the neighbors has a huge impact on the environment by pesticide and chemical fertilizer run off into the soil and water sheds. This type of pollution is unnecessary and harmful to the environment. Using sustainable living practices as well as organic gardening techniques is not only healthy for the environment but us as individuals not exposing ourselves or our family to these man made chemicals.
Something else we can do to help increase the honey bee population and help to keep them healthy while increasing yield in our gardens is planting flowers. By planting more flower beds we will be increasing the food supply for the bees and that will in turn attract more bees to our garden crops increasing our yields.
There also recently been a rise in people setting up their own bee hives so that they can not only increase the number of pollinators in their garden but reap the rewards of fresh honey from their own hives as well. Honey has potent medicinal properties, it has properties that make it useful as an anti-inflammatory, an antibacterial, an anti fungal, an antioxidant and even as an antiseptic.Honey is healthy and all natural it is good for you. Here in Chicago one of the restaurants that raises it’s on produce on the roof has also setup a couple of bee hives and uses the honey in many of their cooking and baking recipes.
While you may not feel the need to have your own honey bee hive you can at least buy your honey from local producers at the farmers market in your area. By supporting these local producers you are helping in your part of the region with the honey bee populations and enjoying a sweet treat while doing so.