- Author: Christine Casey
Lawn removal is on the mind of many Californians these days. In my own neighborhood I've seen many interesting and creative new gardens; one person even made a monument to the lawn of the past that includes an old push mower ringed with stones in a place of central prominence.
If you're taking out some or all of your turf, you have a great opportunity to re-plant so your garden is bee-friendly. Unfortunately, rocks and cacti often seem to be the default options for low-water gardens. While bees use cactus flowers, this type of garden provides nothing else for these important animals.
As an encouragement to do more, here's a concrete patio area at my own bee garden, before and after:
Need some help getting started? Here's a plan for a simple, nine-plant, low-water bee garden for a small, sunny yard. Want more ideas? Check out our list of 25 low-water bee plants that includes bloom times and pollen and nectar resources. You can see all 25 of the these plants (plus many more!) at the Haven.
For example, I know that squash an sqaush bees go togehter. It would be interesting to see a garden design that intermingled both.
Mixing vegetables and flowers is a great way to ensure that you are providing ample pollen and nectar resources for bees. We have several plant lists on our web site (http://hhbhgarden.ucdavis.edu), but I have not yet listed individual plants by the bees that tend to prefer them. The web page of the UC Berkeley Urban Bee Lab (www.helpabee.org) has this information.
The bee plants we tend to recommend at Davis are those that need irrigation only once or twice a month, which is not compatible with vegetable irrigation requirements in central California. So depending on where you're located you may need to grow vegetables on a separate irrigation zone, such as a raised bed, within your garden.
I'm glad to hear you are expanding your garden for bees. I hope you can make it to the Haven for planting ideas.