Many of us have
become concerned with the recent decline of the honey bee, and there are many
reasons for the decline. Ohio State
University too was concerned and set out to study bees in a way much unlike many
others. They wanted to see what the bee
themselves preferred in lifestyle and pollen and if it affected their
livelihood? What they learned can help us as home gardeners to plant better and
help them out! They placed the bees on
the line between the city and the farmlands and set to tracking them, it turned
out the bees much preferred the country life.
Why you ask? 
Bees like flowers, and lots of them. They don't care if
they are all the same, they are fairly mundane in their choices, but they like
a lot of bang for their buck. So weeds
ranked number one with them! In the
country they grow in abundance by the roads and between the fields and they
could fill their little legs in no time and head home. Pesticides long seen as a country problem
really didn't bother them as much as one would think because they aren't really
all that interested in the fields themselves, just the flowers in between. So how can we as urban gardeners help them
out? We surely don't want a garden of
weeds, but we can grow gardens that are a bit more like prairies. When purchasing your flowers look for the
pollinator friendly ones and plant bunches, and in your vegetable gardens throw
a few extra flowers in, not only will that increase the bees visiting your
garden but it should help its productivity as well too! Turns out they love Linden trees? Maybe you have room for one? So just remember, bees like quantity, so the
more the merrier. Happy planting and if
you want to read the study yourself, it’s really interesting! You can find it at
https://news.osu.edu/news/2017/03/14/bees-and-farms/
