It ’s easy to grow flowers and herbs for honeybees in the lovesome , fecund calendar month of summertime . Such a wild abundance of forage is useable at that clip of class , it ’s almost too much for the worm kingdom to make do . But arrive fall , even if the season is meek , few blossoming plant are usable for the remain pollinator , particularly the bees . While other North American stinging dirt ball , such as wasps and yellow jackets , who live in mob groups are in large part break off for the yr , honeybees attract it together to go the wintertime . Sometimes , this hinges on the autumn pasture . Whether you keep bees or not , implant buckwheat is a fab way to put up them — and in many state in the continental U.S. there ’s still time to engraft .
Here are a few mythical reasons to plant buckwheat :
1. Buckwheat Is a Fast Grower
Polygonum fagopyrum snuff it from seed to blossom in just about a month . One month ! That ’s a poor clock time from bare soil to intellectual nourishment for honeybees and other pollinators . It ’s not frost tolerant , but it does n’t need to be — with such a short farm sentence , just plant about one calendar month ( five to six week would be better ) before your region ’s first pin hoarfrost date , and you ’ll be ripe to go .
2. Buckwheat Is Easy to Grow
Buckwheat dead prosper in miserable soil . It get where most other plants wo n’t . It ’s incredibly humbled sustentation as far as nurseryman care goes , and it has no major pests or diseases that threaten your crop or the bee ’ grass . It love any gay site with secure drainage , as most crops do , but it will also tolerate partial shade .
3. It’s a Wonderful Cover Crop
gardener and farmers recognise the time value of a goodcover crop . cover song crops are grow to maintain soil health , concentrate territory erosion , and to provide food for thought and winter home ground to native and important dirt ball . They help to handle and keep biodiversity in a booming constitutional garden . In this way , growing buckwheat does n’t simply feed bees — it houses and shelter the overwintering queens , larvae and other brute that your garden will look on during the following spring . Buckwheat is easy to grow over into the filth in the outpouring to sum up marvelous organic matter to the soil .
4. It Is High Quality Protein
If you grow buckwheat to support the bees and to devour it for yourself , you ’ll discover that as a cereal backup , buckwheat is wonderfully versatile and full of an exceptional amount of protein in the flora realm .
5. Buckwheat Makes Great Honey
Honey from this unusual ( and underused ) cropis fantastically fat and highly coveted among honey enthusiasts . Buckwheat honey is rather dark , load down with antioxidants and is bang for being an first-class dear for cough and coldness , and for use in homemade syrups .
Whether you ’re a novice gardener or a veteran homesteader , consider farm outside the box by planting buckwheat . Your garden ’s inhabitants will thank you , and in turn , you might back up an ailing honeybee colony when it require it most .
