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Gardening to Save the Bees

5/7/2017

4 Comments

 
Spring has finally arrived here in the Great White North, and my mind has turned to gardening. Now, this may shock some of you, but I’ve never liked to garden. Don’t get me wrong – I love trees, great open spaces and wildflowers, but grass and straight lines of flowers do nothing for me. There’s also the fact that I find grass to be a pain in the butt. It needs watering, weeding, fertilizing and is the gardening version of a high maintenance drama queen. Plus, I don’t understand why we need a lawn that looks like it belongs on a golf course. No one plays golf at my house.
So, I did nothing with my garden until I came across the Bring Back the Bees campaign run by Honey Nut Cheerios Canada. They have an emotional TV ad. Imploring us to do what we can to save the bees. You can also sign up at their website to receive a packet of wildflowers. They are giving away these flowers in an attempt to help bee populations across Canada.
I was touched by the fact that a company like General Mills would devote time and money to an environmental program that brings awareness to such an important subject. And who doesn't want to help the bees, especially when you consider one third of our food comes from bee pollination.
I did some research and discovered that grass does very little to help the environment. In fact in areas where herbicides are used it actually causes harm. I also learned that before the 1950s, when herbicides became common, all grass seed was mixed with clover to prevent weeds. And then I discovered there are several municipalities in Canada that actively encourage their residents to grow clover lawns.
Apparently, clover lawns discourage the growth of weeds such as dandelions without resorting to the use of environmentally harmful weed killers, and are beneficial to urban wildlife such as bees, butterflies, and rabbits. 

I decided to introduce clover to my lawn and hopefully it will eventually takeover the grass.
Clover lawn
I raked my lawn and mowed the grass so it was short
clover lawn
I sprinkled it with clover seed and then let nature do it's bit.
clover lawn
Within a week I saw results
clover lawn
I expect my clover lawn to be patchy this year, but I'm new to this. Next year I will fill the gaps and complete my lawn
If you’re interested in a low maintenance environmental way to have a green garden that will still hold up to foot traffic check out these sites
 
http://www.kamloops.ca/ipm/pdfs/Brochure-Clover.pdf
 
http://www.doityourself.com/stry/cloverlawn
 
http://cloverlawn.org
 
https://bringbackthebees.ca 

Do you do anything to help the bees? If so I'd love to hear about it.

4 Comments
S.J. Maylee link
5/7/2017 09:00:22 am

Gardening to save the bees. I love this. What a great and important campaign. I wish more people understood how important bees are to our food supply.
I'll admit I love gardening. Working alongside all of nature's helpers is pretty awesome. I have lots of bumbles in my yard and am regularly working right next to them in my gardens. I like to think I'm doing my part and totally enjoying the results.
Clover, yes, I actually don't pull this out of the back of my perennial beds. I'd much rather have clover than any of the other weeds that grow here. I consider it natural mulch. :)

Reply
Marlow
5/7/2017 09:14:59 am

That's great S.J. I wish I had a green thumb. I'm now working on figuring out what kind of bee-friendly flowers will grow in this northern climate
Enjoy your gardening

Reply
Mary Gilllgannon link
5/8/2017 07:35:06 am

I have gardening for the bees for several years now. There are several flowers that try to take over my garden and I let them have their way up to a point because the bees love them. Cat mint and bachelor buttons are some of their favorites. I also have sunflowers and a plant called dame's rocket (which is actually illegal to sell in a lot of states because they're so invasive) and I let them have a chunk of my garden and go to seed because the songbirds love them. So I'm gardening for the "birds and the bees". I'm also trying to get milkweed to grow for the butterflies. And there's another unknown wildflower that grows in the shade that I mostly leave alone because the hummingbird moths love it.

I live in Wyoming, which is a little like Canada as far as short growing season and cold winters. So you should definitely try sewing bachelor buttons and getting some catmint, because I think it would do fine there. They also like coneflowers and dianthus. Dianthus (sweet william) is pretty easy to grow, although coneflowers need quite a bit of water. And I know there are several companies that sell wildflower mixtures for the different parts of the U.S. There's probably something similar for Canada.

Sorry to ramble on, but as you can tell, this is a subject that is near and dear to my heart. My husband is a "lawn guy" though, so I'm never going to convince him to add clover to our yard, because he prizes the "golf course" look. But he loves my garden, and although he bitches about the sunflowers (he thinks they're "by the side of the road" sort of weeds), he tolerates them because he knows the birds love them.

Great blog! Happy gardening!

Reply
Marlow
5/8/2017 10:46:50 am

Hi Mary,
Thanks for the Info. I will definitely try the catmint and bachelor buttons. I'm not sure about the coneflower as I live in a dry climate.

My husband is not too keen on the clover lawn in the front yard because the neighbors won't like it, but they're not out in the hot sun pulling up the dandelions by hand.
I think I'll wait until no one's home and then scatter some seed and see if it takes.
Enjoy your garden

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