World Bee Day
Make a bee haven in your garden
support the bees
Our wild bees are in crisis and gardeners are in a unique position to help. Bees pollinate our wild flowers and many of our crops. If they disappear most of our favourite foods, like coffee, strawberries and tomatoes, will vanish. It’s a complex situation, but there are simple essentials that you can add to your garden or outside space now to help.
bee the change
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We have teamed up with the Bumblebee Conservation Trust for World Bee Day to inspire everyone to take action and help our wild bees. Of the over 280 known species of bee in the UK, 24 are bumblebees and only 1 is the honeybee (all the rest are solitary bees). Over the past century, our bumblebee populations have crashed. Two species of bumblebee are now nationally extinct and several others have declined dramatically. The Bumblebee Conservation Trust has some great initiatives and tools like #beethechange – giving gardeners micro-actions and small things they can do to support pollinators.
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We have teamed up with the Bumblebee Conservation Trust for World Bee Day to inspire everyone to take action and help our wild bees. Of the over 280 known species of bee in the UK, 24 are bumblebees and only 1 is the honeybee (all the rest are solitary bees). Over the past century, our bumblebee populations have crashed. Two species of bumblebee are now nationally extinct and several others have declined dramatically. The Bumblebee Conservation Trust has some great initiatives and tools like #beethechange – giving gardeners micro-actions and small things they can do to support pollinators.
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what else can you do?
Every gardener can help by planting pollinator friendly plants in their gardens or outside space. Even planting some bee-friendly flowers in a window box or a pot by the door can hugely help local bee colonies. But it is important to plant the right kinds of flowers. Many cultivated garden plants you find at garden centres have limited wildlife value. Years of selection for increasing showy blooms has resulted in flowers with less nectar and pollen
grow more wild flowers
One of the best things we can do for our bees is grow more wild flowers.
Since the 1930s we have lost 97% of our wild flower meadows, which is a catastrophe for our native pollinators that rely on these plants for their life cycle, habitats and food.
Wild flowers are fantastic for pollinators – with many rarer species of bee preferring to forage from them - and they look great, even in a neat ornamental garden. They can be grown as a wildflower meadow, or in borders and even in containers.
say no to neonics
Neonicotinoids or neonics, are a common ingredient in many over-the-counter insecticidal sprays, banned in the EU due to their large-scale adverse effects on insects. We have a commitment to seeking methods of production that do not negatively affect all wildlife populations, including pollinators and bees. At Perch Hill and our nursery in Lincolnshire, we use beneficial insects, such as ladybirds and nematodes to control pests and methods like companion planting. There are plenty of effective eco alternatives and methods you can use too.
let your lawn grow long
Consider mowing your lawn less often or transforming sections of it into a wildflower-rich meadow.
Long grass provides the perfect habitat for wild bee nests, while many of the common wild flowers are happy to grow in it, such as dandelions, clover, celandines, buttercup and primroses. They are also valuable sources of food for pollinating insects. Even a patch of long grass at the base of a tree or by your compost would hugely benefit our pollinators.
protect all our insects
Did you know there are an estimated 4000 species of insect pollinators in the UK? They include bumblebees, honey bees, solitary bees, hoverflies, wasps, flies, beetles, butterflies and moths. They all have complex life cycles and specific needs. They all need pollen and nectar for food and a home for shelter. They are all vital for pollinating our gardens, wild plants as well as our crops. According to biologist Dave Goulson (the founder of the Bumblebee Conservation Trust), who Sarah interviewed for our podcast (episode 48 ‘protecting our insect population’) our insects have declined by 75% in the past 50 years.
Why does it matter? Insects are pollinators of about 80% of all plant species in Europe, including most fruit, many vegetables and some biofuel crops. If this decline is not halted, as well as being a biodiversity disaster, our diet is going to look drastically different, with most of our fruit and vegetables – which are insect pollinated – gone from the supermarket shelves. According to DEFRA, £600m is the estimated value of insect pollination to crops each year. So we've all got to act now.
Don't forget to listen to the episode of Sarah's grow, cook, eat & arrange podcast with Dave Goulson as a guest
starting a pollinator friendly garden
If you are just starting to make a pollinator friendly garden, or if you're new to gardening and want to add a few pollinator friendly plants but are not sure where to start, here are some helpful resources.
listen to our World Bee Day podcast episode
Today is World Bee Day and Sarah and Arthur are calling on all of us, as gardeners, to join together and help support our bees. The good news is there are lots of simple measures we can take in our gardens now that will make a huge difference to these vital pollinators. And bee-friendly gardens definitely tick the box for beauty, so they are a total win win – good for us to look at and good for the bees.
enter our competition
Take photos and videos of bees in your garden today, on World Bee Day 2022, and post them with this hashtag #thegreatbeespot to be entered into our competition to win a £50 Sarah Raven voucher and one of our Solitary Beehives. Our beehives have holes specifically designed to attract non-swarming bees like the red mason bee and leafcutter bee.
