The Bees Knees

Saturday promised to be a scorcher and I ventured into the garden around 6 o’clock in the morning to water the orchard. I thought I was up early but I walked into a hive of activity. The two beds filled with Gaura lindheimeri 'Whirling Butterflies’ was alive with the buzzing of bees. Standing next to the flowers watching the bees going about their task collecting pollen I could feel the vibration of all the tiny wings flapping up to 230 times a second.

Bee Heaven

I got caught up in watching the bees collecting pollen into their pollen baskets on their legs, the so called ”bees knees”. Bees will collect their weight in pollen and I could see that these little guys have been working since long before I walked into the garden.

Their pollen baskets were filled with yellow pollen making it look like they were wearing yellow gumboots.

After some investigating I discovered that they are actually the Cape honeybee, indigenous to the Western Cape and parts of the Eastern Cape. I was relieved to learn that they are currently not threatened.

I always plant flowers and herbs to attract the bees to the garden to ensure the pollination of fruit and vegetables.  We have a good agreement, I make sure that they have flowers the whole year and they pollinate the fruit and vegetables.

I try my best to keep the garden as organic as possible and a haven for bees, ladybirds and other beneficial insects. It makes gardening a bit more difficult and I constantly have to look at organic ways to fight pests and diseases but I prefer to be in harmony with nature and the garden.

I hope the bees and insects feel like me about the garden, believing that our garden is the bees knees.