How to Make Your Garden Bee Friendly

Bees – we are all aware that they are something we should look out for in our garden. After all, bees are important. However, how do we do that? 

Especially when there are over 200 species in the UK, with just 1 being the honeybee, 20 the bumblebee and most of the rest made up from solitary bees. 

Bees are a species that are a big part of our ecosystem. Without bees, there would be no pollination of crops thus destroying our food security and causing the loss of many jobs. 

Sadly bees are declining and there is a real fight for their survival going on. One thing we can do ourself is learning how to keep the bees happy, by making small changes in our gardens. 

Grow Bee Friendly Plants.

There are some amazing plants out there which are wonderful for bees.

One of my favourite bee-friendly plants has to be lavender. Other plants which bees love are things like; bluebells, crocuses, rosemary and herbs. 

All of these can be grown simply and easily at home, whether you have a lot of space outdoors, or will be using planters on a patio or balcony. A good method to try out at home is square foot gardening. But what is it?

You can find a guide to square foot gardening online, but really, the square foot gardening system means that you can grow more plants using less space, which maximises yields and helps to minimise waste.

Square foot gardening is something that is a very basic system, making it great for a bee-friendly garden, and a good choice for beginners to gardening, as well as children.

Researching which time of year flowers blossom will also help you plant a range of bee-friendly plants for all seasons. 

Read and Research.

One of the things you can do to help bees is read and research about them.

For instance ‘Buzz – The Nature and Necessity Of Bees’ and ‘The Good Bee – A Celebration of Bees and How to Save Them’  are available at The Works. As well as a wide selection of discount gardening books.  

The internet can also be your friend, offering a wide range of hints and tip on how to help the bees. 

Create a Bee Hotel.

Solitary Bees lay their eggs in hollow cavities. So creating your own bee hotel could give them somewhere to do this.

It isn’t hard to create your own, or you could buy one if crafting isn’t your strong point. 

Remember to position your bee hotel in a sun-facing direction and add-in something for the larvae to eat. 

Provide Water.

Bees need access to water. So providing a shallow water dish something to think about doing.

Using pebbles to make islands within the water, so the bees have somewhere to land, as they can drown.

Make a Bees Nest.

While bee hostels work wonderfully for solitary bees a bees nest will help out the queen when the time comes to hibernate.

Most often bees hibernate in small holes, some of which could be made by small mammals. 

Using a pot, moss and hay you can make a simple place for bees to hibernate when the time comes. 

Let Your Weeds Grow.

Don’t fancy cutting the lawn? Well, why not leave it for another week!

The weeds that grow on your lawn could be the perfect flowers for the bees. So why not give them some time to take what they need, before you cut them down?

Use Natural Pesticides.

The best idea would be to avoid using pesticides at all. However, if you need to, try and use a natural alternative.

Remember to never spray anything on open flowers. 

As well as keeping the bees happier, it makes a much nicer area for all those enjoying it. 

These are some idea on how to make your garden bee-friendly, I really hope they are helpful to you. 

Do you have any other ideas on how to be as bee-friendly as possible? 

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