Bees in the vegetable garden — mustard

Want to entice more bees to your vegetable garden? Plant mustard. Bees absolutely love mustard flowers! These pretty, bright yellow flowers produce an abundance of both pollen and nectar for bees and other pollinators.

A member of the brassica family, the mustard plant is easy to grow and quick to mature. Enjoy the young, spicy greens on your dinner table and then let the plant grow tall and flower — you will get a great pop of color in your garden and make a lot of bees very happy! It is sure to be a happy feast for all involved.

Bonus: Collect the seed pods after they become brown to enjoy their spicy seeds. Then chop the plant and turn it back into the garden to reap its soil-cleansing benefits.

This piece is part of the collection Native bee interactions with plants

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