Attracting Honeybees into a Garden Landscape

Q. I’ve been trying to attract bees to my garden and thinking about a hive at some point. Need to put in some year-round flowering plants first. Rosemary comes to mind. Any thoughts or literature that comes to mind.

Rosemary flowers in the winter so it is a good choice for attracting and feeding honeybees to keep the hive alive.

A. Rosemary is a good choice; it flowers during the winter and is lower in water use since it is a Mediterranean plant that is smaller. Any plant that has conspicuous flowers during early spring and is cold hardy will work. That is one reason roses work so well. Other plants to consider that flower during that time and are cold hardy for our climate include the different Texas sage and Tecoma types.

Texas ranger (sage) flowers during the winter and is a good choice for attracting and feeding honeybees.

Don’t forget a mixture of annuals and perennials that have brightly colored flowers. Use many different colored flowers like mustards, clovers, desert bluebells and blue eyes, and the like. Scratch the seed into the soil with a rake and start watering them twice a month in December and January with 15 minutes of water from a sprinkler. Turn off the water when your fruit starts flowering.

Honeybees haul water if its in the garden.

Don’t forget water. Honeybees like to haul water during the winter as the hive starts to warm up. Bird baths and plastic troughs dug in the ground help attract bees and other critters. Don’t let the bees drown. Put rocks in the water so bees have a place to land. Honeybees are active during the daylight anytime temperatures are in the mid-50s, clear and sunny and little to no wind. Night flowering plants such as some cacti don’t work because bees need to see the sun to fly. Honeybees are supplemented with sugar water when they can’t find flowers they like. Feeding the colony with sugar water helps to keep the population alive during the coldest parts of winter.

Vegetable Growing in Moapa and Virgin Valley Southern Nevada

 Requests for Dr. Witwer’s information on raised bed gardening, his “Bible” I call it, overwhelmed and surprised me. I just finished sending out copies to everyone and my fingers are tired! (Ask me to send it to you ((morrisr@unr.edu)) because UNR doesn't carry it anymore.) 

Dr. Wittwer was the former vegetable extension specialist for Michigan State University before he retired to southern Nevada. In Logandale, Nevada, he maintained a large in-ground vegetable garden for many years before moving and eventually passing away. Logandale, in its agricultural area called the Moapa Valley and located about 60 miles north of Las Vegas, is slightly warmer but has a similar climate to Las Vegas.

Use His Recommended Varieties First

It is essential to use his recommended varieties but his recommendations on fertilizers and pesticides can be substituted for “organic” forms if you prefer. When using raised beds, or Bartholomew’s “square foot gardening”, look for more compact forms of the same variety to learn from. Vegetable breeders “earn their pay” by recognizing popular varieties in regions would be even more popular with homeowners provided they have enough space to grow them. They concentrate on making them small or changing their fruiting habits in some way. The ‘Early Girl’ variety of tomato is now available from Burpees as an example as a “bush” or determinate type instead of the continuously vining type called “indeterminate”.

Reasons for Raised Beds (or Modified Raised Beds Called "Containers")

There are many reasons for constructing raised beds; rocky soil beneath it, uninhabitable because of pests like nematodes, small space requirements, beautification, etc. A type of “raised bed” are nursery containers. 

Even smaller “raised beds” such as ornamental containers in the landscape can add beauty and height to traditional gardens. Unlike larger raised beds they can be easily emptied, scrubbed clean, sanitized, and refilled again with new soil. Remember to fill them to within one inch of the container “lip” to maximize their soil depth and ease their heat dissipation. Use the same or similar soil mix in the container to make watering them easier.

Remember pots get hot on the outside unless the pot has something shading it. Double potting them (so they have an air space) is one answer in keeping the heat under control.

Plants Grow Toward Light

Q. I pulled out my old, bent crepe myrtle and bought a new one from a grower. It's still small, but I noticed the "trunk" is already curving. Is this going to be a problem like the old one? Is there something I should do now, or will it straighten itself out as it grows? When I plant it, should I put the root ball in the ground at an angle so the trunk is pointing more or less straight up?

Pine tree leaning due to shade on its West side from the eucalyptus.

A. As soon as you plant it, the new growth will start straightening (bending toward the light) as it grows. The light will come at it from all different directions than in the nursery. When you plant it, plant it as straight as possible and let the plant figure it what is straight with its new growth. You can help it “straighten out” with pruning. As you guessed, the plant will figure it out as it grows.

Pine tree leaning. What is not known to you is that there was a large tree that burned down (died) last year to the left side of that tree on the other side of the wall. That's why it is leaning.

Leaves and buds are light receptors. The side that is open will "fill in" with new growth as long as the plant gets enough light, water and fertilizer to push this new growth. The top growth from leaves and buds (where it "sees" light which determine where and how stems develop) is what we call "positively geotropic" which means it “grows up”.

Roots are "negatively geotropic" which is a fancy way of saying roots “grow down”. Of course, root growth is encouraged by water, air, and fertilizer. Top growth is encouraged mostly by light but heavily influenced by irrigating and applying fertilizer to push new growth.