Attracting Bees with Simple Garden Changes

Start with what the bees actually need

Most of us picture bees in a wildflower meadow, but the hum you hear over a suburban back garden in July tells a different story. Bees are opportunists. Give them a steady supply of open flowers, a shallow drink and somewhere quiet to nest, and they will find you, whether your growing space is a full border, a balcony or three pots by a front door.

British gardens cover more area than all our nature reserves put together, which makes them genuinely important habitat. The good news is that the changes which help pollinators are rarely expensive or complicated. They are mostly about choosing the right flowers and then resisting the urge to tidy everything up.

Choose open, single flowers over frilly doubles

This is the single most useful rule. A bee needs to reach the nectar and pollen at the centre of a flower, and many highly bred doubles have replaced those parts with extra petals. Pom-pom dahlias, double begonias, ruffled petunias and the dense, blowsy forms of many roses may look wonderful, but they offer little or nothing to a hungry forager.

Open, daisy-like and tubular flowers are far more generous. Look for the word single on the label, or simply check that you can see the middle of the flower.

• Early: crocus, hellebore, willow, flowering currant, pulmonaria.
• Late spring: wallflowers, alliums, comfrey, aquilegia, hardy geraniums.
• Summer: lavender, catmint, borage, oregano, thyme, rosemary, single dahlias, cosmos, calendula, poached egg plant.
• Late season: sedum, Michaelmas daisies, single asters, ivy in flower, Japanese anemones.

Herbs do a huge amount of work here. A pot of oregano left to flower is a better bee plant than most of what you will find on a garden centre bench, and you get to cook with it.

Plant for a long season, not a single flush

A garden that erupts in June and then goes quiet is a garden that starves its bees in August. Bumblebee colonies are still raising young into early autumn, and solitary bees are active from March right through to September. Think of the year as a chain of flowering moments and aim to keep every link joined.

Three or four well-chosen plants can bridge most of the growing season in a small space. A lavender in a terracotta pot, catmint in the border, a sedum for late summer and a few crocus bulbs in a window box will feed bees from February to October with barely any effort. Repeat the same plant in several spots if you have room, as bees learn landmarks and return to reliable sources.

Offer water at ground level

Bees drink, and on hot days they also use water to cool their nests. A deep pond or a steep-sided birdbath is a drowning trap, so the trick is to make the water shallow and give them something to stand on.

• Fill a saucer or shallow dish with pebbles and top up so the stones break the surface.
• Refresh the water every couple of days in summer, as it stagnates quickly and mosquitoes will find it.
• Place it in semi-shade near a favourite plant, so bees do not have to cross a hot, exposed stretch of patio.
• Add a few small stones or a sloping edge to any existing wildlife pond.

A shallow dish tucked among pots costs nothing and is often the busiest spot in the garden on a warm afternoon.

Leave a few corners undisturbed

Flowers are only half the story. Roughly a quarter of our solitary bees nest in the ground, and many bumblebees choose tussocky grass at the base of a hedge or wall. Tidiness removes exactly what they need.

Try to leave one patch of long grass unmown through the summer, a small log pile in shade and a shallow bare patch of earth on a sunny bank, which mining bees will use as a nesting site. Resist cutting back hollow-stemmed plants such as teasel, sedum or old raspberry canes until late spring, as solitary bees often overwinter inside them. Leaf litter and a compost heap offer shelter too, and a pile of dead wood is a small hotel for all sorts of beneficial insects.

If you use slug pellets or sprays, keep them away from flowering plants and damp corners. A bee that gathers pollen from a treated flower has no way of knowing what it is carrying home.

Small spaces, big difference

You do not need a meadow. A north-facing balcony will still support bees if you choose shade-tolerant plants such as pulmonaria, hardy geraniums and foxgloves, and put a saucer of water on the ledge. A single lavender in a pot by a sunny door, allowed to flower rather than being clipped into a tight ball, will keep bumblebees visiting for weeks.

Stack pots at different heights, use wall-mounted planters for herbs, and let a few self-seeded plants stand. Bees are not fussy about the style of your garden. They are looking for reliable food, a safe drink and a quiet corner, and even the smallest plot can offer all three.