I've got a 10'x10' square patch of garden right outside the apiary "front door" and thought it might be nice to plant a little something for the girls in it. Was going to use buckwheat have learned that can't be planted here in Indiana until June/July and won't flower until Sept.
Any suggestions on fast flowering bee-friendly cover crops ( I'm eventually going to use this bed for other things - this is just for this year) that I can plant now and have flowers by late May? Then I'll turn it over in early June and plant buckwheat for the fall.
Thanks.
I gotta say my new favorite plant is the Borage!!! The girls went nuts over it last year and it went from early June till late October!! It froze with flowers still blooming!! :-D At any given time you could count 50+ bees on it all day long. That's my 2 cents in the matter but I bet others will have diff Ideas. And you can eat Borage in your salads too it tastes like a cucumber.
Dave
I know you are looking for cover crop ideas and I can't help you with that but like Highlands said although its not a covercrop Borage is a great bee plant.
Hyssops is another one, its beautiful and gets fairly big and bushy, its purple and the bees are all over it, more than any other plant I have seen.
There are others, if you decide to do a perennial bed rather than a cover crop then you will get more suggestions for that too.
For the cover crop other more knowledgeable people can help you with that.
Try clover. An annual to plant that the bees love is cleome it blooms all summer.
The clover is also a great crop to plow in when getting ready for next year good nutrients for the soil. Great Suggestion GardeningFireman X:X
I think there is a difference between the red clover and the white. If I remember correctly the girls cant get to the red clovers nectar but the white they can.... I might have it backwards someone correct me if I'm wrong.
They never touch the red clover here, but have seen them on the white clover