simple answers on bee-friendly gardening?

Hi. Over the years I have tried to understand this subject but get baffled by the science and opposing views. All I want to know is:

* How does growing bee-friendly flowers boost the bee population?

* How does this then affect the crops grown for food - given that many food producers employ artificial techniques and that the bees pollinating crops tend to be from industrial hives or hives on site rather than wild bees? How many of the bees that visit my garden will then go and pollinate an onion plant on a farm?

* Is it true that as bees are so depleted there are now more bee-friendly flowers than bees anyway, so we are growing a surplus?

* Even if it boosts numbers, how will bee-friendly gardening help the planet? I constantly hear that the demand for cheap food harms vegetable production. What are we supposed to do? Insist that shops charge us higher prices for the food? I do not see any shortage of veg in my local shops, so where is the evidence of lower bee numbers harming crop production?

 

I will answer the 1st question

"* How does growing bee-friendly flowers boost the bee population?"

it feeds them, its as simple as that. and we have over 250 different types of bees and wasps in the UK and each one plays its own unique part in the circle of life.

Spruce

 

Hi Simon ... is this related to the plastic owl/neighbours incident? Or, regarding your query about the role of the greenbelt back in April? Or, is it something you are gathering information on so you can incorporate it into one of the essays you publish on Google?

 

Thanks. I want to help bees. I see bees visiting the flowers I have planted. But are these the same bees who then go and pollinate plants on farms. What did Einstein mean when he predicted that if the bee died out, humans would have four years left?

 

Its related to my overall desire to learn more about the eco system. Obviously its related to all the things you mention as they are all significant in my life. Why do you ask?

 

The reason I asked is with regard to the final part really - will you be crediting the GC members with their contribution if you are incorporating their answers into any essay you publish?

 

Of course I would. To be honest though I have never had cause to do so as the answers to these questions seem very elusive (obviously as this is a gardening, not an expressly environmental, website then I suppose I can't expect any hard and fast answers). I must say its disappointing to be asked, as I have never come across this sort of query on this site before. I hope I have not given the impression of being in any way untrustworthy.

 

It's my academic background coming into play Simon - don't worry about it
And no, you haven't given the impression of being untrustworthy per se

 

Per se? Have I given it in individual instances?

 

Not that springs to mind

 

These are the sorts of things I'd like to learn about. Can you be in any way more specific about the roles played by the bees we may come into contact with in our gardens, and how they affect the wider eco-system?

 

You may find this website will provide you with some of the answers you are looking for, Simon:

International Bee Research Association

Their FAQ's section actually answers the question you have posed above:

Our gardens are a sort of MacDonalds drive-thru within the wider eco-system

 

@SimonZ

Bees pollinate so many food crops that there would be a massive drop off in yield.
For instance I have a windy garden and only get a good number of bees on stiller days so if it is windy or, even worse, cool and windy in spring time I get less fruit on my fruit trees. My plums flower earlier than the apples so if the weather turns to less "bee friendly weather" when the apples are flowering I will do better with the plums than the apples.
i see few honey bees in my garden mainly bumble bees and solitary bees.

Bee friendly gardening tends to be good for the whole ecosystem. Low or no chemical usage, accessible water for wildlife, plenty of simple flowers most of the year and sites for nesting/hibernating benefit far more than just bees.
As for your veg buy locally from shops that source produce locally. This reduces food miles.
Cheap food harms vegetable production because, for example, land is used to produce feed crops (barley, wheat, soya etc) on large farms, for animals to provide burgers and fried chicken rather than being used by smaller farmers to produce fruit and veg for the local market.
As for evidence of low bee numbers harming production. I seem to remember that there was a shortage of almonds the other year. These mainly come from California and that year there were problems with bees see here for more http://www.honeycolony.com/article/mass-honeybee-deaths-trigger-rise-in-almond-prices/ and http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/...-prices-rocket-due-to-honey-bee-shortage.html

 

I am still trying to find out more about this. I am endeavouring to make my garden as wildlife-friendly as possible, indeed the garden its self is a stretch of land nobody officially owns, adjacent to where I live. I want to cultivate it to prevent it being built on. But I have never been clear about how the plants I grow benefit the wider eco-system. It is great that nectar from plants grown in my garden may be consumed by bees, or that the plants help sustain local animal populations. But is this related to the environment generally and our food supply specifically? I have heard it said that if bees decline our food supply dries up, yet I cannot make the connection between a bee visiting y garden (where does it come from, where does it live and how did it end up visiting my particular area and garden?) and the crops growing in a farmer's field ten or fifteen miles away. We are often told that the agricultural community is politically powerful and has great influence ("the farming lobby") and I just can't believe that this giant industry is dependent on the numbers of bees, relying in any way on gardens like mine. I have an image of a farmer sitting biting his nails in a tractor, watching for bees, and then suddenly seeing one flying over to pollinate one of his crops, fresh from having visited my garden, and the farmer breathing a sigh of relief. Surely it is not as simple as this.
To put it even more simplistically, I want my garden and the efforts I am making to have a lasting beneficial effect. The environment is important to me and I wish to help it. I am trying to use the least wasteful/harmful techniques but want to see how what I'm doing is actively helpful as opposed to just not very harmful. Can anyone honestly confirm to me that, if my garden did not exist and was just a row of houses or waste ground, the wider eco-system and environment would be worse off? Other than the fact that the many plants I grow store carbon (obviously important) and provide food for small numbers of individual animals (also obviously important) I can't see much effect in the bigger picture.

 

@SimonZ
Your garden and the plants in it are links in the chain.
Although cereals are wind pollinated and don't rely on insects, crops like fruit, nuts, beans, rape, tomatoes, peppers etc are all insect pollinated. The most efficient pollinator for tomatoes is a bumble bee and these are bred for the purpose by the thousand.
These crops have specific flowering seasons and bees require a constant supply of pollen and nectar from spring into autumn; so gardens, hedgerows woods, heaths and moors etc with their selection of flowering plants are essential to maintain the bees when there are no crops flowering nearby.
You could concrete over your space, or turn it into a lawn and mow it to within an inch of it's life and the bees and the ecosystem would not really notice however if everybody did then there would be problems.
The point with the ecosystem is that it is just that a system, an intricately linked network of individual things, you can break links and have no significant effect; however break enough links and the whole falls apart. This is what is beginning to happen now with our world and your garden is a link helping hold the whole together.