Tuesday eating from your yard tip~plant herbs to draw the pollinators to your yard. With the popularity of butterfly and pollinator gardens by now most people have gotten the message that without pollinators food production is severely limited. As someone who enjoys eating I have made the health of pollinators in my garden a priority for years. Then my buddy Bob Henrickson hypothesized that bees go to the herbs which have the medicinal properties that the hive needs for the health of the hive. Since he shared that with me I have been paying closer attention to where the bees are in the garden. The answer is they are on the herbs along with many other pollinators. It shouldn’t have been a surprise since we know lemon balm’s botanical name, melissa, is Greek for honey bee and monarda’s common name is bee balm. Herbs add flavor to our food and heal our ailments. The bees seem to be hip to this following Hippocrates’ advice to “let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” What herbs do you see pollinators on in your garden?
