Recent research tells us that natural homes for bees are becoming less in abundance. Which means that planting a bee-friendly garden should become a priority when planning one.  Interestingly enough, bee-friendly gardens also contribute to increasing bee varieties. If you are considering planting a vegetable patch, another bonus you can look forward to is a bountiful harvest of vegetables as much of the heavy work of pollinating vegetable crops is done by honey bees.

If you have a garden already and would like to start creating a bee-friendly haven, then doing so isn’t as complicated as you may think. Here are a few tips which will assist you in your quest to positively impact the environment:

• Choose plants that attract bees: This is fairly self-explanatory but there are certain plants that are more attractive to bees than others. These plants include the likes of basil, sage, thyme, lavender, watermelons, cucumbers and pumpkin.
• Group the same plants together: If you have the space, try to plant at least one square metre of the same type of plant together.
• Pick plants with long blooming cycles: This will keep the bees coming back to your garden.
• Let your plants flower: Leave the flowers on your plants, this will allow the honeybees to get the pollen and nectar they need.
• Fresh water source: Any shallow water source will do; a bird bath, a waterfall, a pool or even newly watered potted plants are good for bees.
• No pesticides or other chemicals: Most chemicals are toxic to bees, so when in doubt, rather leave it out.
• Weeds: Flowering weeds are very important food sources for bees.

Your local GCA garden centre has a full range of products for all your bee gardening needs which ranges from hose pipes, spades, rakes, pruning sets, pot plants, soil and seeds to name but a few.

Interesting bee facts – reference:  Buzzaboutbees.net

1. To produce a pound of honey, foraging bees have to fly around a whopping 88,500 kilometers
2. That’s a lot of honey bees, working very hard, because each honey bee will only produce around one twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in its life!
3. That’s despite the fact that a foraging honey bee visits up to 100 flowers – per foraging trip
4. Honey is the only food made by an insect, and eaten by both the insect and humans