I was at the 1/4 acre today, weeding vege beds planting out strawberry runners. mulching, weeding, and generally just giving the garden a tidy up during the dark moon phase.
The pollinators where busy, busy, busy, bumbles, bees and flies all in this little 1 square metre patch, which makes life a little easier for them as they can collect a great deal of pollen from this small area when it is on their collecting radar. Rather than needing to seek it elsewhere.
I couldn’t believe the hum and activity on the square metre garden bed which has been left to flower & seed, primarily for the pollinators and this short video clip is a great example of a trait known as floral fidelity wereby the bees collect exclusively from one flower species.
Bees in particular collect from specific species that they like and will keep collecting from it often for an entire day until it fades. Keeping in mind that their primary purpose is to find food not pollinate, if a particular species is abundant then they will stay with it. I feel we need to do all we can to help our bee friends so we help them along as they benefit from our ample planting of similar species (if space allows) the bees in particular don’t have to work as hard to find food and are likely to stay in the garden.
f