Bees in the woods: Seeding wildflowers (in English)

(upbeat music)

- In this video, we're
going to be talking about

opportunities that you have
for seeding flowering plants

to increase food
resources for pollinators.

After a harvest or disturbance,

you might wanna help things along

by seeding flowering
plants in skid trails,

landings, or burn piles.

These areas are great places for seeding

because there'll be fewer
native plants coming up

after a harvest or disturbance.

Focusing on these areas is also important

because evidence shows that seeding

into a clear cut alone with no direction

doesn't result in many
flowering plants coming up.

Often there's invasive
species or a seed bank already

in the soil that out
competes the flowering plants

that you're hoping to provide habitat

for your pollinators.

In landings and skid trails

you can do the same site preparation

that you'll be doing for
your reforestation project,

doing some tendings, spot spraying,

or pulling before you seed the flowers.

One of the other benefits
of seeding wildflowers

is that they don't compete too
much with your tree seedlings

so you'll be able to plant

at a similar density that
you would out in the unit.

The next big consideration
is choosing your seed mix.

There's going to be lots
of options out there

but we have a few tips
for you to think about

when choosing your mix.

Try to focus on native species

and a good mixture of annuals,
short lived perennials

and long lived perennials.

You'll wanna watch out for flowers

that take up a lot of space

and are pretty dominant in an area

such as lupines and yarrow.

So make sure there's a lower
percentage of your seed mix

that are of those species,

so they don't completely
dominate the area.

When thinking about what seeds

you might wanna put on your property,

you might be interested in looking into

what rare pollinator
species live in your area

and choosing what flowers
that they like to visit

and plant those on your property.

There's resources like bloom calendars

that help you identify

which flowers will
bloom early in the year,

mid-year, and late year,

so that you have a good mix of bloom times

for your seed mix.

You also want to look for a
diversity of flower shapes,

so that you can provide various resources

for pollinators with
varying types of anatomy.

Sometimes they'll be
grasses in your seed mix.

You want to be careful
of having too much grass,

probably no more than 50% and
only consider bunch grasses.

Otherwise grasses could take over

and you won't have enough
flowering resources

for your pollinator habitat.

When thinking about how
much seed to put out,

it's good to have about 50
to 60 seeds per square foot.

Try to lay out the seed in early winter,

before the first snow or right
after the first snow melts.

This will help get temperatures low enough

for seeds that require a frost

and the winter rains help push the seeds

into the ground for them
to be able to germinate.

Getting the seeds out in winter

also helps with reduce
of loss from rodents

or birds eating your seed.

Don't forget to flag out
your wildflower plots,

so that when you're doing site preparation

or site maintenance

you don't spray over
your wildflower plots.

If invasive species do come up

or other plants that you don't want,

you can still spot spray
or pull out unwanted plants

to provide more space for
your wildflower seedlings.

Lastly, don't be afraid

if your flowers don't
come up the first year.

Sometimes it takes a year or two

for them to be able to germinate

and you'll see increased
flowering resources

over the next few years.

When building your burn piles,

consider building more burn piles

that are a little bit smaller,

and the reason for this
is because when they burn,

they're more likely to leave
a little bit more woody debris

around the outside edge.

When this happens and you seed
the inside of the burn pile

then you have flowering resources

for pollinators on the inside

and you have nesting habitat
right there and available

for pollinators around the
outside ring of your burn pile.

In burn piles, you don't
have to worry about

doing too much site preparation

because the heat from the fire

has already sterilized the soil

and there won't be many seeds there

to compete with the
seeds that you lay out.

When considering what locations
to seed your wildflowers

or putting any type of
pollinator habitat enhancement,

try to stay away from areas

where there might be higher
risks to pollinators,

like places where fungicides

or insecticides are heavily used.

(upbeat music)