I am thrilled to partner again with the Bees Matter initiative for 2017! Bees Matter is a Canadian website that partners with beekeepers, scientists, environmentalists and everyday Canadians to improve honey bee health and colonies. You can find valuable information on honey bees health and colonies in Canada on the website, as well as sending out the very popular Buzzing Gardens Seed Kits!
Who here ordered their seed kit last year? I sure did! There is nothing like free seeds to make gardeners happy, but seeds that are specifically put together to help honey bees and other pollinators?
That’s just perfect!
This year I am helping to promote the National Planting Week Initiative, which is encouraging all of us to get out there and plant our flower gardens! I don’t know about you, but I love any good reason to head out to my yard and get planting! It has been a very long, chilly winter here in Edmonton and I am more than ready to get the heck outside and plant!
When you plant, do you think of bees and plant for them?
I do, because I always have garden vegetables like squash that need pollinators. I also come from a family of beekeepers as well. I’ve been known to plant a row of flowers in my vegetable garden, to make sure to attract bees, who then head on over to my squash blossoms and bump up my yield for the year. The more blossoms that I provide to lure more bees into my yards, the better my garden does, plain and simple.
It’s understandably not in the front of all gardener’s minds, or even those of use that put out a few pots in the front of the house for summertime décor. But can you imagine the good we could do if we all put out just a couple of flowerpots that helped bees?
Bees Matter is once again providing FREE seed kits to Canadians that want to help bees and plant some gorgeous flowers. The seed kits are full of flower seeds that were specifically chosen to be beneficial for honey bees. CLICK HERE to get your free seed kit! Remember that the seeds within the Buzzing Seed kits were chosen as good choices for gardens in each province. Check out the chart on this page to learn more!
I already have my seed packet, ready to go for National Planting Week!
And what better time to plant a pollinator friendly garden than National Planting Week? This year National Planting week is June 5th-12th, and we need to all get outside and into our gardens!
Planting a pollinator friendly garden this year is the easiest thing you can do to help bees and other pollinators. Honey bees and flowering plants have a mutually beneficial partnership, one that we humans benefit from as a side effect. It’s surmised that 1 out of every 3 bites of food that we eat is connected to pollinators like honey bees!
Now it’s heartening to note that the numbers of bee hives in Canada are on the rise, but we still need to help them out, even if it seems like a small gesture. It seems too easy, doesn’t it, to just plant a garden full of blossoms to help out the bees? However, all those small gestures add up into a huge amount of benefits for bees and other pollinators!
So, who’s in for celebrating National Planting week and getting out there to garden! The lovely thing is that by June 5th even in Edmonton, the snow will be gone and I’ll be out there digging and planting to my heart’s content!
Don’t forget to get your free seed kits and plant away! While you’re planting, why not share a picture using the National Planting Week hashtag, #PlantforBees?
Happy Gardening!
Love,
Karlynn
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