Next time you harvest your vegetables, pick up fruit from your trees or collect seeds for next year’s planting don’t forget to thank your diligent worker bees. Since 80% of the pollination is done by insects, welcome them in your garden and make sure they feel comfortable. Please, please, please don’t use insecticides, since they have catastrophic effects on bee communities. Plant flowers rich in nectar to entice flying insects – good examples are honeysuckle, garden phlox (first photo), marigolds, geraniums, roses, holyhocks (second photo), dahlias, sedums, roses, beebalm, raspberries, and mint.

Uploaded by all_year_garden on 2010-06-26, 22:16:05 into Bugs & Butterflies, Summer Beauty