Don't Pinch Back This Summer-Blooming Herb If You Want More Bees In The Garden

If you're proficient in growing herbs in your garden, you'll know that it's usually the leaves that are picked to flavor all the culinary delights that are created in the kitchen. But, like the majority of plants, herbs do produce flowers as their way to reproduce, and that often makes them pollinator magnets that thrive in the heat. However, for fragrant herbs like basil (Ocimum basilicum), it's common practice to pinch off the flowers as soon as they appear so that the plants put more energy into producing those delicious and fragrant leaves. If you don't pinch off the developing blooms, the leaves tend to lose some of their intensity, making your pesto a little more bland.

But before you head out to the garden to see if your basil has any flowers that need to be pinched back, take a moment to consider if those flowers could be beneficial in some way. Those very blooms could actually attract plenty more bees into your garden. You see, basil is a summer-blooming herb, and the flowers appear when there might not be as many other nectar-filled blooms around for the bees to work on. So, by leaving some of the basil flowers to grow, you'll be doing the bees a favor by providing them with the nectar that they need. In return, they'll likely also help to pollinate any vegetables that you have growing nearby. If you wait long enough, you'll even be able to harvest the basil seeds so that you don't need to buy any for the following year.

As you probably know, when a plant starts to flower, it puts all its energy into producing those blooms and the eventual seeds rather than growing more foliage. So, how do you strike a balance between getting all the basil leaves you want to harvest and keeping the bees happy by letting the plants flower? Easy — just plant more basil!. This spicy herb isn't difficult to grow as long as it gets enough water and has good drainage. And, just one packet of seeds can produce many little plants that you can successfully distribute around your garden.

Attracting bees is just one of the reasons you'll want to add basil to your garden. When you have a lot of it spread around, there should always be plenty of leaves for you to pick, even when some of the plants are blooming. You can also use the bee-attracting qualities of the flowers to your advantage. Consider growing this one herb alongside zucchini, squash, and pumpkin for its pollinator-attracting advantages. Even your tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants will benefit from some extra bee activity. Isn't it wonderful that this one unassuming plant could provide so much additional support to your garden, rather than just giving you some aromatic leaves to flavor your pasta? You could even sneak a few of those flower stems and put them in an indoor arrangement.