Today, 20^th May, is World Bee Day.

Established only four years ago, the intention is to draw attention to the valuable work bees undertake to help keep us alive. Yes – keep us alive.

Without them, many plants with edible features would not be pollinated. Without pollination, fruits and seeds would not form and we would go hungry. Simple really. Yet, each year, more landscape is covered in concrete or bitumen (how much of your property is covered so?) which means less plants can grow, and therefore there is less food for the bees to feed on.

A while back, I made contact with a local bee society offering any beekeeper space to place one or more bee hives on my block of land, but there has been no action. I don’t use more than about a litre or so of honey a year so I was not looking for a freebie. My garden has flowers all year around, and there are always flowers in my neighbourhood so it seemed like a worthwhile place for bees to enjoy a feed. Some readers might now urge me to buy and set up my own hive. However, because I don’t have a car and don’t drive it isn’t easy to get equipment and supplies when they are either heavy or bulky. Besides, what would I do with all the honey?

Perhaps you can have more success. What can you do to support our bees?

Meanwhile I plant to ensure the garden always has flowers.

In the May issue of Gardening Australia magazine a short reminder story was published.