What a wonderful, exciting adventure – 8.5 acres to plant!

Getting the soil tested is the perfect way to start.

Your fruit trees and bushes will help your bees in early spring as they are likely to bloom before any wildflowers. You will want to choose flowers that bloom at different times so they are a source of pollen and nectar throughout spring, summer, and fall. Native plants that bloom at various times might include the following: For spring flowers you could plant columbine, wild indigo, beardtongue, wild geranium, spiderwort, and/ or golden alexanders. For summer flowers you could plant blazing star, milkweed, coneflower, butterfly weed, black-eyed susan. For fall flowers you could plant cardinal flower, goldenrod, aster, and/ or boneset. Making a Bee-Friendly Garden, BeeSpotter, University of Illinois has a list of flowers for bees. Other websites you might like is Attracting Pollinators to the Garden | Ohioline (osu.edu) and ohio_state_university_extension_factsheet_-_ohionectarplants.pdf (ccnybees.org) as they include lists of bee friendly flowers and suggestions for planting. I’ve found that herbs like basil, catmint, and lavender attract bees. Whichever flowers you select, plant like plants close together so the bees don’t have to fly far to find all the pollen and nectar they need.

The nice thing about using native plants is that they have adapted to the soil around here and don’t need extra fertilizer. I found many articles on the dangers of pesticides and few that discussed how fertilizers affect bees. As you said, there are differing opinions concerning this. If you feel your ground needs fertilizing it was suggested to put compost or manure on the ground and till it into the soil. I did find the following two articles from reliable sources: Planting and maintaining a bee lawn | UMN Extension and Smart lawn care to protect pollinators - Gardening in Michigan (msu.edu) which don’t exactly answer your question, but offer some information.

Some seeds need stratification to germinate and should be planted in the fall so whatever cold we get this winter will help them or you could put them in the refrigerator for a couple months and start them indoors to plant outside. Others don’t need stratification so you could wait until spring to plant them. If you’d like to save some money and get more information about seeds and plants for your bees, reserve October 5^th and to Guy Denny’s fields. You can collect seeds from the plants you want and get expert information about planting them. You can find information about this at 2024 ONAPA FIELD TRIPS - Ohio Natural Areas & Preserves Association.