Granted there are not a lot of flowers in my neighborhood, but this spring when our crab apple tree was in full bloom it was silent. My parent's crab apple is a constant buzz until the blooms drop. My blueberries flowered, but were not pollinated so alas no fresh blueberries for me this year.
I have been doing a little bit of research about bees, bumblebees in particular. They are ground nesters and apparently the amount of mulch now is considered one of the reasons for the population decline. Bumblebees need bare ground to make their nest, the average homeowner doesn't want to weed their landscaping so they put down mulch or rocks. Other things like pesticides and lack of flowers are also probable culprits.
Drew and I have been attempting to get different colored and shaped flowers in the backyard. So far we have pansies, wisteria, tiger lilies, strawberries, blueberries, geraniums, petunias, 3 different flowering shrubs, plus a bunch of different flowering veggies. We still have not seen a difference. Granted we just planted, so hopefully next year will bring a bigger change. I also have in mind to plant a prairie/rain garden in a low spot in our front yard, and Drew got the idea to put some flowering plants along the north side of our shed. I also think we will dig up some hostas (planted in full sun) and replace with rose bushes.
I do not mulch my garden and we have pulled up some patio tiles that surround our shed. Unfortunately there are rocks around our house. What a pain in the ass they are. We're constantly picking rocks out of the grass and returning them.
We do not use pesticides except on our house plants. The really unfortunate thing is once a week the city drives around our neighborhood and sprays for mosquitoes. This is done at night but I'm sure it cannot be helpful to all the other insects.
I read online about creating bumblebee nesting by putting clay pots together and burying them. I think that I might just be doing that in the near future. If it doesn't work, we forget they're there and if it does work then we have more bumblebees! http://www.bumblebee.org/nestbox_plans.htm
If you have any ideas please let me know. I really don't want to pollinate my flowers by hand!
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