Hello, I have been asked to participate in a discussion group for the area school district. The group is being tasked with coming up with a plan to turned large parcels of land, back into native prairie land, with natural grasses and possibly some wild flowers that are honey bee friendly. The land will then be used for educational purposes. I would appreciate hearing from Michael Bush and anyone else that may be an expert, or may have been involved in a project like this.
Thank You
Will you bee able to plant any trees? Trees can produce a larger amount of blooms in the same area as they cover. It would work real well if you can plant trees and flowers that bloom during your normal dearth times. Korean Bee Tree comes to mind. It blooms during the summer.
Jim
Problem with tall grasses is they choke out many other plants; like clover. Only the tall weeds can survive; like golden rod, thistle, milkweed. However, if the goal is to get back to grassland, try to mix in seeds from the tall weeds. It may also help to brush hog the grass down to 8", or so, for a while to allow the weeds a chance to get established.
In Texas they plant wild flowers including what I call dew berries.
but I have noticed here in Florida a dearth of any fruiting plant.
it is in the bi laws of these communities no one can plant that that is eatable
anything eatable is my preferance
My 17 acres are planted in a mixture of:
White sweet clover
Yellow sweet clover
Hubam sweet clover
Birdsfoot trefoil
Alfalfa
Ladino clover
Purple prairie clover
White Dutch clover
Hairy vetch
Ironweed
Joe Pye Weed
Goldenrod
Asters
Chickory
And then there are trees:
any fruit
linden
tulip poplar
red maple
pussywillow
choke cherries
sand plums
sumac
black locust
Tupelo
Variety is the spice of life. You need to plant the yellow and white sweet clover once a year for two years as they are biennials. The Hubam is an annual. The white dutch, purple prairie, alfalfa and Chicory are perennials. If you let them all go to seed every year you'll keep them going without having to replant.
If you can only plant one or two things, the yellow and white sweet clover will produce the most. The Chicory will produce at times other things won't like a dearth and after a light frost. The yellow sweet clover blooms two weeks earlier than the white and the white last two weeks after the yellow is done.
This page links to various types of plants that are good for bees. What I like best is each of the links on the page break down varieties for timing, so if you know when major flows occur in your region, you can plant to time for the dearth. I can't post a link yet, but you should be able to get it from this:
www . buzzaboutbees .net / bee-plants.html
Like others say, trees.