@Pollinator: We couldn't have said it better! Thanks :)

@Pollinator: This made a big impression on me. Many bee visits=a better watermelon. Must be true, as you say, for many other vegetables and fruits. So, we need bees and they need us. We have to give them shelter, places to grow, plants to visit, if we want the best from our gardens.

@The-Busy-Bee: I second that - and thanks for all the interesting info!

@Groundskeeper:  Well said!

@Pollinator: Hi Dave...it's been quite a while since I've heard from you, glad you're still doing bees and plants. Your point is well made...so one thing gardeners could be considering is to plant some of their garden just of the bees...a pollinator part I guess I'd call it. And particularly plants that bloom early, all summer, and into the fall, so pollinators have something to eat all season long. Of course pollinators are seasonal too...some come in early, reproduce and close down for the rest of the season, others appear later in the summer, so an all summer bloom is best. 

@KimFlottum: is it true that without bees we all die in 4 years. I read here:http://keepingbee.org/honey-bees-disappearing-bee-extermination/ OMG

@arsya: This statement is often heard, but it falls short of being accurate. If all bees, not just honey bees but the solitary bees, wasps, and the like all disappeared tomorrow, our diet would change, and our environment would change, certainly. Insect pollinated fruits and vegetables...much, but not all of your garden stock and other crops...for instance, berries, clovers, alfalfa, apples, plums, many nuts and the like would decline in production...some to near zero. What wouldn't change however are all the grains...soybeans, rice, wheat, oats, barley, and other crops like canola, corn, sugar cane, bananas, and more. Our diet would become much less attractive, appealing and diverse, but there would be much to eat. A different question might be, could food producers in the world change gears fast enough to feed billions of people without those foods bees help produce because we have become so dependent on them? That might be the harder question.

@KimFlottum: One thing not often noted is that much of the Vitamin C in our diet results from bee pollination. This alone would make the loss of bees a nutritional crisis for humanity.

@KimFlottum: Good to see you here, too, Kim. Your well-reasoned posts are valuable, and I'm glad you are participating.  And, yeah, this old coot is still kicking.

@Pollinator: The longer I garden, the deeper it goes. Next year, I'll split my vegetable gardening half and half between a dedicated, fenced plot and the ornamental borders. The more mingled and diverse, the better.

@Pollinator: The longer I garden, the deeper it goes. Next year, I'll split my vegetable gardening half and half between a dedicated, fenced plot and the ornamental borders. The more mingled and diverse, the better.