This site was created by an heirloom tomato gardener to capture and bottle a pollinator discussion prepared for the Greater Lowell Honey Society in the spring of 2016. The intent is to provide the reader with links to excellent professionally-created sources of information for understanding bees in particular and how to upgrade local pollinator habitat in general.
The discussion works through some of the topics through the eyes of a long-time organic gardener with a penchant for the taste of heirloom tomatoes. The gardener was surprised to learn that Bumble Bees, not honeybees or other native bees pollinate tomatoes.
Introduction: Honeybees and Bumblebees together
Helpful free resources: PDF documents from US organizations available on the WWWeb May 2016
Pollinator habitat is simply food and shelter: keeping bumblebees is more difficult than keeping honeybees
Most bees live close to their food sources: This is the plant selection process
Nesting and overwintering: Opportunities to enhance the local environment for our Pollinators
The Easy way out: Pollinator paradise comes in an envelope.
GeorgeP’s favorites list/selections
Pollinator-related: WWWeb places you should visit for more detail .
Pollinators and Politics: Awareness is the first step. Maybe we can develop this topic in 2017
Photo credits and other credits.
