Don’t Step On A Bee
Today is #DontStepOnABeeDay - an awareness day created to remind people not to step on bees.... seems sensible...... but also to raise awareness of bees as vital pollinators.
I was hoping to get a good photo of all of the bumblebees on the clover as the lawn is full of movement as they all bounce from delicious flower to delicious flower, but the pictures all came out a bit rubbish! We seem to have quite a few different species of bee in the garden at the moment, Dad and I carried out an audit recently where we spotted at least 6 species of bumblebee and two bumblebee nests along with some solitary bees and wasps too.
Gardening with our insects in mind brings me great pleasure; working out the appropriate flowers for the season, quantity and variety, along with choosing for the garden aesthetic. Honey bees for example see in polarised and ultraviolet light, this means that they tend to prefer flowers that are pinks, yellows and blues rather than reds. They also prefer a more open flower whereas bumblebees will crawl into flowers and use their longer tongues to get the nectar deep within the bloom.
I often get asked what should be planted to help bees and it's such a wide subject that a simple "X is perfect" answer just isn't possible, so I usually say that just start by planting anything as it will be useful to one of the millions of insects we have in our gardens and anything is better than nothing.
Here are some more tips -
visit a garden centre and watch where the bees are stopping and buy those plants.
plant for all year round, not just mid-summer. (early spring is a particular focus now the winters are milder)
big bushes, hedges and trees are good for honey bees
leave dead nettles until they've finished flowering as bumbles love them
a typical favourite is lavender but all herbs that flower are good; thyme, rosemary, dill; so we can share with the insects then.
leave your lawn a little longer and let the flowers grow - our lawn is cut on the highest setting which allows the buttercups and clover to flower, it also helps in a drought to keep the lawn green and to stop it becoming a mud pit as soon as it rains!
when we have warm weather and little rain, water the flowering plants (ideally from a rainwater butt) so they can keep giving nectar to the bees and other nectar loving insects like the hummingbird moth and butterflies.
Thanks for reading, I hope you find this helpful and do let me know if you manage to get through the day without stepping on a bee!
