Bees in the Garden

Five years ago we started to try gardening. We had a large yard and decided to think outside the box and plant vegetables everywhere. I went to the local nursery and asked if tomatoes would grow in a flower bed (yes, I understand how goofy that sounds now). They told me I could if it got enough sun and I proudly exclaimed that we were going to make really good use of the yard and skip flowers and only grow edibles. Thank goodness the people at Edwards taught me that flowers attract beneficial insects into the garden and ignoring them might not be the best idea. I left with two small flowering perennials that day. 

The thing we've learned over the past several years is that flowers attract a lot of good insects, but water is AMAZING for honeybees. Last year I was worried to have 5-6 honey bees drinking regularly. This season is so dry we have at least 20 at a time. I've gotten used to them and we've had no problems. We do need to teach Lucy to not bother them as she likes to snap at bugs. She'll learn. The first five are photos; videos follow to show the volume of bees we are getting.