How to make your garden more Bee Friendly

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Bees are remarkable flying insects found on every continent except Antarctica. Closely related to wasps and ants these widespread insects include an amazing 16,000 species worldwide.  

​Bees are probably most famous for their importance in pollination and this cannot be underestimated. Bees actually pollinate 40% of the food we eat along with countless wild plants and trees. In the UK alone without the presence of bees the lack of pollination would cost farmers over 1.8 billion a year.

Sometimes humans assume we are separate from the wider, global food chain and the ecology of the planet. However our ability to maintain our current dominance over nature is on borrowed time. Bee species have plummeted both locally and globally with a large percentage in danger of extinction. As high bee populations are a direct indicator of healthy environments the trends are truly worrying. 
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The good thing is bee friendly gardens now provide an oasis for these remarkable and vital insects. It is not actually very difficult to make your garden a haven for bees. If you want to make your garden more bee friendly there are a few things you can do.

This includes planning your garden correctly, providing food, water, shelter and including suitable habitat.

​Not all bees are the same; some are solitary, some social and some nest under the ground. Therefore you must cater for a broad spectrum of bee types to create the perfect garden environment. 
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Types of garden bee
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Honey bees 

These highly social bees can live in colonies as big as 60,000 individuals and are favoured for honey production. 

Bumble bees 

These represent around 250 different types with the UK having around 26. These social bees are physically larger than honey bees but live in much smaller colonies. 

Solitary bees 

These as their name suggest are not social living a solitary existence. Also great pollinators these bees burrow in soil, wood and hollow materials to lay their eggs.

All three of these garden bees are extremely beneficial to our gardens! Below we have listed the top 19 tips ad methods to make your garden more bee friendly!

Create sheltered microclimates

​Bees love warm, sunny and sheltered places with little wind to fly and forage for food. Very much like humans we like settled, environments which are comfortable to move about in. It is therefore not really taxing to create a sheltered place for bees in the garden.

​Try to provide open areas which are sunny and warm places to be. Prune excess overhanging trees and shrubs to allow for more sunlight. If your garden suffers from cold winds try to block these out with screening and barriers. Try to create warm micro-climates that maximise south facing aspects and reflect light as much as possible. 
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Create bee hotels 

​​Bee hotels usually comprise of hollow nooks and crannies arranged tightly together to create shelter for bees. These are more commonly made from open, timber boxes filled tightly with cut bamboo canes. Some have larger compartments covered with mesh and filled with old pine cones for larger gaps.

These are now readily available in garden centres and online and can look very attractive. These bee hotel structures are more aimed towards solitary bees. Solitary bees need long, narrow, tube like cavities in which to lay their eggs and complete their life cycles.  However you do not need to go out and buy a bee hotel you can make your own.
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Using recycled rubbish and building materials you can create even larger and more elaborate examples. One of the simplest ways to do this is drill holes of varying diameter into garden walls and features. 
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Make bee nests

​One of the reasons bee numbers are declining so dramatically is the reduction in suitable nest sites. In the case of honey bees we have provided them with plenty of manmade fortresses so we can benefit from their honey. This is not so the case with bumble bees however who regularly nest in underground burrows.

Naturally relying on decaying trees and undisturbed ground this species has seen a dramatic decline in numbers. One of the best ways to provide a suitable nest site for them is to make a bee nest. In their simplest form these are a hidden cavity with a long, tube like entrance. The best way to replicate this is to half bury a 10cm clay pot full of hay or straw.
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Cut a 30cm length of hose pipe which feeds into the cavity. Then backfill the soil around the pot and make sure the entrance tube is open flush with the soil. Ensure this is not in low lying ground that will flood in heavy rain. Before long a young queen should have taken up residence and start laying a new colony. 
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Mow less

​A common problem for bees is they lack enough flowering wild plants rich in pollen to feed. Plants like dandelion, yarrow and clover regularly inhabit lawns and are a staple food source for bees.

The problem is lawns are mown at such a high frequency they rarely allow these plants to flower. This is especially problematic in spring when the bees emerge from their burrows and need early nectar.

​Try to leave your lawn longer over the winter, this way in early spring wild plants can put their flowers out earlier. Try to mow less regularly so wild plants have a chance to bloom more often. 

Create a wildflower meadow

​Before the days of industrialised agriculture 100 years ago a great percentage of land was wild meadows. These were grown to provide food and bedding for livestock during the winter months.

​This allowed for tens of thousands of acres of flowering, wild plants to cover our countryside. These wild meadows were a sea of flowers for bees and provided an endless supply of food. These wild flower meadows were rarely ploughed providing burrowing bees safe places to nest.

Wild flowers and grasses found in meadows are particularly important for native bee species. To create a wildflower meadow in your garden you have a few options. Try to select nutrient poor soil like an existing lawn which has had no nutrients added.

​This can be turned and broken up into fine topsoil then seeded with wildflower seeds. Alternatively you can lay wildflower turf or plant wildflower plug plants into an existing lawn. 
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Weed less often

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The truth is weeds are just wildflowers which have the ability to readily colonise new ground. These pioneering wild plants are always some of the most beneficial to local ecology. Try to allow some of these weeds to grow from time to time. If you really cannot handle weeds growing in your flower borders why not let one corner of the garden grow wild? Flowering weeds can be a lifeline especially for very specialised, solitary bee species. 
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Provide linear features in the landscape

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Bees can forage up to three miles away from their nests and burrows for food. It has been revealed during studies of their movements they like to travel along linear landscape features. Try to provide lines in your landscaping to encourage bees to travel along them. This could be done with long, flowering hedges or planting flowing lines of flowering plants in your borders.  
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Grow plants bees love

​Without doubt one of the best ways to make your garden bee friendly is to grow plants they love. Perhaps more accurately it is the flowers of these plants that bees love. Flowers provide the nectar and pollen which is so crucial for bees to feed. This very ancient symbiosis where food is exchanged for pollination has existed for millions of years.

 Some of the best flowers for bees are ones which have not been too over bred. Over the years people have selectively bred flowers for more petals and blooms. This has led to flowers which are more difficult for bees to forage or with less pollen and nectar. This is why wild plants or plants closer to their natural relatives are much more beneficial for bees.
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When it comes to bee plants it’s not just the type of flower but when it flowers which is also important. Bees prefer flowers which bloom in succession throughout the season so there is a continuous supply of food.

Furthermore there are specific times of the year where bees need an extra boost for survival. This is in late winter when bees are just starting to emerge from hibernation and starving. Also autumn is an important feeding time when bees are trying to build up reserves for the winter.
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Mainly due to peoples preferences gardens are planted with plants which flower in summer. Therefore it is vital you provide plants which will also flower during these crucial times of the year. Below we have listed the best plants for bees and separated them into their flowering seasons. 
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Late winter flowering
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Mahonia

Clematis armandii

Almonds & Peaches

Fruit trees

Primrose

Willow

Hawthorn
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Strawberry tree

Hellebores

Crocus

Snowdrops

Daffodils
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Wild garlic 
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Summer flowering
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Comfrey

Borage

Cotoneaster

Sea holly

Cardoons

St Johns Wort

Scabious

Clover

Sunflowers

Lupins

Beans

Squash

Echinacea

Foxglove

Holly hock

Thyme

Lavender

Cat mint

Penstemon
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Verbascum 
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Autumn flowering
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Ivy

Aster

Japanese Anemone

Verbena

Sedum

Dahlia

Salvia

Buddleja
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Hebe

Grow vertically

It has been shown that bees particularly like flower borders with flowers layered at varying heights. This allows them to forage up and down the layers at will. This is good way to maximise their feeding and provide screening to unsightly areas, why not try grow vertically in your garden?

This can easily be done with trellis or climbers can be trained up walls with cables. You can go even further by drilling holes for solitary bees or by fixing bee hotels to vertical features.

​There are now green wall systems on the market which can support small amounts of soil. Drought resistant plants bees love can be planted in these such as thyme and sedums.  
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Provide block planting

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When bees forage for pollen and nectar they like to concentrate on one species at a time. Therefore it is beneficial to group the same flowering plants together. This can be done in block planting or drifts which can look very effective.

​If doing this over a large area try to integrate plants which flower at varying times of the season. This is beneficial to bees for a successional feeding and allows your borders to look great all year.   
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Do not use chemicals

​One of the biggest problems in modern gardening is our love affair with using chemicals. Every year millions of people spray a deadly concoction of herbicides and insecticides onto their gardens. The main problem with insecticides is they are indiscriminate.

This means as well as killing the various insects which eat your plants they also kill bees too! The insanity of this is these chemicals also kill other beneficial creatures which feed on pests. The result is a downward spiral of more and more pests with no garden based predators to control them.
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In a broader sense we don’t actually know just how long these chemicals last in our soil and ecosystems. This means we could be storing up many problems for ourselves into the future. If you want to make your garden bee friendly avoid these chemicals at all cost!
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Create a wildlife pond

One of the things people don’t acknowledge is all wildlife is part of a complex web of life. Sometimes we think we can pick what wildlife we do like and eliminate the ones we don’t.

​The reality of course could not be further from the truth. One of the best ways to make your garden more bee friendly is to boost local ecology. There is simply nothing better you can do to achieve this than build a wildlife pond.

In a more bee specific sense all bees are very thirsty insects! Honey bees work particularly hard in the hot sun all day to produce honey for their colony. In summer bees can be seen swarming on the edge of ponds drinking and collecting water.

​Many solitary bees actually require wet mud to build sealed cavities to lay their eggs. This means it is beneficial to have ponds with sloping edges and muddy banks. If you cannot go the whole way and install a wildlife pond in your garden a simple bird bath will do. 
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Make a soil bank

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Bare ground and soil banks are a much underestimated habitat for some solitary bees and bumble bees. In nature fallen trees, erosion and landslides create bare embankments of earth.

​These bare soil habitats are colonised by some specialised species including burrowing bees. These can be formed during garden excavations such as digging ponds or ground re-levelling projects.  You can take this a step further and create buried cavities with tubes and rubble to encourage bees to nest. 
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Build dry stone walls 

​If you are considering installing retaining features in your garden why not build a dry stone wall? These can be used to create rockeries, raised beds and even boundaries in the garden.

​As these are typically built with no mortar their gaps and cracks are perfect places for bees to burrow. Buying in natural stone rocks is the most effective but can also be expensive. Dry stone walls can also be built with broken paving stacked in a 'backward lean' against the ground.

​If you want to take this even further you can actually build hollows into the wall to create nesting sites. 
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Build hibernacula’s

​Hibernacula’s are quite simply a series of organic materials including stone, rubble, wood, dead plants and soil heaped together to create shelter for wildlife. Depending how these are made they can be excellent hibernation sites for insects, mammals, reptiles and amphibians.

​These rugged heaps in the landscape can actually be quite beautiful! The complex labyrinths of layered materials create perfect places for solitary bees in particular to over winter and lay their eggs. Below is an image of a hibernacula we built for an ecological mitigation project in London. 
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Don’t be afraid of bees

​Many people fall into the trap of panicking when bees hover near them. The ever present fear of being stung by anything wasp like is a panic shared by many. Bees and in particular bumble bees are wired to check out everything they come across.

If a bee is hovering facing you it is simply checking out if you have flowers on you. The worst thing you can do is flail your arms violently making the bee think it is under attack. Bees do have the ability to sting but rarely do!

​Only honey bees will die when they sting but this is always a last resort. If a bee comes near you ignore it and if it is persistent calmly walk away. Bees are naturally curious but not aggressive; do not be afraid of them! 
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Learn to identify bees

​One of the most interactive ways of making your garden more bee friendly is to study them. There is simply so much to learn about bees and still so much we don’t know. By learning to identify your garden bees you will begin to develop a mental list of the species that visit you.

​Nothing can describe the feeling when you discover a rare treasure has taken up residence. Learning to identify your bees is the first step to really becoming a proactive expert in bee conservation. 
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Start bee keeping

​If you really want to take attracting bees to the next level why not consider bee keeping? This delightful hobby is becoming more and more popular and even in built up locations. Bee keeping is an intensive activity that will take some commitment and initial investment.

However your hard work and commitment will not be without reward! If you want to start bee keeping it is advised you start reading up on the subject first. Join your local bee keeping association and get a taste for if it is right for you.

​Taking care of one of nature’s most fascinating insects and producing your own, organic honey will be a sheer delight! 
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If you require a landscaper, landscape gardening  services or garden design why not contact Paul and his team. Our landscape services cover Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire Hertfordshire and the Chiltern region.

​Some of our typical project locations include; Amersham, Aylesbury, Beaconsfield, Berkhamsted, Chalfont, Chesham, Gerard's Cross, Great Missenden, High Wycombe, Princes Risborough and Wendover.