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Herbal Bee Garden

December 8, 2015 By Karen Creel

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Last summer’s weather was hot and dry, resulting in little honey stores for my bees. If I didn’t want them to starve this winter, I was forced to start feeding them sugar water, and have continued until now. I will soon switch to a solid patty, to help them make it through the winter.

Three beehives www.gardenchick.com

This was the first year in many years that we had not planted a garden, and this only added to a lack of nectar and pollen for a good winter honey store.   Bees need a variety of plant sources to give them a continuous supply of nectar and pollen.  Better planning on my part would not only have given the bees ample supply for the upcoming winter, but would have allowed me to have a jar or two for myself.

kendall removing honey

Bees like large blocks of plants, so instead of planting bee- loving plants here and there, provide large areas of planting.

This year the garden is coming back, and I have plans to devote a large section to a pollinator mix, specially formulated to include annuals and perennials.

Bees also love herbs, and there are some that are a great addition to your pollinator garden.  I added a garden area around my beehive and plan to plants herbs all in this area this spring.  I included a couple of pots to hold invasive plants like mint. All of the grass will be cleared out, the soil amended, and made ready for my herbs this spring.  My garden junk worked it’s way into the plan, and a bird bath that now holds bird seed will be a water source for the bees next summer.

Herb Garden for Bees

When providing water for your bees, you need to add pebbles or small rocks in the shallow container, or they will drown.

Bee Garden Bird Bath

Herbs to consider for your bee garden include:

Monarda (bee balm).  I will plant this at the back near the gate since they grow tall.  This bee balm is planted next to the split rail fence in my yard.  It can be invasive, so just pull up the ones you don’t want and plant somewhere else or discard.  This spring, when they start to emerge, I will transplant some to the bee garden.

bee balm www.Gardenchick.com

 

Anise hyssop.  You can see the bees love this plant.  It grows about 18 inches high so it will be planted in front of the bee balm and to the side of the hive.

anise hyssop www.gardenchick.com

Lemon balm, catmint, oregano, borage, basil, chives, and thyme.  Allow some of these plants to flower for the bees to use as a source of nectar.  These are my chives flowering last summer. Low growing, spreading thyme will either be planted in the front of the bed, or could be placed in pots.  Chives in May

Have you ever tasted lavender honey?  Beehives placed in fields of lavender produce a lavender honey that is delicious.  Lavender can get quite large, but it deserves a place in the corner of my garden.

blooming garden lavender

Before you decide to get bees, or if you currently keep bees, it’s a good idea to be sure you have enough sources of plants for both pollen and nectar.  This will ensure plenty of honey for your bees to carry them over the winter and enough for them to provide you with fresh honey.

 

 

 

 

Herbal Bee Garden

 

I have include an affiliate link from Amazon in this post. Please see my disclosure here.

Just click on the picture to purchase your pollinator mix.

Please join me on both of my facebook pages.  GardenChick is full of great posts on gardening, flea market finds, and DIY projects.  My page Happy Hens and Honeybees  is a new page that introduces you to my adventure in creating an urban homestead.

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: anise hyssop, bee balm, bee garden, chives, herb garden, herbs for bees, lavender, lemon balm, nectar sources for bees, rosemary, thyme oregano

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Comments

  1. Patti Estep says

    December 9, 2015 at 11:35 am

    Beebalm is one of my favorites. Great article on how to help and raise bees.

  2. Tracy @ Our Simple Life says

    January 9, 2016 at 6:44 pm

    I have tried and tried to grow lavender for my bees, but our hot sandy soil in SC just isn’t cooperating with me. Our bees feast on peach trees and blackberry bushes in the spring which gives our honey a nice fruity flavor. Thanks for sharing this week on the Our Simple Homestead. Blog Hop.http://oursimplelife-sc.com/our-simple-homestead-blog-hop-33/


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