Down to Earth: Attracting bees to the garden
Last week was Bee Week, so it’s timely to talk about how to attract bees into the garden. Bees are essential for the pollination of many food-bearing plants, especially fruits. With varroa mite outbreaks and “Colony Collapse Disorder” affecting bees throughout the world it has never been more important to encourage these great little helpers.
Here are some tips and a list of plants that attract bees:
· Plant flowers in shades of yellow, purple, blue, and white, which bees love.
· Plant annual flowers such as the calendula, borage, forget-me-not, nasturtium, alyssum, poppies, phacelia, sunflowers and zinnias, and biennials like wallflowers.
· Plant perennial flowering plants like comfrey, flowering currant, daisies, campanulas, golden rod, hyssop, cotoneasters, cardoon, coneflowers, lavenders and salvias.
· Leave herbs such as anise hyssop, basil, bergamot, chives, coriander, catmint, catnip, lemon balm, marjoram, mints, rosemary, sage and thyme to flower to attract bees.
· Vegetables of the Allium (onion) and Brassica (cabbage) families, and buckwheat, when allowed to go to flower, are great attractants.
· Most fruits—especially raspberries, apples, citrus, pears, peaches, plums and quince—are well loved by bees.
· Plant trees like manuka, lacebark, elderberry, rhododendron and lime trees, which bees love.
· Don’t mow lawns with clover too much as their flowers attract bees.
· Avoid using pesticides as they kill bees and other beneficial insects along with the pests. If you must, use the least toxic one and spray late afternoon or evening, to avoid killing beneficial insects.
Fruit care:
· Plant fruit trees, eg citrus. Plant into a decent-sized hole with compost and ensure good drainage. Firm well and stake.
· Spray stonefruit and pipfruit with copper vs bacterial diseases once leaves fall.
· Protect young citrus and other subtropicals with frost cloth.
· Prune fruit trees, especially stonefruit, before winter sets in. Burn diseased wood and fruit.
· Prune old canes off berry fruits. Select and tie up strongest new canes.
· Treat silverleaf in fruit trees with trichodowels, or remove.
· Re/plant strawberry patch.
· Clear grass and other weeds away from fruits and remulch with woody compost.
· Plant herbs and flowers around orchard to attract beneficial insects like bees!
Herb Care:
· Weed and mulch.
· Transplant perennial herbs, or pot up to swap with others.
· Take cuttings of rosemary, sage and other semi-woody herbs. Place in coarse sand under cover.
Vegetable Care:
· Protect sensitive crops from frost with a cloche of microklima or plastic.
· Prepare ground for garlic and onions. Add lots of compost, lime, rock phosphate and wood ash.
· Prepare ground for peas and broad beans.
· Plant winter crops now, eg garlic, cabbage and peas. Try winter/spring salads under cover.
· Liquid fertilise in the morning once a week.
· In vacant areas either cover with compost and straw or black plastic for spring planting.
· Weed and mulch (especially seagrass). Good time to fork out couch and dreaded oxalis.
· Stay observant for pests and diseases, eg slugs and snails.
· Spray Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) against caterpillar pests.
· Tend asparagus beds with lots of compost and straw.
· Hothouse: Remove old crops and plant salads for winter.
· Harvest kumara and late potatoes. Store in a cool, dry, shady place.
· Keep harvesting late beans, zucchinis and tomatoes.
· Save seed.
Sow for transplanting: Leafy greens (winter spinach, lettuce, endive, cabbages, spinach beet, Chinese cabbage and red onions). Flowers, eg cornflowers.
Sow direct: Radish, beetroot, turnip, swede, spring onions, salads, spinach beet, peas and broad beans. Flowers, eg calendula.
Plant: 13th – 25th May. Garlic, salad greens, spinach, cabbages and silverbeet/rainbow chard. Flowers, eg delphinium.
General garden care:
· Great time to make compost.
· Collect leaves into compost ring.
· Collect seed from annual flowers.
· Prune back flowering plants and hedges.
· Transplant perennials.
· Weed and mulch ornamental areas.
· Shred prunings.
· Sow or resow patches of lawn.
· Mow lawns. Clippings in compost or mulch.
Sol Morgan, GroWise Consultancy. Ph 525 9110.
