Bee Friendly Vineyards Principals
1. Create Bee Habitat
Provide acres of food (flowers), water (pesticide-free ponds, water features, etc.), and shelter (soil, trees, leaf litter, etc.)
Reduce/eliminate mowing, at least until flowers are finished blooming
Care for your underground livestock, to generate healthy flowers aboveground
Nicole Masters’ “Soil Health Principals” -
Maintain soil groundcover and protection
Living roots for as long as possible
Incorporate livestock and/or their manures (where feasible)
Diversity, diversity, diversity
Optimize plant photosynthesis
Reduce disturbance - minimize killing your underground livestock
Manage for what you want, not what you don’t want
The actions which arise from these principals are influenced by your specific climate and circumstance
Note: For more detail and direction see Integrity Soils and the book, “For the Love of Soil”
Note: See John Kempf’s work on plant nutrition at Advancing Eco Agriculture
Note: See our project partner, Mimi Casteel’s, website for regenerative vineyard specific blogs, podcasts, and more.
Note: Recent studies have shown that “stacking” soil health principals significantly amplifies benefits (these studies are based in almond orchards - which share many of the same issues as commercially managed wine grapes)
2. Embrace Creativity
What specific skills can you bring to help foster positive change in the wine industry? What brings you joy? Use this simple practice to get started.
Experiment with new tools to improve your vineyard health with flowers
Continuous living cover crops
In-row plant diversity
No till seed drill
Roller crimper
Compost
Vermiculture
Grazing
Ask yourself - what does your vineyard currently contribute to your community, your family, your environment, and your local bee population?
Embrace the Paradigm Shift that deep regenerative ag is asking of us
Expect failure, be prepared to learn from it
Think about “interbeing” and what that means to you - how can you practice interbeing through agriculture
Accept that we are coming out of 11,000+ years of climate stability, it’s not going “back to normal”
4. Cultivate Societal and Individual Hope
Engage your community by leaning on relationships and using transparency, we’re all in this together
Utilize your vineyard and tasting room space to bring beauty, joy, inspiration, and art to your visitors
See yourself as part of nature, not separate from it
Celebrate life-long learning – we’ll never have it all figured out
Sit with the grief of the heaviness of our times
Yet, never give up hope!