When I was living in Los Angeles during the pandemic, I started a little outdoor garden on my apartment patio. I had to take advantage of perpetual summer! So, I planted cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, and a few other summer favorites. The plants grew, the flowers bloomed, but I wasn't getting any fruit.
Thanks to the internet, I found out bees and gardeners share a common problem: you have to attract bees to your plants when you're growing in a place they don't typically find foraging opportunities— i.e. urban areas.
Bees + Urban Environments
Traditional landscaping often consists of grass lawns and ornamental plants that don't provide much nectar or pollen for bees. Another issue that bees face in urban areas is exposure to pesticides and other chemicals. Many homeowners and landscapers use chemical pesticides and herbicides to control pests and weeds, but these chemicals can be harmful to bees and other pollinators. So, bees aren't going to hang out in toxic environments with no food. Can you blame them?
The Solution? A Bee Garden!
You can easily solve this issue by creating bee-friendly landscapes that help bees find food, and in return, they'll pollinate your plants giving you beautiful tomato and pepper harvests.
And, that's exactly what I did. I was already growing lavender, sunflowers, herbs, and borage growing inside in my Rise Garden. I bought a few ceramic planters and transplanted them outside. In a few weeks, I started to see vegetables growing in my garden.
It's like magic, but it's not. Bees are doing the invisible work that makes the world go round.
Bees are absolutely essential to the ecosystem. In fact, they're responsible for pollinating 75% of the world's flowering plants and 35% of crops. And, many bee species are considered endangered. But, we can all do our part to help each other out.
Here at Rise Gardens every day is Earth Day, and we're always looking for ways to be more sustainable and be a great eco-friendly company.
This was the inspiration for our brand new Save the Bees Variety Pack. You can start your bee-friendly plants inside and then transfer them outside to provide a food source for local bees while attracting these beautiful pollinators to your yard or patio to help your outdoor plants blossom.
How to contribute to your local ecosystem and help save the bees
- Step 1: Grab a Save the Bees Variety Pack
- Step 2: Start your seed pods in your nurseries.
- Step 3: When they're ready to head to your Rise Garden, add them to a 8 or 12-pod tray so they don't take up too much space in your Rise Garden.
- Step 4: Let them grow for 2-4 weeks.
- Step 5: Follow this tutorial for how to transplant your plants.
- Step 6: Bring your plants outside + let them do what they're meant to do: thrive!
