When you want to make an eco-friendlier garden, you’ll need to think about every aspect of what that really means, and not just the fact that you intend to use (and make) natural compost or intend to grow wildflowers or use water sustainably. Another aspect of a green garden is bees.
Bees are hugely important when it comes to the environment and creating a space for them in your garden will improve your eco-friendly work and ensure that you are doing the best for the planet in every way possible. The problem is, bees are in decline; climate change is making flowers bloom at different times, meaning that when the bees are around, there might be a shortage of pollen for them. Chemical pesticides can also cause a lot of problems. So, if you can do something to make things better, you should.
Table of contents
Read on to find out why bees are so important
Pollination
If you enjoy eating fruit and vegetables, it’s down to the bees. Things like apples, broccoli, melons, and asparagus – as well as hundreds of other examples – need to be pollinated before they will grow. The bees carry out this work, ensuring that pollen is taken from the male part of the plant to the female part (the anther and the stigma).
When bees are able to work as they should, they can pollinate billions of different plants each year, leading to better crops and more healthy, delicious food for us. This is why, when you’re looking at landscaping materials and how to create an eco-friendly garden, you’ll need to ensure you make an area that bees are going to love, which will be full of wildflowers and perhaps even a ‘bee hotel’.
Food Source
We’ve already mentioned how bees help to make the food we eat daily, but there is something else they do that relates to this; they make honey. Honey is something that many people enjoy very much, and as a sweet alternative to sugar, it can be ideal.
Yet, it’s not just humans who eat honey. Other creatures enjoy it too, and it can be a major part of their diet. For example, birds, insects, and even larger animals such as foxes and badgers will eat honey; they need it to survive, especially when other food is scarce.
Plus, bees themselves are a food source. Twenty-four known species of bird eat bees; they include the starling and blackbird. Insects and spiders sometimes eat bees too. So, as part of the food chain, bees are essential, and without them, we would lose many other animals, insects, and birds as well.
Wildlife Habitats
Did you know that bees make not just their own homes but also homes for other types of wildlife? Although they may not do it directly, by pollinating trees, they are giving shelter to birds, insects, and other creatures, and without this habitat, they would be in a lot of danger. Some trees simply would die out if there were no bees to pollinate them; poplars and willows are excellent examples of this.
As you can see, there are many reasons why bees are so important and why we should encourage them into our gardens at all costs.