Bees and pollinating insects are good for the garden

A garden without bees is a garden without life. Or, at least, an unhealthy one. This is the awareness we need to reach to live in harmony with nature: pollinating insects are synonymous with life and health for a lawn, garden, or crop. Preserving their health, therefore, is essential for the well-being of the environment.

Sometimes their importance is underestimated, and all too often their presence is discouraged, as if they were merely annoying, dangerous creatures to be driven away. In reality, they are not only essential for the health of the garden, but for the entire global ecosystem, and their protection should be important to everyone, not just those who host them in their own garden.

But why are bees and pollinators so important to life, what benefits can they bring to a garden, and how can we best protect them?

1. Without bees, there is no life
2. How pollinating insects benefit the garden
3. How to help bees in our gardens

Without bees, there is no life

You know those barren fields, made of dry and cracked earth, parched and hard, somehow used for crops but which, just by looking at them, make you wonder how plants and food can grow from such poverty? Well, on those intensive farming fields, which deplete the soil and are full of chemicals, you won't see a single bee flying. There are no pollinating insects, not because they are unnecessary due to the use of fertilizers, but because each one of them stays away from such unhealthy land. The presence of bees and pollinating insects is, in fact, an indicator of the health of the soil, and not only that. These small and formidable living beings are essential for life itself.

The Earthwatch Institute, during the 2019 Royal Geographical Society debate in London, defined bees as the most important living beings on the planet. Together with other pollinating insects, in fact, they ensure life. The pollination they produce cannot be artificially replicated with the same results, and they are therefore responsible for plant reproduction. They are responsible for 70% of global agriculture, yet our lives depend on them in many other ways: the plants that feed the animals we eat reproduce thanks to bees, as does all the flora that provides, first and foremost, oxygen, and then medicines and other substances of plant origin on which our lives depend.

Yet, despite their undisputed importance, bees and other pollinating insects are at risk of extinction. Numerous causes can be traced back to the food emergency that today affects more than 100 million people worldwide, including the very risk of bee extinction. According to the latest projections, over the next decade, about 40% of the global bee population is expected to disappear. In recent years, people have even started talking about Colony Collapse Disorder, that is, the systemic disappearance of large quantities of worker bees from hives, with causes, obviously, of human origin.

On the one hand, intensive deforestation drastically reduces bee habitats, eliminates places where they can build hives, and, finding no space, they do not reproduce. However, much of the damage is caused by chemicals: on the one hand, pesticides, designed to repel pests, end up repelling all insects, even those that do not harm plants but rather provide benefits; on the other hand, the chemicals used in fertilizers make soils less fertile and plants pollen-deficient, creating places unsuitable for pollinating insects. Climate change, finally, is man's last and most serious fault. The hot and overly humid climate and droughts make environments uninhabitable, and heatwaves often prove fatal for bees and many other insects.

How pollinating insects benefit the garden

There are so many insects that, by landing on flowers, promote pollination. In addition to the famous bees, wasps, and bumblebees, which are most commonly associated with this role, butterflies, moths, flies, and beetles also perform the same essential function for the growth of most of the fruits and vegetables we eat. Moving from flower to flower and collecting nectar and pollen as food, they promote the reproduction of garden flowers and wild plants. They are, in fact, essential for both garden plants and orchards and vegetable gardens. More than a third of global agricultural yields depend on the action of pollinating insects. Their presence determines the success of the harvest, as decisive as the climate and weather conditions.

How to help bees in our gardens

If, due to human action and global warming, the lives of bees and other pollinating insects are at risk, thus threatening our own existence, a good way to contribute to their – and our – health is to make our gardens, vegetable gardens, and terraces suitable habitats for them, where they can live and reproduce.

The best way to create an environment suitable for bees is to grow plants with flowers rich in nectar and pollen. Perennial plants, which produce pollen all year round, are a valuable ally, as are seasonal ones to alternate so as to cover the entire year with a good supply of pollen. Perennial melliferous plants, therefore, are what we need. Among the alternative lawns and other low-water-use plants hosted within the BotanicalDryGarden, a fundamental role is played by Lippia nodiflora. The caffeine contained in the flowers of this groundcover has a special effect on bees, making them so docile that they can be stroked while they work. A natural way to host important pollinating insects in your own garden without taking risks.

Building nests and areas suitable for bee survival can also prove very useful, as can the creation of some water containers to quench the thirst of bees affected by fatal heatwaves. Naturally, the elimination of any type of chemical harmful to the environment, such as pesticides and fertilizers, which make the environment extremely dangerous for pollinating insects, is also essential.

Despite good intentions in owning plants or cultivating a garden, doing so without consideration for the environment, without seeking balance with nature, is not enough. As is the case with bees, there are many actions that can harm the environment and ecosystems. For this reason, even in situations that seem green to us, it is very important to pay attention to the choices we make and ensure that they are ecological.