Wondering why the flowers in your yard are looking a little worse for wear? Why those cucumbers are skinny, deformed and generally poor growing? It could have a little something to do with your friendly neighborhood pollinators or lack thereof.
A luscious yard needs pollinators to grow, whether you’re planting gardenias, hydrangeas or tomato plants. Pollinators like honeybees and butterflies are essential to the success of just about everything that flowers.
“Bees pollinate a huge area and will travel within about a five-mile radius,” said Martha Yamnitzs, a member of the St. Johns County Beekeepers Association and owner of Bee Augustine Honey Co. “So, if you provide something for them in your yard, they will find it and they will come to pollinate it.”
The St. Johns County Beekeepers Association is a local organization of volunteers dedicated to providing education and teaching best management practices for local backyard beekeepers. Their mission for the past 14 years has been to educate and inform local residents of St. Johns County of the many benefits of honeybees and their importance to the diverse ecosystem.
The association meets in person once per month to host guest speakers who specialize in beekeeping education.
Yamnitzs got involved with the St. Johns County Beekeepers Association about eight years ago when she noticed what she thought was a hive of bees in her yard, but wanted to help them thrive, not exterminate them.
Over time with the association’s help, she began beekeeping professionally and started her business, Bee Augustine Honey Co., in the hopes of educating other members of the public about beekeeping, plus selling the fresh products that come from her hives.
If beekeeping sounds a little outside your realm of expertise but you still want to keep the pollinators in your yard happy, Yamnitzs recommends planting native flowers like Mexican heather, African blue basil, and even Spanish needle. Plants that are both beautiful aesthetically and important in keeping honeybees happy.
“Looking in your yard, if you don’t mow it and see what grows naturally, that’ll be a good flower to plant because the bees love native flowers,” Yamnitzs said.
When it comes to specialized landscaping, Yamnitzs recommends visiting your local nursery to speak with a professional about specific plants and flowers that can attract pollinators like honeybees and butterflies to your yard.
“What I learned after having bees is that the important part is not to have one Mexican heather here and one African blue basil there, but instead to have a bulk area of the same plant,” she said.
You could try planting a border of the same plant around a bed of varying plants or simply plant half a dozen gardenia bushes next to one another. She explained that honeybees don’t cross-pollinate, so having multiple of the same plant means the bees are more likely to stick around.
While wind and rain might pollinate plants, nothing speeds up the process and leads to a bigger, brighter bounty than those assisted by pollinators.
If you spot a hive in your yard this summer, the St. Johns County Beekeepers Association can help safely relocate the bees.
For a comprehensive list of Florida’s bee-friendly flowers/plants, go to https://gardeningsolutions.ifas.ufl.edu/plants/ornamentals/bee-plants.
