Has your garden started buzzing?
Dotted Bee Fly: Nick Upton (rspb-images.com)
It's just fantastic to see the bees and butterflies coming back, bringing our gardens to life as they search for early nectar rich plants that are available in spring. Favourites include: crocuses, cowslips, hellebores, spring blossom, primroses, pulmonarias and there are so many more. See the RHS’s top ten plants for pollinators, all with the award of garden merit which means they’re great growers plus Sarah Raven's favourites for more inspiration.
Pollinators like butterflies, moths, lacewings, hoverflies and beetles are all searching for food as the first flowering plants emerge and the more variety we can provide in our gardens, the more diverse range of pollinators and bees we will attract.
It’s worth knowing that if you do find a crawling or struggling bee in your garden, the best thing you can do is to put in gently onto a flower. A bee might actually be resting or need to reach a certain temperature before it can fly so a flower in the sun would be ideal. But if you do think a bee needs rescue, absolutely do not give it honey, this can actually kill the bee with harmful pathogens. Instead, offer just a drop or two of 50/50 sugar water in front of the bee, try not to put too much down to avoid the bee getting sticky in the solution it only needs to reach it with its long tongue. (Proboscis).
Hopefully you won’t need to save a bee with sugar water when your garden becomes filled with beautiful plants for bees and other spring plants for pollinators.
If you want to put an extra spring in your step, the Flatford wildlife garden is re-opening on Monday 12th April and will showcase more ideas and inspiration for wildlife friendly spring planting. Open everyday from 10.30am – 4.30pm, we look forward to seeing you!