To Bee or not to Bee............

Howdy,

Welcome to my Dubai based gardening blog about growing vegetables in containers in the UAE and the Arabian Gulf region.

Ok, so I think I'm a comedian.  Anyway, I recently received a comment the other day on an older blog I did in April 2011 - What vegetables should you plant.    Bradder asked:  Hi, I have a question for you - I was wondering whether I have to pollinate my flowers by hand?  I haven't seen much in the way of bees etc (I'm in the Springs) and concerned now my aubergines and tomatoes are flowering that they will come to naught!  Thanks.

This brings up a point that I would like to mention.  Do not kill ANY honey bees as they are having a tough time around the world surviving for some mysteries reason as I have blogged about in the past here and here.   If some bees decide to make a home in your garden - just leave them alone and they won't bother you.  The little local arabian bees are very docile and you will learn to be able to get very close to them to observe them and they don't mind.  The only exception to this is if you have small children that can reach a bee hive and are too young to understand that the bees can hurt them - then try to find a way to make them leave without killing to many of them.

So, I'll get off the soap box now.  If you do not have any bees buzzing around your vegetables flowers then YES you will need to start buzzing around  some of your vegetables yourself if you want a better harvest.  It might bee a good idea to dress the part so your plants do not get confused as to who is handling their reproductive bits.

But, before you start buzzing your vegetable plants you need to know a few things first to take the sting out of it. :-)

Bees revisited

Howdy,

Welcome to my Dubai based container vegetable gardening blog.

I recieved a comment on one of my earlier blogs about bees - http://thedxbgardener.blogspot.com/2011/03/where-are-honey-bees.html

The person has some bees which have decided to make their home in their garden.  They were wondering what to do to remove them.  My question is why do you want to get rid of them?  Is it an unfounded fear you might have of bees just because they have stingers?  As I mentioned in my reply to the comment, if you have young children then it is a prudent decision to have the bees removed.  However, if the family is mature enough to point out the danger to them that playing with or aggravating the bees will result in pain then the family and the bees should be able to live together.

I DO NOT advocate killing bees but .....

Where are the Honey Bees?

Howdy,

Welcome back!    And if this your first time to my blog - Welcome - and hope you have the time to read my earlier blogs.   Here's a quick intro about today's topic.

Did you watch both videos?

What's with the dancing bees thing?  You will find out further along in the blog.   Just click "Read More" below.