A few days ago a coworker and I were discussing the recently reported, depressing news about the decimation of honeybees. Hecate brought our attention to it in this post highlighting reportage by The New York Times. Bad news indeed.

I snapped this bee, who was enjoying a zinnia at Martha's Vineyard Glassworks.

But the news isn't all as grim. An article in today's San Francisco Chronicle says that bees may have found their saviors in a somewhat less than obvious place: urban gardeners.

[Professor Gordon] Frankie, an entomologist at UC Berkeley and a specialist in the behavior of native bees, has been the leader of a decadelong urban bee research project. By documenting bee diversity and populations in urban gardens throughout California, he's discovering which flowering plants attract native bees and determining whether urban gardens can support bees.

According to Professor Frankie, as suburban developments replace wild habitats where native bees once thrived and agricultural practices, which often include widespread pesticide use and plowing under native plants, destroy numerous bee populations, urban environments have the potential to become safe havens for struggling bees.

The dire circumstances facing our native pollinators is the motivation behind Frankie's project. As native bees in the wild dwindled, Frankie began documenting bee diversity and frequencies in urban environments to determine whether urban gardens could support reasonable native bee populations.

As I have said before - joining many of my brothers and sisters in this belief - pagans should be on the forefront of environmental activism. What could be a more satisfying way to do your part than to grow a bee garden?

"Instead of planting a garden with only the flowers you enjoy, look around at the flowering plants that are native to your area. Those are the plants that will attract the bees. The bees know what they need, and they'll come. If you plant it, they will come," [Professor Frankie] said.

One of the challenges of being an urban pagan is that we often don't have the ability to experience nature the way we might like. Growing a bee garden, even if it's just a few potted plants on a fire escape, could provide the opportunity to grow your own herbs and to plant other things that are important to your magickal work, in addition to saving native bees. Having a few bees around could be a good thing. As animal spirits, bees' wisdom includes connection to the goddess Diana, understanding female warrior energy, reincarnation, communication with the dead, helping earth-bound spirits move on to their proper place, concentration, and prosperity.

UC Berkeley has a wonderful website that tells you all you need to know about planting urban bee gardens.

And what do bees have to do with chocolate? Frankie says:

In a world without bees, the only choice they'd have would be the dried-out tortillas or rice cakes, since wheat and rice are self-pollinated. Even chocolate, from the cacao plant, depends on the pollination of bees.

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 1:09 PM