Western Sydney University researchers have been working with an Australian charity that promotes awareness of the importance of bees for food security, to produce a new pollinator-friendly planting guide to support horticultural producers in the Blue Mountains region.
But they've also given tips on what Mountains gardeners can add this Spring to help bees do their vital work. Bees play a vital role in preserving biodiversity and ecosystem health and without them, many ecosystems would be altered or cease to exist altogether.
The 'Powerful pollinators: Encouraging insect pollinators in farm landscapes' guide will assist growers in the Bilpin region to select native plants that attract insect pollinators to their properties, including bees, butterflies and moths, to increase crop fertilisation and yield.
The research team, comprising Blue Mountains-based Professor Sally Power and Professor James Cook and Dr Amy Gilpin - all from Western Sydney University's Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment - hope the guide with the Wheen Bee Foundation will raise awareness for pollinators as an essential component of agricultural production and healthy, biodiverse landscapes.
"Protecting and enhancing pollinator resources on farms will help support a diverse range of pollinators," said Dr Gilpin.
The guide provides an introduction to the role of insect pollinators on farms, along with information on how to choose native plants that will support a diverse range of pollinators throughout the year.
The report said "insect populations are in decline worldwide due to land clearing, intensive or monocultural agriculture, pesticide use, pollution, colony disease, increased urbanisation and climate change. Low pollinator numbers mean not all flowers are pollinated, leading to low fruit or seed set. This in turn reduces fruit and vegetable harvest yields, and decreases food supply".
Focused on Bilpin the team has been undertaking Hort Frontiers-funded research into apple and cherry pollination over the past four years, the recommended plants are Indigenous to the region and suitable for its climate and soils.
"Without insect pollinators, the quantity and diversity of food and flowers grown in gardens would be severely restricted. Many of the fruits and vegetables we eat, from gardens and farms, depend on insects for pollination," added Professor Power.
In addition to identifying 34 native plant species growing around Bilpin and an additional 21 from the broader Blue Mountains area, the guide suggests several measures growers can take to support pollinators on their properties including:
- Create pollination reservoirs
- Construct insect real estate
- Get to know your local flora
- Reduce chemical use
The plants and trees to add to your garden this Spring include:flannel flowers, laurel-leaf grevillea, mirbelia, boronia and pale pink boronia, variable bossiaea, mountain devil, pine leag geebung, Blue Mountains Mallee Ash among many more in the guide.
