Herb Gardens for Bees: Avena Botanicals
June/July 2009
By Jean English
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"Might pollinators benefit from the medicinal compounds in herbs, just as we do?" asks Deb Soule, owner of Avena Botanicals.
Lynn Karlin
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Here in the two-acre herb garden of Avena Botanicals in West Rockport, Maine, at least three kinds of bees can be seen (and heard) collecting pollen from a huge weeping willow tree in late spring. A patch of blue lungwort beneath a flowering magnolia is a favorite stop for honeybees, while a bleeding heart growing against the house is frequented by hummingbirds.
In this beautiful landscape, more than 120 species of medicinal herbs, trees and shrubs grow lush with compost and organic preparations. But the garden does much more than supply raw ingredients for owner Deb Soule’s business, Avena Botanicals. Avena also is an outdoor classroom, a source of seeds, a quiet spot for meditation and, last but not least, a haven for pollinators.
Visitors often comment that the garden hums almost continuously with the sounds of pollinators. Everywhere, honeybees, bumblebees, hummingbirds and others are abundant and busy—at a time when conventional farmers lament a lack of pollinators in their own gardens and fields.
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Bees Love Tiny Flowers
Just as bees and other pollinators find sustenance at Avena, Deb appreciates the pollinators. Her journey to discover “who pollinates what and how” began about 15 years ago, when her echinacea failed to produce viable seed. Reading The Forgotten Pollinators by Stephen L. Buchmann and Gary Paul Nabhan (Island Press, 1997), she learned that pollinators are integral to ecosystems, and they’re affected by the toxins prevalent in our modern world. After years of study, firsthand observation and beekeeping, Deb knows very well which medicinal herbs attract pollinators. But she has new questions: Do pollinators get more than nectar, pollen, protein and carbohydrates from her plants? Might they also benefit from the medicinal compounds in herbs, just as we do?
“Basil, lemon balm and rosemary flowers are tiny,” Deb says, “but the pollinators go for them. Why? In September, our sacred basil is literally covered with bees—their pollen sacs are a beautiful pink-orange, the color of the pollen of sacred basil.”
Ross Conrad of Dancing Bee Gardens in Middlebury, Vermont, author of Natural Beekeeping (Chealsea Green Publishing, 2007), says, “I’m not aware of any studies that have proven honeybees benefit from the compounds in herbs, but some beekeepers have reported that bees foraging on wintergreen and other mints seem better able to withstand the stress caused by tracheal and Varroa mites [suspected as a culprit in the decline of bees].” Essential oils from some of these herbs are used to combat the mites, so picking up small amounts of these oils in nectar could help bees deal with the mites, he says.
Tony Jadczak, Maine state apiarist, also does not know of any definitive research that shows bees benefit from the compounds in herbs. Jadczak notes that high concentrations of menthol and thymol are needed to effectively control mites. For example, beekeepers use a 99 percent menthol preparation in hives—far more than the small percentage of menthol bees would pick up from mint plants. He suggests that bees get some other reward from foraging on the small flowers of some herbs: maybe pollen, nectar with quality sugar, trace elements or some other substance.
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