Celebrate National Pollinator Week and learn what you can do to help the bees and other pollinators.
Happy National Pollinator Week!
In celebration, I’m all abuzz with some ‘bee’ favorites for a little tabletop fun in the Potting Shed!
National Pollinator Week is a time to celebrate pollinators and spread the word about what you can do to protect them. Many pollinator populations are in decline attributed to a loss in feeding and nesting habitats. Pollution, the misuse of chemicals, disease, and changes in climatic patterns are all contributing to shrinking and shifting pollinator populations.
Somewhere between 75% and 95% of all flowering plants on the earth need pollinators. Pollinators provide pollination services to over 180,000 different plant species and more than 1200 crops.
That means that we should be grateful for pollinators, as we have them to thank for 1 out of every 3 bites of food we eat.
Most pollinators (about 200,000 species) are beneficial insects such as flies, beetles, wasps, ants, butterflies, moths, and bees. About 1,000 of all pollinators are vertebrates such as birds, bats, and small mammals.
Pollinators add 217 billion dollars to the global economy and honey bees alone are responsible for between 1.2 and 5.4 billion dollars in agricultural productivity in the United States.
In addition to the food that we eat, pollinators support healthy ecosystems that clean the air, stabilize soils, protect from severe weather, and support other wildlife.
Gardeners are encouraged to create pollinator-friendly habitats with native flowering plants that supply pollinators with nectar, pollen, and homes.
Select old-fashioned varieties of flowers whenever possible, since breeding has caused some modern blooms to lose their fragrance and/or the nectar/pollen needed to attract and feed pollinators.
🐝 Bee Kind to Pollinators:
🐝 Reduce or eliminate the use of pesticides. If you must use them, use the most selective and least toxic ones and apply them at night
when most pollinators aren’t active.
🐝 Plant in clusters to create a “target” for pollinators to find.
🐝 Plant for continuous bloom throughout the growing season from spring to fall.
🐝 Select a site that has shelter from wind (by trees and shrubs), has at least partial sun, and can provide water.
🐝 Allow material from dead branches and logs remain as nesting sites; reduce mulch to allow patches of bare ground for ground-nesting bees to utilize; consider installing wood nesting blocks for wood-nesting natives.
I love stalking bees with my camera. . .salvia and bee balm have been buzzing with bees.
Along with Verbena Lollipop.
Flatware is buzzing with bees for this table. . .
As well as napkin rings.
Garden flowers and a sunflower ready to bloom, fill a beehive shaped watering can. . .
Along with Bormioli Rocco Quattro Stagioni Canning Jars . . .
That have an adorable embossed (hard to photograph!) bee skep design with fruit and flowers.
A vintage Bradshaw’s Clover Blossom Honey can is blooming with hydrangeas, Queen Anne’s lace, verbena, loosestrife and sunflowers.
I decided it needed a companion, and found a vintage Beekist Blue Label Honey Tin on eBay to join it in the Potting Shed .
A Woodman’s Famous Bee-Ware Smoker was a find at a favorite antique mall a couple of years ago. . .
It hangs from rafters in my Potting Shed when it doesn’t hang over the window.
I was smitten with the graphics of the bee keeper on the smoker. . .
Beauty is in the eye of the *bee* holder. ;) 🐝
Did you know most species of bees don’t sting? Female bees are physically capable of
stinging, but most bee species native to the U.S. are “solitary bees,” that is, not living in
colonies and don’t sting unless they are physically threatened or injured. Only honey
bees are defensive and may chase someone who disturbs their hive.
Bee Salad Plates / Tim Coffey for Creative Co-Op
Embossed Bee Skep Plates / Naturewood by Pfaltzgraff, discontinued
Bee Stamped Spoons / MilkandHoneyLuxuries, Etsy
La Rochere Bee Glasses/ World Market
Wallace Napoleon Bee Flatware/ Horchow
Ratan Chargers/ World Market, several years ago
Flower Chargers / Pier 1, last year
Placemats / Target, several years ago
Bee Table Runner / Sur la Table, several years ago
Bormioli Rocco Quattro Stagioni Jars / T.J. Maxx
Bee Skeps / retail days
Bee Napkin Rings and Bee Melamine Plates / Amazon
Napkins / Pier 1
Beehive Watering Can / antique mall
Honey Tin Cans and Bee Smoker / vintage
Just Bee 🐝
Find out more about what you can do to help pollinators, HERE.