Creating a Backyard Vegetable Garden that Thrives

Bee house received

My #1 hobby is gardening. I love spending hours in my backyard vegetable garden growing organic fruits and vegetables for my family. Over the years, the biggest struggle I have had with growing backyard produce is having bees to pollinate the flowers. We have all read story after story about how the bees are disappearing, and I have personally seen the impact over the past couple of years in my garden.

Without bees, we can’t grow fruits and vegetables. They are the one thing that is key in having a backyard garden thrive. I have been doing some research recently on how to bring some bees into my garden to help with pollination, but I was concerned about the risk of the bees stinging my children. After doing research provided by the Friends of the Earth, I found that by creating a sanctuary for bees that they will be able to live in my backyard happily without any risks to my children’s safety.

We have first begun by adding a bee house to our garden. We selected a location that will receive the warmth of the morning sunlight and shade in the afternoon. The kids found a perfect spot on our nectarine tree that only provided us one piece of fruit this year due to the lack of pollinators in our backyard.

The second thing we have done is created a bee bath. I recently learned that bees need lots of water, and it helps them to make honey. We simply took a plastic dish (the kind that goes under a pot) from the Home Depot, and added rocks for the bees to land on. Finally, we then added water. I placed it near the grass so that the sprinklers will keep the bath always full of water.

Now that we have a backyard garden, bee home, and bee bath, I am hopeful that my garden will flourish with pollinators. I encourage other families to start growing a backyard vegetable garden and learn about what you can do to help save the bees at beeaction.org.