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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I love bees! This is such a great post. I have literally just seen on of my friends post on facebook about leaving a bowl of water out for them with pebbles for them to stand on. Great idea and I will be doing it later today.
It is so simple to do yet can really help them 🙂 thank you for putting one out.
I find it very sad that we don’t seem to see as many bees nowadays. I believe we should all do our bit to help the bee population to thrive. After all, we need to help bees to help us.
Definitely – we really do need to try and protect them as best we can.
Our garden is full of bees and they absolutely love the flowers . The girls in the other hand hate that they are everywhere ha!
Aww, that is awesome – there are some beautiful flowers you can plant which will benefit bees.
Love the idea of a bee hotel!
These are some great insights for people who loves gardening and fond of bees. Thanks for sharing this wonderful tips!
Your welcome – bees are such special animals and definitely ones we need to help protect.
I get lots of bees in my garden as one of my neighbours has 11 beehives . I always put some water out if they come they are thirsty . I’d love a jar of his honey . They are fascinating to watch
Oh wow that is incredible – it is wonderful you pop some water out for them.
Ooooh I love to have a garden of my own and I am planning to have one. Thank you for sharing these tips. I will definitely keep them in mind.
I hope one day you have a garden of your own to take care of.
Bees are such an important part of the ecosystem! We are bee-friendly at my house and hope to get some bee boxes next summer.
I have an insect hotel but I definitely need to get a bee one as well myself.
We’ve got bee boxes in our garden and get leaf cutter bees in them.
Oh wow that is so cool! It is amazing how they just cut away at things.
I love all these ideas! It’s about time to fix our garden and plant!
I hope you have a good time fixing up your garden!
When we properly look at our garden I want to create somewhere bees can thrive, just as long as it’s away from the seated area haha x
Oh gosh yeah 100% you don’t want them buzzing all around haha!
I know that bees are so important for our nature, but I am so afraid of bees 🙂
Oh bless you – that can definitely be an issue ❤
These are wonderful tips. We are trying to find a few more plants for our garden so I will keep these in mind.
Ohh definitely do – there’s a lot of others you can look into as well.
I feed tired looking ones sugar water to perk them up
That’s such a great idea – it really helps them out.
I really have been trying to help the bees these last few years
I think it has become more common for people to try and help them out.
These are some great tips to make your garden bee friendly. We are taking steps to make our garden as bee friendly as possible.
Good luck with getting your garden all bee friendly! <3
Bees play an important role in the food chain. My garden is small, but I will do what I can to make it bee friendly. Thank you for the tips.
They really do I don’t think some people realise just how important they are for us all.
my husband loves to help any bee stuck on the ground or road and has planted many flowers specifically for bees.
Aww, bless him! It is so lovely to hear people do that to help out.
MAYBE in our future home – we will have a garden!
Aww, I hope you have a wonderful garden at some point. We are very lucky with ours.
I love seeing bees in the garden, we do have a wild flower area that attracts them and we can watch while they get busy
I noticed this morning while putting the washing out that there was a bee taking advantage of some of the weeds in the grass I was like aww.
I love seeing all the bees in the yard. We must have them to have food. The pollinate so much of our food. I love planting flowers all around the house. Great tips
Definitely I think we all need to remember that and look out for them.
This is so awesome! I always have a garden. It’s usually vegetables, but I think next year, I’m throwing in some plants that attract bees, too.
That would be a lovely idea! Thank you 🙂 I want to get one of the bee bombs with random seeds in.
These are great ideas! My kids are terrified of bees, but I’ve been trying to teach them how useful they are.
Aww, bless them, I have to admit I wasn’t a fan when I was younger.
we really do need to do more to look after these amazing creatures–they are vital to the planet
It is quite scary they are becoming more endangered really when you think how much they help us.
A lovely post! I love bumble bees. Oh I’m very much helping them then as I haven’t cut my lawn for 2 weeks!
Haha it’s good to know isn’t it – ours keeps coming out in weeds now I will tell everyone it’s for the bees.