Loving My Neighbourhood Bees...& Dandelions

A few years ago we were asked and even implored not to remove milkweed from our private properties and both homeowners and municipalities were encouraged to plant it instead. Why? Monarch butterflies were under threat (still are) and without milkweed they can't propagate. 

Now we are invited to let those pesky dandelions which are vilified as weeds but our kids and grandkids consider flowers grow. Why? For the sake of the bees this time. Whether its European honey bees, an introduced species, or indigenous bees, including bumblebees, they have to have a food source as well. 

This can be a tough sell in suburbia. In our court of nine homes three are owned by lawn worshippers with sprinkler systems and where every weed is dispatched with the help of chemicals. Fortunately we don't live next to the one who scolds her adjacent neighbours for what she considers poor lawn hygiene. My immediate neighbour doctors our lawn when he does his so the overall effect is pristine. 

The sign above is the brainchild of a P.E.I. beekeeper who wants homeowners to leave there dandelions be...bee?: 

"It's the first abundant source of food for the bees in the springtime, until the clover comes out and the rest of the wildflowers," says Troy Fraser, who keeps bees and recently started a pollination service. It sets the stage for their development, for the queen to start laying her eggs and developing her nest … you need that foraging force, the numbers in the hive to really boost up, so they can actually pollinate quite well."

I'll admit that already this year I've dispatched hundreds of dandelions in our back yard, but their name is legion. I dig 'em up, and more emerge. We also have bumblebees and other species which I don't see out front. I wonder why? When I fix patches out back I plant clover instead of grass. It is also green and it flowers, which those bees love. 

When Jesus tells me to love my neighbour as myself I figure it includes being a responsible and kind person to the humans who live near me. At the same time those bees should be regarded as  neighbours and surely I should be a Good Samaritan to them as well.

 Excuse me while I go out and knock off some more dandelions...