Guest Author - Daryl Hostetler

Imagine life for a minute without bees; no beans, squash, tomatoes, onions, corn, and carrots to eat, not to mention hundreds of other vegetables that are dependent upon bees for pollination. Nothing happens in the vegetable garden without pollination! How about all the fruit we have come to love and think we couldn't do without? Fruits are as essential for nutrition in our diet, as are vegetables! Even livestock are dependent upon bee-pollinated forage plants, such as clover and alfalfa. No human ingenuity could ever replace the work of bees and yet we take it largely for granted. The typical gardener may not realize how easy it is to help or hinder their effectiveness as crop pollinators, nor how much is lost by their loss.

Have you wondered why your vegetable garden is not producing like it should? Have you considered the possibility that because of your use of chemical insecticides, you have inadvertently driven away your friendly gardener, the bee? By definition, chemicals are harmful but individual products vary in their toxicity to bees. Some pesticides kill quickly, others kill slowly. If you have sprayed your plants with a chemical and a bee comes along to pollinate it, the bee can carry the contaminated pollen back to the colony where it enters the food chain, killing hundreds more! And that is how we are slowly killing out the invironment-friendly bee. If you do have to treat your plants, do so in the evening when bees are not actively gathering nectar. It greatly minimizes the risk of harming them.

Let me give you a crash course on pollination and how it happens. The Creator endowed the bee with a fuzzy body that picks up and transfers pollen in visiting each flower, in its quest for finding and collecting nectar. In other words, they "move" pollen from flower to flower so vegetables and fruits can grow and develop. That is why you want hundreds of bees in your garden!

There are a couple of ways to have your vegetable garden teeming with these friendly pollinators! Planting lots of bright, colorful flowers in your garden, and even a couple of fruit trees, would be a huge attraction for bees who like plants with ample nectar. A few favorite flowers are Purple and White Cone Flowers, Cranesbill, Perennial Sunflower, and Gaillardias. Also, you may want to consider setting out a few beehives, thus ensuring adequate pollination, not to mention being able to enjoy the harvest of fresh, pure honey right from your backyard?!!

Bees are made of 100% "active" ingredients, and are satisfaction guaranteed to produce results! It doesn't get any better than that!

About the Author:

Daryl Hostetler has had a life-long passion to learn all about bees and beekeeping, devoting all his leisure time to educating those who want to know more about this fascinating venture. For more information, visit his website.