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18 SOLERA DIAMOND VALLEY | APRIL 2020 By Sharon Cates, Resident According to the calendar, spring began on March 20. You could have fooled me. I felt it was spring-like weather the third week of February when the temperature was 75 and blue skies prevailed. Spring is my favorite season. I look forward to adding and replacing flowers but try to hold off purchasing plants until the middle of March. However, when my daffodils appeared at the end of February, I was drawn to visit garden nurseries instead of grocery stores as my hubby will hungrily verify. Early March is my usual time for garden chores in preparation for spring. I looked around my yard to locate space for new flowers. After cleaning out flowerpots, I added new mulch to keep the weeds at bay. By now, you probably think that this is an article on gardening but the next paragraph will get to my point. When we plant flowers to beautify our yards and community, we provide food for the bees. There are many articles online and in print that tell us about the global decline of our pollinators. While lack of food sources is just one of the culprits, pesticides and climate change are also to blame. Last winter, according to the Sierra Club, 40 percent of honeybee colonies in the United States were lost. Scientists are calling it Colony Collapse Disorder. We can make a small contribution by planting flowers and trees that bees favor. We should make sure the nurseries we purchase from do not use pesticides that are harmful to bees. If space is a problem, planting flowers in containers and hanging pots will suffice. The bees will find them. The actor Morgan Freeman has dedicated his 124-acre ranch in Mississippi to feeding the honeybees. It's a giant sanctuary. There, he raises organic flowers and trees, all free from pesticides. He does not disrupt the hives nor harvest the honey. The website Green Garden Buzz has a long list of flowering plants and trees that bees love. Some recommendations are Sweet Alyssum, Cornflowers, Marigolds, Snapdragons, Salvia and Sunflowers. Choosing a mixture of plants in different colors and scents will attract a wide variety of pollinators. Citrus trees also do well in our location. Bees like flowering herbs and are partial to basil, dill, rosemary and lavender. It is suggested that we provide clean water in shallow dishes or birdbaths for pollinators as well as for the birds. Bees are the most important insects in our environment as their decline affects the food we put on our table. Farmers are encouraged to plant native species to increase the number of pollen bees on their land and to reduce or eliminate some pesticides. Wikipedia has valuable information on pesticide toxicity to bees. If you are looking for more information on our insect friends, go to websites like NCRS (Natural Resources Conservation Service), Friends of the Earth and The Sierra Club. I wish you a bee-utiful season. Let's Feed the Bees

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