The Bee Friendly Garden – Doug Purdie

I found this beautiful book on my library’s new release shelf and had to snatch it up! I love bees, and everything about them. I am actually spending this weekend building Mason Bee houses in the numerous coffee cans I have been saving up, just for this purpose.

Although the author is based in Australia, and the bees discussed are native to Australia, many of these bees can be found in all countries. There was even a few paragraphs mentioning a bee project that took place in Michigan, so being in Michigan, I found that exciting!

This book includes sections on how bees pollinate plants, how and why their populations have been decreasing everywhere, and how we can help slow this terrible situation down.

Many varieties of herbs, flowers, and fruits and vegetables are discussed in great detail, as well as telling you how the bees pollinate them (yes, there is more than one way for a bee to pollinate a plant), which ones the bees prefer, and what kind of soil and sunlight each plant requires.

The section on building homes for bees had other great information that I had not come across in my journey of learning how to build good, sustainable bee houses.

The pictures in this book are absolutely gorgeous, and seeing all the bees, insects, and plants has me definitely ready for the last of this Michigan snow to just melt already!

My apologies for the low quality pictures, I had to take them with my phone and send them to myself…..