Hello! Welcome to the Gardening-for-Bees-in-Michigan blog! This blog is an archive of posts that originally appeared on the Gardening in Michigan website, but it is also where you will find new posts on topics related to gardening for bees including upcoming events around the state related to pollinator gardening and conservation.For now, here is the first of several posts to be archived:
(Originally published in June 2010 with a few edits since then) My name is Julianna Tuell, and I am a pollination ecologist in the Entomology Department at Michigan State University. My interest in gardens predates my interest in bees, but very quickly I learned that bees are an essential part of the kinds of gardens that I prefer and especially, the food I like to eat. For instance, do you like blueberries or apples? How about squash or cucumbers? Sunflower seeds, almonds or even the coffee you drink every morning? We have bees to thank for these crops, and in fact, four out of every five flowering plants need the help of animals like birds, bats, and most importantly, bees in order to reproduce. Bees move pollen from male flower parts to female flower parts resulting in the development of seeds and fruit.
Most of my research at MSU has focused on the native bees of Michigan, none of which make honey and most of which are solitary, that is, every female builds her own nest and collects enough pollen and nectar for the eggs she lays in that nest. Solitary bees are unlikely to sting because they do not expend energy to defend their nests from would-be invaders. In a future posts, I’ll describe some of the common native bees you’re likely to find in your garden.
For now, I would like to introduce the new Pollinator Demonstration Garden on the MSU campus in East Lansing, Michigan. The new garden is a work in progress and is part of the MSU Horticultural Demonstration Gardens open to the public. There are two main objectives in the creation of this garden: 1) to educate the public about pollinators, what they are and why they are important, and 2) to show what gardeners can do to incorporate bee-friendly elements into their gardens. When these pictures were taken in the spring last year, not much was blooming in the Pollinator Garden except for one of the native perennials. The garden has been installed in an area that remains wet late into the spring, delaying the planting of the vegetables, herbs, and flowering annuals.
The bare patch of ground you will see out in front in the northwest corner of the garden very soon will be a colorful bee-friendly annual garden. On the west side of the garden we will be installing a six-foot tall wooden fence to cover up the mulch and compost piles. In front of the fence, we have plans to construct a “bee nesting wall” (look for a future post all about the “bee wall” and constructing your own bee nests.)
Sketch of garden design
Sketch of "bee hotel"
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