The Year-Round Bee Garden

If you want a backyard garden producing fruits and vegetables, you want bees. Heck, you NEED bees, nature's most efficient sex surrogates. Bees (including the native bees such as solitary bees and bumblebees) as well as other pollinators such as moths, butterflies, bats, hummingbirds, flies and beetles move pollen from the male part of many fruit and vegetable flowers to the female part. End result? A rather exhaustive list of some of the most popular and healthy garden-grown crops. 

According to the California Master Gardener Handbook, bees are responsible for one out of every three bites of food we eat. Bees are the most important pollinators because they spend their life collecting pollen. So, you want them to spend their lives in your yard. But you have to build them a garden resort, first.

Here are some pollinator-attracting planting suggestions, especially to get the bees:

* Install a wide variety of plants that bloom at different times of the year with several species blooming at once. Pollinators are active at different times of year. In our yard, the bees gather at the blooming rosemary plants during the winter, when little else is flowering.

* Plant in clumps, perhaps three feet by three feet. Bunches of flowers of the same variety in the same area are more attractive to pollinators than single flowers.

* Include flowers of different shapes and colors. Bees are particularly attracted to flowers that are violet, blue, purple, white or yellow. Butterflies prefer bright red or purple. Again, plant in clumps.

* Choose natives. Many California pollinators prefer native plants.

* Plant non-hybrid flowers. Many hybrids have had their pollen, nectar or fragrance bred out of them, making them less attractive to pollinators.

* Eliminate or limit pesticides whenever possible. Pesticides can be harmful to pollinators. When a pesticide is needed, use the least toxic one.

* Provide nesting sites and food sources, such as nectar for hummingbird feeders and salt licks for butterflies.

* Pollinators need water, too. A bird bath or fountain is ideal.

 

California native plants that attract pollinators include California poppy, California Redbud, Lupine, Rosemary, Sunflower, Toyon, Western dogwood, Wild rose, Wild lilac (ceanothus) and White leaf manzanita. Other plants that pollinators enjoy: Agastache, Basil, Borage, Cosmos, Dicleptera, Hyssop, Lavender, Marjoram, Mexican sunflower (Tithonia), Mint and Pincushion flower (Scabiosa).

Some garden references may advise you to cut off flower heads to enhance the beauty of the foliage plant (such as for lamb's ears). If your goal is to attract garden good guys, let those flower heads stay.

Finding plants to attract bees in the spring and summer is easy. Besides the plants listed above, the University of California's Urban Bee Garden has an exhaustive list of spring and summer blooming plants that will bring out the bees, especially the native bees. Be advised: the plants on that list were chosen based on their performance in the San Francisco Bay Area. Here in the valley and low foothills, the list might be a bit smaller. But go ahead, try 'em all, and see which ones make it!

That Urban Bee Garden website has tips for making your yard more attractive to native bees.

The real trick for gardeners: getting bees to spend the "off-season" at your place. Many native bees hibernate in the winter; honey bees, however, can work year round, weather permitting...as long as they have sources for pollen and nectar. 

Here in the valley, these plants tend to keep their blooms, and the honey bees, during the fall and winter.

Plants To Attract Bees / Fall-Winter

  

Fall

Pincushion Flower

Gold Coin - Asteriscus maritimus
Coreopsis - Coreopsis tinctoria
Gaillardia - Gaillardia x grandiflora
Glossy Abelia - Abelia grandiflora

Pincushion Flower - Scabiosa columbaria
Manzanita - Arctostaphylos spp.
Lavender - Lavandula
Rosemary - Rosmarinus officinalis
Shrub Mallow - Lavatera maritima 'Bicolor'
New Zealand Tea Tree - Leptospermum scoparium (white and pink cvs.)
Myrtle - Myrtus communis
Blue Mist - Caryopteris x clandonensis
Euryops - Euryops pectinatus

Salvia 'Indigo Spires'

Scarlet Sage - Salvia splendens

Salvia splendens

English Ivy - Hedera helix*
* Although English Ivy is part of UC Berkeley's "Flowering plant species and their relative attraction to honey bees and native California bees in Albany and N. Berkeley" list, it is considered an invasive plant by the California Invasive Plant Council. English ivy is a threat to coastal forests and riparian areas.


Winter
Rosemary - Rosmarinus officinalis
Euryops - Euryops pectinatus

Late Winter - Early Spring

Ceanothus- C. 'Ray Hartman', 'Julia Phelps'

California Poppy - Eschscholzia californica

Yarrow - Achillea millefolium

Pride of Madeira - Echium candicans

Penstemon - Penstemon heterophyllus

Manzanita - Arctostaphylos spp.

Salvia - S. greggii, S. leucophylla, 'Indigo Spires'

Spanish Lavender - Lavandula stoechas

Wisteria - Wisteria sinensis

Spanish Lavender in front of Alstroemeria

What to Do After a Hard Freeze

Sometimes a gardener feels as if they're in a heavyweight boxing match: Your Tender Plants vs. Mr. Freeze. Your citrus, succulents and perennials that may thrive in milder climates might be able to take a frosty punch or two here in the Sacramento/San Joaquin Valleys, foothills, and inland portions of the Bay Area. But five or six chilling blows to the flowers, leaves, stems and roots? 

We aren't talking about light frosts, or temperatures that hover around 30 degrees (F) for a couple of hours; that would be normal for this time of year. What area gardeners are going through right now is a week of extended hours of below freezing overnight temperatures, with prolonged bouts of plant-killing cold in the mid-to-low 20's. 

So, what should a shivering gardener do...post hard freeze? Should they:

a) remove all plants that look frost-bitten; 

b) prune away all freeze-damaged plant parts;

                   

c) Purchase and plant again this month those same varieties of trees, shrubs, perennials and annuals;

                 

d) Water the garden, even if the plants resemble toast;

            

e) Fight the urge to prune and plant by staying indoors, next to the wood stove.

The answers happen to be the easiest to accomplish on a cold weekend: d) and e).

If plants in your garden look blackened and wilted now, new growth may emanate from the base of the plant when the weather warms up in a couple of months.

New growth beneath the frosted branches of a geranium.

Pruning away the dead portions now exposes buds that may still be alive; another frosty morning could wipe out those survivors. 

The average frost season for Sacramento is about two months, primarily December and January. But temperatures below 32 have been recorded as early as the first week in November; as late as the third week in March.

So, keep the shears in the garage and let the dead portions of the plants protect the understory.  

It may take until mid-Spring before you see new growth. Patience is key before you pick up the pruners. In the meantime, tolerate the ugly.

Make sure your garden and potted plants remain moist, especially if it isn't raining. Water gives off heat, and this can protect plants from freezing, especially borderline citrus trees, such as lemons and limes. Damp soil retains heat better than dry soil, protecting roots and warming the air near the soil.

Succulents, such as cactus, are the exception, however. According to the Arizona-based Desert Botanical Garden, most succulents survive freezing temperatures best if the soil around them is dry. 

It's dead, Jim.

Some of those dead plants may be summer annuals, such as this impatiens, which took its sweet time to croak. Mornings hovering around 25 degrees can do that to a summer annual. Put them in the compost pile; plant more in the spring, after all danger of frost.

Frosty the Ficus

What about those plants that have frozen past the point of no return? Should you replace them with the same varieties? That frozen ficus (or avocado tree) may be Mother Nature's way of telling you: "Hey! This ain't San Diego! Pick outdoor plants that can take colder temperatures!"




Oh, and keep your frost protection gear handy...just in case.