robby: (Default)
robby ([personal profile] robby) wrote in [community profile] gardening2017-06-20 05:59 pm

On Garden Pollinators

 Over the years, I've noticed that my garden has a range of different pollinators. Sure, the European honey bees do show up, but it's for the big events, like almond or lemon trees in blossom. Less glamorous pollinators, like native bumble bees and various flies do the everyday pollination of my squash, eggplant and plum trees. 

Here's a link to an article that describes the connection between the honey bee and modern agriculture, and points out that in a thriving diverse ecosystem (like our gardens) we still can rely on the more natural range of pollinators.

www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2017/06/13/532729268/why-honeybees-are-the-wrong-problem-to-solve
theora: the center of a dark purple tulip (Default)

[personal profile] theora 2017-06-23 10:50 pm (UTC)(link)
Yay! I saw this article elsewhere, great to see it here too. One of my favorite native pollinators is the metallic green bee (not my pic, found on the web). They love my yellow coreopsis.