Dr. Rosa's Bee-Friendly Backyard Tips

0:00It's April 1st, you're listening to Lester News today, AI-powered local news. I'm Corey with The Story. Biologist and bee expert, Dr. Rosa Vasquez Espinosa just dropped her top tips for turning any backyard into a buzzing bee paradise. She says ditch the perfect lawn and embrace weeds like dandelions, plant wildflowers that bloom from early spring through late fall, and let parts of. Your garden stay wild for instant pollinator boost. In Manchester, she helped launch a massive bee-friendly flower bed at Heaton Park, packed with 13 types of nectar-rich plants like primrose's and mung word. This ties into the new two-part series, Secrets of the Bees, hosted by Birdie Gregory, hitting National Geographic Wild on April 1st at 7pm, and Streaming on Disney Plus right after. A National Geographic survey of 2,000 gardeners shows folks are stepping up. 61% let areas grow wild, 65% plant, year-round bloomers, and 46% add flowering herbs.

1:04Even better, 73% think their spots are already bee-ready, with 13% rocking bee hotels. Dr. Espinosa pushes more easy winds, skip paving everything to leave bare soil for nesting, set out shallow bowls with rocks for safe water breaks, and cut chemicals like pesticides that mess with bees. She warns even so-called safe ones, can paralyze or kill them. Small shifts like these pack a punch. Nature rebounds fast when we give bees room to forage, nest, and thrive, keeping our ecosystems humming strong.