As a home owner, or prospective home owner you can put your land/garden to good, environmentally friendly use in many ways. One way is to focus on bringing back the bees. Yes, the North American bee population has been on a serious decline. As the population of these valuable buzzers rapidly decreases, it poses a serious threat to our food supply.

To quote Albert Einstein : "If the bees disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would have only four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man." Whether or not this statistic is true, the truth lies in the fact that we depend on bees to pollinate our food crops. Close to thirty percent of the food we consume depends on the pollination of domestic bees.

North American farmers rely heavily on domesticated honeybees for crop pollination; So much so, that is is hard to remember that food crops were once entirely pollinated with wild bees.

So...What can you do? There are two main directions you might consider as a prospective bee helper.

To help strengthen the bee gene pool, consider resurrecting an age-old hobby and become backyard beekeeper. Experts recommend starting with a local beekeepers' association to learn how to keep a healthy and thriving bee population. Of key importance to bee vitality is choosing bees that are locally sourced, and thus adapted to your particular climate. Aside from contributing to the bee population by adding healthy local honeybees to the mix, just two of your hives can pollinate an entire mid-sized residential garden. Just imagine your beautiful garden and all those tasty veggies! Join the ranks of backyard beekeepers and infuse this dying hobby with new, and much needed life.

Another good deed you can do is to keep a backyard bee garden. Protecting our wild bee populations will reduce the risk of relying on the threatened, domesticated bees to do all the work. In your garden, cultivate plants and flowers that attract bees. With urban development limiting their foraging habitat, backyard gardens offer a welcome supply of nectar and pollen for bees. Flowers that bloom successively over the spring, summer and fall seasons are a good choice. Some varieties to consider are: corepsis, Russian sage, and germander. These species will proved pollen and nectar to the native bees of all seasons. Large patches pf like flowers planted in close proximity to one another will improve bee visitation. Diversity is key to happy and abundant bees. If you need more input on what to plant, check your local garden center for their advice on "bee-friendly" florals.

Bees are not garden snobs. They prefer a more wild garden over a manicured space. And, they don't discriminate between weeds and cultivated flowers.So, in some ways this is a low maintenance job for you! Relax, build it, and they will come.

Another key point as you go along beautifying your bee garden, is to keep it natural. Keep your garden free of pesticides. The exact causes of the decline in the bee population are unknown, but pesticide use is a definite contributing factor. Pesticides can kill a bee on contact. Likewise a bee can carry the contaminant back home and harm the entire hive.

More than just decorative spaces to impress our friends and neighbors, gardens are natural spaces that we share with many species. As much as we have the potential to harm our environment, we have great potential to help our environment. Put your own two hands to work, and join the push to save our bees, who are, after all, invaluable friends and neighbors.