Category: Bees

Buzzing in the Garden

A few years ago I began planting in earnest to bring in bees and now my garden is alive and buzzing. As they state, beware what you wish for, as I now have bees living in the garden and the eaves of your house. They live quietly and cause no trouble.


Many of the plants are bee good friend the garden truly does buzz. Top of the best sellers for bees are blue and mauve flowers; Chives, Russian sage and Geranium ibericum are all big hits and covered in bees.


Bees likewise like flowers with a “landing path”, such as Foxgloves, Alstroemeria and Nasturtium; they land and get stuck in.


If you want to encourage bees into the garden, choose a couple of plants from the Bee good friend list, and the bees will follow.


Bees likewise enjoy herbs and are attracted to Thyme, chives, Borage, Marjoram, Monarda (also referred to as Bee Balm) and Rosemary. There are plusses all round growing herbs as they taste good to the bees and to us, a herb garden is always buzzing. I frequently see Tansy suggested for bees, however be alerted it is both energetic and intrusive and should only be planted with care.

Not forgetting the Sedum obviously, loved by all pollinators including bees and butterflies.


Bees enjoy the vegetable plot, particularly if blended with the veg are some easy flowers such as Calendula (Pot Marigold) and Nasturtiums. Bees love to pollinate and were zipping around the broad beans so rapidly I couldn’t get a decent image.


Bumble Bees are extremely crucial pollinators for tomatoes, and crucial part of fruit development. Tomato growers awakened to the power of bee pollination in the late 1980 and there is now a commercial bumble bee market. Prior to importing bees into business glasshouses tomatoes were pollinated by hand, buzzing the plants to shake the pollen. Studies have likewise revealed the bumble bee does a much better job than the human efforts.


I have seen making use of imported bees to pollinate crops, tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers in Iceland where even in the dark winter season, huge glasshouses grow crops. The glasshouses are heated by geothermal energy from the warm springs, efficient and free. Boxes of bees are presented to guarantee pollination.

Garden enthusiasts tend to be ecologically aware as a group, and we understand the pivotal function bees play in the food cycle, and the struggle with pesticides and disease diminishing their numbers. I like to think by bee friendly corner assists. The year we got a swarm, which went into the loft and the cavity was less enjoyable. The buzzing in the cavity wall was audible and a tad unnerving.

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Bees are not Just For Summer

Bees emerge from the winter season hibernation actually starving and have an extremely short time in which to discover food or pass away. Early blooming plants are vital for the singular bees and some of the very best bee friendly plants for this time of year are Pulmonaria showed initially left, a low growing Woodland plant which is shade tolerant and simple to grow. Numerous Hellebores flower for weeks from winter season through to spring and offer both a charming garden screen and food for the bees.

The Forget me not resembles by bees, as is Rosemary (in common with many herbs) which although it has small flowers, is really appealing to bees.

Viburnum × carlcephalum is a shrub well worth growing for it’s wonderfully sweet fragrant flowers, which are likewise like by bees as are Bluebells and Blossom flowers.

Simply yesterday I chanced to take a look at the outside wall of your home adjacent to garden. Extremely still, shining, heating up in the sun was a singular bee which appear like it was on its very first outing. I kept my eye on it for a few minutes and later it was gone. I hope in the direction of the Pulmonarias.

About now the simple Aubretia is entering into flower. It’s a fairly typical location plant, really easy to grow and it looks especially efficient routing down walls. Aubretia forms a thick mat of blue and with it come the bees. It is a great source of food and as we understand, bees love blue. Simply to advise us of what is to come later on in the year here is a short, less than 2 minute video of the bees drawn to blue flowers, in this case durable Geraniums and Chives, on a warm day, with lots of birdsong.

I love the sound of the early bees, low flying hovering over the ground foraging for food. The sound of the start of spring.

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