Preparing your garden for bees

If you look after your environment, your environment will look after you!

Our little friends, the bees, are integral to not only our gardens looking beautiful and beautiful, but also ensuring that our public fields are alive, food grows, and we breathe fresh air. At Olive Tree Gardens we believe it’s important to take care of our little furry friends - because without them, we would not have a job.

These creatures need our help!

97% of flower-rich land has been lost, since 1940’s, in the UK. This decline in vital habitats in which wild bees, butterflies and other insects nested and fed, has resulted in more than two thirds of UK pollinators being pushed to extinction.

That is why its important to keep our network of varied gardens to allow for habitats that are vital for bees and butterflies to live

As far as planting goes, the good news is that growing for bees and butterflies opens up a world of beautiful options, as well as the knowledge that you’re helping these vital creatures thrive.

Hollyhock - These classic cottage garden plants are particularly popular with the male buff-tailed bumblebee, which value their nectar. Large groups of bees and butterflies are often visible making their way up and down their blooms that reach high into the sky. Flowers can be pink, purple, red, white or yellow and bloom throughout the summer.

Purple top vervain - A brilliant butterfly plant, rivalling even buddleia in butterflies’ affections. It produces tightly packed clusters of lilac-purple flowers from June to September, helping to sustain bees and butterflies into autumn.

Known to attract honey and bumble bees as well as comma butterflies, fritillaries, painted ladies and red admirals.

Lavender - Research shows that late summer and autumn are difficult times for honey bees to find forage, as opposed to the spring time when most plants are blooming. Lavender, with its long flowering period, is therefore much-loved by this kind of bee. Not only a great beekeeper, lavender offers relaxation remedies when cut and smelled.

Buddleia - It’s one of the go-to plants for wildlife-friendly gardeners and peaks in August, making it a magnet for pollinators at this time of year. Butterfly bush ‘Empire Blue’ is a large, violet-blue buddleia with scented flowers. For something a bit more unusual, try ‘Black Knight’, a deciduous shrub with narrow leaves and fragrant, dark purple flowers.

Happy bee protecting guys! let us know how you are getting on!