The Bee-Friendly Garden

February 1, 2016

Award-winning garden designers Frey and LeBuhn team up in this accessible book to offer gardeners solid advice on how to attract and encourage more bees to take up residence in their gardens. They examine why bee-friendly spaces are important, describe the difference between native bees and honeybees, dispel common myths about the insects, and explain how to construct bee-friendly gardens from an ecological perspective. The book further identifies how to ensure there are flowers blooming at all times--a key characteristic of bee-friendly gardens--from staggering plantings to including "super bloomers" in garden designs. A chapter specific to edible plants celebrates the "grow your own food" movement; another outlines steps that concerned citizens can take to support bees in the face of colony collapse disorder. Further resources include information on bee-friendly nurseries and extensive regional plant lists. VERDICT This guide will benefit novice and seasoned gardeners who wish to provide habitats for bees and other pollinators.--Venessa Hughes, Buffalo, NY

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 15, 2015
The widespread ecological crisis known as bee colony collapse disorder, in which pollinating insects are dying off in droves, can be partially addressed by large agribusinesses cultivating flowering crops. According to garden designer Frey and biologist and pollinator expert LeBuhn, individual and small-acreage growers can also help reverse the alarming trend simply by trading in less-biodiverse plants for more bee-friendly ones. In this very readable, well-illustrated handbook, the authors provide all the basic information for designing and tending gardens and small farms that attract pollinators and other environment-boosting insects without resorting to harmful pesticides. Frey and LeBuhn catalog all the bee-friendly plants such as perennials, shrubs, and trees and identify those to avoid. They also provide tips on matching soils to the local climate and creating nesting cavities for bees and explain how readers can become bee activists. This an important book. Frey and LeBuhn's accessible and inspiring advice, if correctly followed by growers around the world, could profoundly help restore diminishing bee populations to thriving good health, which is essential to our crops and our well-being.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)