Make the garden bee-friendly: Here's how!

Bees play a huge role in our ecosystem. With a bee-friendly garden you can protect and support the population of these animals.

Bee friendly garden

Author: House of Eden

A bee-friendly front yard actively contributes to the protection and promotion of the bee population. Bees play an important role in pollinating plants and maintaining the natural environment. If you want to create a bee-friendly garden, you can grow bee-friendly beds or turn the lawn into a bee-friendly meadow. This is how you appear to him bee deaths opposite.

What does a bee friendly garden look like?

Bee-friendly gardening needs to be learned. A bee-friendly garden design requires sufficient food sources, nesting opportunities and, above all, protection for the bees. Here you can find some Urban Gardening Tips for a bee-friendly garden that can also make a valuable contribution to maintaining the bee population.

1. Variety of plants:

A varied food source is particularly important for bees. Therefore, one should choose a variety of bee-friendly flowers, herbs, and shrubs with different flowering times and forms. This provides the bees with food throughout the year.

2. Flowering Plants:

Plants that are particularly rich in nectar and pollen are therefore particularly attractive to bees. They include marigolds, lavender, carnations or dahlias.

3. No Pesticides:

Chemical pesticides can be particularly harmful to bees or other pollinators. Instead, one should therefore choose natural pest control methods or prefer pest-resistant plants.

4. Nesting Opportunities:

Bees can nest very easily in piles of dead wood, bee hotels and nesting boxes. This provides protection and shelter.

5.Information:

In addition, you should always find out about the needs and preferences of the bees in the region. Thus, one knows about the local bee species and the consequently attractive plants.

Bee friendly garden Bee on flower

Insect Friendly Plants: The Best Flowers, Shrubs & Trees

An insect-friendly garden is of course characterized by a variety of flowers, shrubs and trees, because they offer a rich source of food for insects. A variety of bee-friendly plants for the garden creates a thriving oasis that attracts insects while also supporting their habitats. These can also be ideas for self-caterer .

  • bee perennials:
    Perennials are plants that stay alive for several years. They die above ground in winter, so that they always sprout fresh again in spring. The most bee-friendly perennials include catnip, delphinium and cranesbill.
  • Bee-Friendly Ground Covers:
    Ground cover is a term used to describe plants that spread out with their shoots and offshoots without gaps, flat and close to the ground surface. Thyme, daisies and chickweed are therefore particularly bee-friendly.
  • Bee-Friendly Herbs:
    Above-ground, mostly uncovered plants or parts of plants are called herbs. Oregano, rosemary or sage not only help to improve the taste of food, but are also particularly attractive to bees.

Native flowers for a lively buzz of insects

Bee-friendly garden flowers are also characterized by regionality, among other things. Native flowers for bees are better adapted to local conditions and thus to the needs of native bees. These can also be partial edible flowers for your own Kitchen .

1. Marigolds:

Marigolds are not only beautiful to look at, they are also an excellent food source for bees. They attract different types of bees.

Flowering period: June to October

2. Lavender:

Lavender not only brings a pleasant scent to your garden, but also provides bees with an excellent source of food. Lavender can also be used indoors as a dried flower once it has bloomed.

Flowering period: July to August

3. Cloves:

Carnations are fragrant flowers with many open petals that attract bees. There are several types and varieties of carnations that are attractive to bees.

Flowering period: May to June

4. Dahlias:

If you want to put dahlias in the garden to promote the well-being of the bees, it is particularly important to use unfilled dahlias, because bees have very little access to the nectar and pollen of the flowers from the filled dahlias.

Flowering period: July to October

5. Geraniums:

Geraniums are a popular ornamental plant found in many gardens. Although they are not native plants, they can still have a certain attraction to insects such as bees and butterflies.

Flowering period: May to October

6. Mallow:

Mallows are not only decorative flowers, but also very bee-friendly. They flower over a longer period of time and thus offer bees a rich source of food.

Flowering period: July to September

Shrubs for bees, butterflies & Co.

In addition to the flowers, there are also bee-friendly shrubs that you can easily put in the garden. It is important to consider the right site conditions for each shrub.

Here are listed a few native shrubs for bees that attract bees and also pollinate butterflies and others:

Bee-Friendly Shrubs Hardy:

Cornelian cherry (Cornus mas): Cornus is a hardy shrub with bright yellow flowers in early spring. It provides an early food source for bees and other insects.

Bee-friendly shrubs sunny:

Butterfly bush (Buddleja davidii): The butterfly bush is a large shrub with fragrant flowers that attract butterflies. He prefers sunny locations.

Bee-Friendly Shady Shrubs:

Dogwood (Cornus): Dogwood shrubs are versatile and can grow in both sunny and shady areas. They provide nectar for bees and their showy fruits serve as food for birds.

In order to provide a continuous source of food, you should also make sure to plant a variety of shrubs.

Bee-friendly trees for the garden

These two types of trees are suitable for both larger gardens and smaller gardens:

  • Meadow (Salix): Willows are known for their abundance of food. They provide plenty of pollen and nectar for bees, especially in early spring when other plants are not yet flowering. There are several types of willow, including white willow (Salix alba) and osier (Salix viminalis).
  • lime (Tilia): The linden is another bee-friendly tree that is very popular with bees. Its fragrant flowers are rich in nectar and are therefore eagerly visited by bees. There are different types of linden trees, such as the small-leaved linden (Tilia cordata) and the summer linden (Tilia platyphyllos).

For a rather small garden, small bee-friendly trees such as apple or cherry trees are also suitable.

Caution: Bees avoid these plants

Bees generally visit a variety of flowers and plants. But which plants do not bees like? Here are some examples of plants that repel bees.

  • Fragrant burnet (Achillea millefolium): Although the fragrant burnet is a beautiful flowering plant, it does not attract many bees. Bees usually prefer flowers with a higher supply of nectar and pollen.
  • geranium (Pelargonium): Although geraniums have showy flowers, they produce little nectar. However, bees prefer flowers with a larger amount of nectar to meet their energy needs.
  • hydrangea (hydrangea): While hydrangeas are popular ornamental plants, their flowers are not particularly attractive to bees. After all, they contain little nectar and pollen.

Nonetheless, it is important to note that even plants less favored by bees may be visited by other pollinators such as butterflies, bumblebees or beetles.

By the way, if you want to create an insect-friendly garden, it is advisable to grow a variety of plants that attract different insects. In this way you create a rich and diverse food source for various pollinator species.

Benefits of a bee friendly garden

A bee garden offers a win-win situation by helping the bees, protecting the environment and also creating a tasteful garden that you feel comfortable in.

Bee-Friendly Garden Benefits:

  1. Pollination: Bees play a crucial role in pollinating flowers, fruit trees, vegetables and other plants. By creating a bee-friendly garden, you support pollination, thereby helping to improve plant diversity and health. This can result in a better harvest and more floriferous blooms. Also the quality of honey increases with the quality of food sources.
  2. Aesthetics: Bee-friendly flowers and plants help beautify the garden. This creates a variety of colors, shapes and scents. As a result, the garden looks attractive and lively.
  3. environmental protection: A low-maintenance bee-friendly garden helps protect the natural environment. Bees are important pollinators for many plant species and their decline can lead to negative impacts on biodiversity and, more importantly, on the ecosystem. A bee-friendly garden can help slow this decline and thus promote the preservation of the bee population.

FAQ

How do I create a bee friendly garden?

  1. Plant a variety of bee-friendly flowers and plants.
  2. Avoid using pesticides.
  3. Create water points and provide nesting sites.

What do bees need in the garden?

Bees need food in the garden in the form of bee-friendly flowers and plants, water sources for drinking, and nesting options such as bee hotels or natural nesting sites such as hollow stems and tree cavities. Avoid using pesticides and create a variety of plants.

Which flowers are hardy and bee friendly?

Winter heather, snowdrop and crocus are hardy flowers that provide bees with nectar and pollen, making them ideal for a bee-friendly garden.

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