How to Plant a Bee-Friendly Garden

A DIY bee garden should provide bees with decent meals made of their favourites: nectar and pollen. The good news is that we’ve discovered a long time ago that certain flowers are more appealing to bees than others.

Here are some of the most beautiful additions to a bee-friendly garden, guaranteed to get bees buzzing.

Add flowers with different blooming schedules to your garden and bees will thank you for it. After all, they need to collect their nectar and pollen goodies all year long, so a mix of early- and late-season flowers is one of the best tricks for planting a bee garden. This way your garden will be full of flowers and humming bees from early spring until well after the summer is over.

Pesticides are extremely toxic to bees and are likely to kill most of them. In fact, they’re one of the causes for their dwindling numbers. So, it’s best to try to avoid them altogether and instead use smart gardening methods such as natural fertilisers that will keep your plants growing strong to be able to fight off some of the pest attacks on their own. There are also many plant combinations that work great at repelling these tiny attackers, so it’s a good idea to look out for these pairs of companion plants first, before thinking about using chemicals.

Keep in mind that pests of some kind will always be part of your gardening routine and some of them are not actual enemies, but can be your garden’s best friends.

Some of the best flowers for planting in a bee garden are the ones that don’t have that many petals. Double flowers can also be difficult to navigate. So, keep this in mind when choosing plants for your bee garden.

Weeds have an important part to play in a bee garden, so don’t hesitate to leave a patch of your backyard to go a bit wild. Dandelions and thistles are full of nectar so they’ll attract bees from far and wide, while hollow stems provide a good shelter and nest for these hard-working insects.

Now that bees are well-fed with various nectar-rich delicacies, it’s time to think about providing them with a good shelter as well. You can easily build one for the solitary pollinators in your garden. All you need is a wooden box, a few hollow stems of different diameters for bees to nest in and a fixture to hang the bee hotel with. Find out more details with our easy guide for building your own bee hotel.

Don’t forget that bees need to keep hydrated as well. The key is to keep a shallow water source available in your garden. You could use a tray with a bit of water and place a few rocks in it to give the bees solid ground from which to drink.

We hope you found our list of tips for planting a bee garden helpful and that you’re ready to get the job started.

Next, why not get the kids more familiar with the amazing bees? We’ve rounded up some of the best bee crafts ideas for kids. Give them a go!

Don’t forget to use the free Cheerios pack of seeds in your garden to get you started on this lovely mission to support the bees.