It’s spring and many of us are actively working away on our gardens. Why not make your garden more bee and pollinator friendly this year? We’ve rounded up a list of books that can help us do just that. Some of these books are for the younger humans in our lives so we can get them involved too. Happy gardening!
Victory Gardens for Bees by Lori Weidenhammer
Who knew modern civilization may be brought down, not by plagues or war, but by bees? Or, more correctly, by no bees? This book investigates the growing problem of bee mortality and offers practical measures we can all take to help. In ecological terms, bees play a critical role in the survival of many plant communities and the continuation of life on this planet. No pollination, no seeds. No seeds, no future.
Now that bees are facing unprecedented levels of die-off caused by a toxic mixture of environmental stresses, a community-based effort is needed to make gardens, fields and landscapes healthy sanctuaries for bees. Just as citizens banded together to produce Victory Gardens to offset the perilous food shortages of World Wars I and II, now a similarly vital level of collective effort is needed to make our gardens into lifesaving shelters for these essential creatures.
Planning a bee-friendly space can provide a beautiful and bountiful selection of edible crops, native plants and fragrant ornamentals, as well as herbs that have medicinal properties for both pollinators and people. With the help of ten inspiring garden plans and planting guides, Weidenhammer shows how bee-friendly plants can be used in creative combinations for plots and pots of all sizes, and are easily grown by novices and seasoned gardeners alike.
In the spirit of the history-making Victory Gardens, readers will learn how to pack optimum benefits into a limited space for the survival of hive and home, and backyard beekeepers will learn great planting strategies for making sure their honeybees are healthy and have ample food to overwinter.
Victory Gardens for Bees is also buzzing with DIY projects that will provide nesting sites and essential supplies for precious pollinators. With plenty of photographs to help readers identify bees of all stripes, beekeeping tips and other interesting bee-phemera, this book is a must-have for anyone who wants to do their part to save bees.
Bees Are Our Friends by Toni D’Alia
Bees Are Our Friends invites readers into a stunning garden to admire the hard work of one little bee. As the bee pollinates the garden, vibrant flowers and ripe fruit and vegetables burst to life around her. Down in the garden, up high in a tree, is a busy beehive … and one little bee. Written in irresistible rhyme by Toni D’Alia, and lavishly illustrated by Alice Lindstrom, young readers will pore over this perfect introduction to these essential insects.
A Garden for the Rusty-Patched Bumblebee by Lorraine Johnson and Sheila Colla
A Garden for the Rusty-Patched Bumblebee provides all the information gardeners need to take action to support and protect pollinators, by creating habitat in yards and community spaces, on balconies and boulevards, everywhere!
With more than 300 native plants of Ontario and the Great Lakes region profiled in detail, along with sample garden designs, ideas for beautiful plant pairings and numerous tips for success, this fully-illustrated guide helps gardeners discover the crucial connections between native plants and native pollinators, and learn how to cultivate patches of pollinator paradise.
A Flower Garden for Pollinators by Rachel de Thame
With bees, butterflies and other pollinators threatened by climate change and habit loss, it’s now more important than ever to support and nurture pollinators in your garden. In this practical and beautiful guide, expert horticulturalist and regular Gardener’s World presenter Rachel de Thame shows you how to create a garden that provides an abundant resource of plants rich in nectar and pollen.
Arranged by season and illustrated with exquisite hand-painted watercolors and glorious photography, this book provides a captivating look at supporting nature. Whether you have a courtyard garden or a large country garden, A Flower Garden for Pollinators will tell you what to plant and when in order to attract and sustain a host of pollinators all year round.
Pollinator Friendly Gardening by Rhonda Fleming Hayes
Are you interested in growing a naturally healthy garden? How about making sure your local environment helps bees, butterflies, and birds survive and thrive? If you are a beekeeper, are you looking for the ideal plants to keep your colony happy?
Pollinators such as monarch butterflies and bees are under threat, and more and more gardeners want to do all they can to create a hospitable space for them. That’s where Pollinator Friendly Gardening comes in. It identifies the most visible and beloved pollinators: bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds, as well as some more unlikely candidates such as ants, wasps, and beetles. It then explains the intriguing synergy between plants and pollinators. This vital information makes it a unique sourcebook to share the ways that anyone can make a yard a more friendly place for pollinators.
Plant selection, hardscape choices, habitat building (both natural and manmade), and growing practices that give pollinators their best chance in the garden are all covered in detail. Plant lists organized by category, helpful tips, and expert spotlights make it a fun and easy book to read too.
The Bee-Friendly Garden by Kate Frey and Gretchen LeBuhn
In The Bee-Friendly Garden, award-winning garden designer Kate Frey and bee expert Gretchen LeBuhn provide everything you need to know to create a dazzling garden that helps both the threatened honeybee and our own native bees. No matter how small or large your space, and regardless of whether you live in the city, suburbs, or country, just a few simple changes to your garden can fight the effects of colony collapse disorder and the worldwide decline in bee population that threatens our global food chain. There are many personal benefits of having a bee garden as well! Bee gardens:
- contain a gorgeous variety of flowers
- bloom continuously throughout the seasons
- are organic, pesticide-free, and ecologically sustainable
- develop healthy and fertile soil
- attract birds, butterflies, and other beneficial insects
- increase the quantity of your fruit and vegetable harvest
- improve the quality, flavor, and size of your produce
Illustrated with spectacular full-color photos, The Bee-Friendly Garden debunks myths about bees, explains seasonal flower progression, and provides detailed instructions for nest boxes and water features. From “super blooming” flowers to regional plant lists and plants to avoid, The Bee-Friendly Garden is an essential tool for every gardener who cares about the planet and wants to make their yard a welcoming habitat for nature’s most productive pollinator.
My Pollinator Garden by Jordan Zwetchkenbaum
Bees need pollen and nectar from flowers. But not all flowers feed all bees. Some bees need long, narrow flowers. Some bees need short flowers. Some tiny bees can’t fly far and need flowers that are nearby. Some bees can take pollen from only one particular kind of flower. Those bees are in trouble if that flower isn’t available to them. Flies, wasps, beetles, bats, birds, and butterflies need flowers too.
This book is about amazing animals and plants that are native to North America, how they need each other to survive, and how you can help them.
Back matter has information about how you can grow your own pollinator garden, as well as a glossary, bibliography, and index.
An excellent choice for parents and educators looking for books that provide content knowledge (background knowledge) about the natural world to support reading comprehension.
Attracting Native Pollinators by The Xerces Society
With the recent decline of the European honey bee, it is more important than ever to encourage the activity of other native pollinators to keep your flowers beautiful and your grains and produce plentiful. In Attracting Native Pollinators, you’ll find ideas for building nesting structures and creating a welcoming habitat for an array of diverse pollinators that includes not only bees, but butterflies, moths, and more. Take action and protect North America’s food supply for the future, while at the same time enjoying a happily bustling landscape.
It Starts with a Bee by Words and Pictures
Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall, the bee tends to the flowers and plants. As the seasons change and the garden blooms into a wildlife wonderland, the bee is joined by well-loved minibeasts and creatures – worms, beetles, spiders and mice – who make the wild garden their home.
A rhyming poem builds page on page, echoing the life the bee brings to the garden. Beautiful foldout illustrations will transport readers into the world of the bee as it navigates the flowers and plants of the garden.
Teach your children about the crucial role bees play in the beautiful cycle of life in this charming tale of the workings of the natural world.
100 Plants to Feed the Bees by The Xerces Society
The international bee crisis is threatening our global food supply, but this user-friendly field guide shows what you can do to help protect our pollinators. The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation offers browsable profiles of 100 common flowers, herbs, shrubs, and trees that support bees, butterflies, moths, and hummingbirds. The recommendations are simple: pick the right plants for pollinators, protect them from pesticides, and provide abundant blooms throughout the growing season by mixing perennials with herbs and annuals! 100 Plants to Feed the Bees will empower homeowners, landscapers, apartment dwellers — anyone with a scrap of yard or a window box — to protect our pollinators.
