How to transform your garden into a pollinator’s paradise

Is your garden the bee’s knees? Holkham’s head gardener is abuzz with ideas for how to create a haven for the little black and yellow fellas this World Bee Day (20 May).

Plant something pretty and go easy on the weeding – we like the sound of making our gardens as buzz-boosting as possible! Bees are VIP guests at Holkham Estate with plenty of pollinator-friendly plants and wildflowers grown in and around the 6-acre Walled Garden. So who better than to tap up for ideas than its head gardener, Mark Morrell (above)? He’s buzzing with ways to make friends with the bees.

Hit the deckchair

Bee on buttercup

Put away the hoe, give the lawnmower a rest and embrace nature! Taking a more relaxed approach to weeding and allowing some areas of your garden to grow wild will not only really benefit the bees, it will also make tending to your garden so much easier. Whilst it’s great to plant some bee-friendly blooms in your borders or a container, your grass may already be full of perfect pollinators like wildflowers and buttercups. Not ready to give up your lawn aka kids’ footie pitch just yet? Long grass with wildflowers beneath old trees can look very stylish, especially with a path mown through or around the perimeter. This will show your neighbours you are a Chelsea champion and not just being lazy.

Simply does it

Bee on single-flowered dahlia

Whilst a blowsy hybrid tea rose or cactus dahlia may look the bee’s knees to us, they are no use to pollinators if the stamens are encased in too many petals. Simple single flowers are a bee’s favourite nectar source. You don’t have to give up your dahlia dream just yet, as there are plenty of single-flowered dahlias available which are more accessible to bees, butterflies and other insects.

Early bloomer

Extending the flowering season within your garden by choosing early and late flowering plants can be really beneficial to bees and all other insects. With some bees emerging much earlier in the year due to climate change, it pays to provide a good source of nectar at a critical time.

B&Bee

Bee hotel made from bamboo canes

You don’t need to create a five-star bee hotel – simple shelters can be made from offcuts of old bamboo canes clumped together. Solitary bees will lay their larvae in these to hatch the following spring. Bee nests can be made for overwintering queens using clay pots stuffed with straw. 

Trees for bees

Dream big. When people think of beneficial flowers for bees, they don’t often look beyond annuals and smaller herbaceous perennials. If you have the space, remember trees flower too. What could be better than the sound of thousands of bees humming in the canopy of a flowering cherry or lime tree? Just don’t sit underneath with an ice cream!

Walled Garden at Holkham Hall

Holkham Estate’s Walled Garden is currently undergoing an exciting rejuvenation project. See how the work is progressing and explore its many features, from Georgian and Victorian greenhouses through to an established vineyard, working kitchen garden and cutting garden.

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