Plant a Pollinator Garden… Please!

ByGroovy Green Mar 24, 2007

If you haven’t read about the rising wave of problems with crashing bee populations worldwide, get on Google and check it out. In a nutshell, bee colonies are dying off around the world, and no-one really knows why. There are several possible reasons people are talking about:

Some suspect that increasing infestations a few types of mites might be doing it.
Others suspect mono-cultural agricultural practices.
Genetically-Modified Organisms are another possibility.
Perhaps it’s due to microwaves and other electromagnetic radiation that’s omnipresent these days.

So, there are a number of possibilities for why this is happening, but it’s bad news regardless of the underlying reason. Did you know that bees are used to commercially pollinate more than $14.6 billion dollars’ worth of fruit, nut and vegetable crops every year in the US alone? Without these incredibly helpful insects, these food stuffs would be much more costly if they were available at all.

There’s plenty of information out there, and most of it is ominous. One of Albert Einstein’s famous quotes is making the rounds lately with regards to this, and it bears repeating here:

“If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man.”

So, if you have any open space in your yard, plant a pollinator garden. If you don’t, spread the word with friends and family. This affects all of us in the end.

For some links on what to grow, you can consult your local county extension office, local university or you can check out some of the following: