Making my garden attractive for pollinators #hivegarden #gardenjournal
Yesterday I made a blog about backyard bumblebees. I've been trying to make my backyard attractive for pollinators because they are really having hard times at the moment.
The use of pesticides by farmers is destructive and kills complete bee colonies. And they also are attacked by invasive enemies like the Asian hornet.
And also a lot of people nowadays have their backyards fully paved which results in less flowers for the bees. And that is something I can change...
I have quite a lot of space where I place blossoming flowers which I especially have selected for attracting pollinators like bees and butterflies.
We need those insects. Without pollinators a lot of plants (especially fruits) won't survive!
Garden center
Last weekend I went to the garden center with my daughter and we bought quite a bunch of flowering plants. We've selected them on how useful they are for pollinators.
In the pots in the image below I used to have spices. But these always either dried out quickly or rotted away (although the pots have drainage).
Since I moved the spices on the ground, directly in soil, I had some empty pots.
So I bought some plants that can handle dry periods and attract bees. The purple ones are salvia. I forgot what type the others are.
I have a clear view on these pots through my kitchen window and I see lots of bees visiting the salvia. So it really helps.
My daughter wanted some more color in the backyard, so when she spotted some bigger salvia plants we had to bring them as well. We found two bigger pots with drainage and added them to our cart.
The salvia comes in two colors; purple and pink, so we bought one of both colors. They look really cool up close. I captured these with my macro lens.
Last year we already bought three lavender plants, which have survived the winter and have significantly increased in size.
But around the lavender we had some space without anything growing (except weeds), so we bought a couple of these Campanula Ambellas. You might see the influence of my daughter in choosing the colors 😂
The issue of 'too much black soil' needed to be fixed in more spots in the backyard, so we bought some more 'ground covering plants' like these Erodium xvariabile 'Bishop's Form'. What a name for a plant. But we liked the tiny flowers with the nice stripe pattern.
On the side of my garden I had a patch of soil where I seeded 'bees and butterflies' flower mix a couple of weeks ago. The patch has turned green now and the flowers are growing quite well. I wonder when the sea of green will turn into a sea of all colors.
And I've also thought of housing for the pollinators. I have an insect hotel that I have moved around the garden in the past years. It just didn't seem to be attracting guests... until last year. Last year I noticed carpenter bees entering the bamboo sticks. And after a few days I saw some of them were sealed. That means they created birth chambers for their eggs.
And a few days ago I saw some of the chambers have opened up. That means the birth of new baby bees ❤️🐝
It's nice to be able to help nature a bit. It might be just a small thing, but if more people do this it might actually help the bees.
And in return they let me take photographs of them every now and then like this bumblebee that was enjoying the nectar of the salvia.
Do you also have a pollinator-friendly garden? Do you have some more tips on making mine even more friendly for them? Or did I inspire you to improve yours?
I’d love to hear your thoughts, so share your perspective in the comments!
People just cut down trees, concrete their yards, pave the yard...
I have a simple method to help these little treasures.
I don't mow the grass regularly, I let the flowers sprout, the grass and only after a while do I mow it, and not all of it. In my yard there is still a part of the yard where there is chamomile and the surviving flowers, it hasn't been mowed. In the orchard as well.
In our neighbourhood they have 'May don't mow!' for public lawns. I think it even looks better than fresh cut grass. The lawns are full of flowers again.
Same here.
I see a lot of bees in our garden, but then we have a good variety of flowers. They do like salvia, but also foxgloves, catnip and others. We allow some 'weeds' like verbascum, wild poppies and teasels to grow. We also do 'no mow May'. We have a couple of ponds, but have not seen any frogs recently. I have seen damselflies. I just enjoy seeing nature make use of the garden. Plus it's pretty.
It's really nice to have some life in your garden. In winter I try to get some more birds in my backyard by hanging some food for them.
I don't have a pond, but I did find a big toad recently. I brought him to a nearby pond.
the Erodium xvariabile does work very well on my balcony too :)
Strange name, but cute little flowers.
Seeing bees actually using those bamboo tubes is pretty surprising. I would have thought they’d ignore it completely, that must be nice to notice over time though
It's a specific type of bee that uses them.
Oh ok I get it now
Crazy beautiful colors and I think the bees will like it as well. 😆
They surely do. I have seen a lot already visiting the new flowers.
The climate is also important, especially when I lived in the tropics. Our garden would be swarming with bees when the jasmine bloomed—those little white flowers that look like orange blossoms. The passionfruit vine attracts cicadas, so I don't recommend it. Good luck!
Thanks! We don't have cicadas around here. I always associate them with holidays in Southern Europe 😃
Hola muy bello el jardin ,y tienes razon con lo q dijeste hay q cuidar las mariposas y las abejas ellas son necesaria para la naturaleza y mas las abejas q nos brinda su miel