The Bee-Friendly Garden

That was the title of Neil's talk last night to the garden club, yet under an innocuous title lurked some startling information. Did you know that, without pollinators of flowers, and bees are by far the greatest contributor, our diet in the west would change enormously, we'd be left with wind-pollinated foods, basically grains? That got everyone's attention, without them, this wouldn't be life as we know it.

We have over 250 types of bee in the UK, 26 of them bumble-bees and only one type of honey bee. Honey bees, like wasps and hornets live in colonies and one of them (or more if you don't get the message) WILL sting you to protect the colony. Solitary bees, on the other hand are really reluctant to do so - why? Because, being on their own, if they sting you and then die, which of course they do, their genetic line dies with them, so it's a huge step to take, so generally they don't - you didn't know bees could be cuddly did you?

Talking of cuddly - back to the bee-friendly garden. Lots of us perhaps know about bundles of canes for bee nests, or abandoned mouse holes being taken over by a bumble bee, but have you ever thought about all that "through the year garden colour" being not just for you? As winter approaches the bees are storing up honey, converted from nectar by extracting the water from it, that is their food in lean times. They don't hibernate, so if the weather permits, they'll be out looking for food at any time of the year, doing so takes energy, so if you have things flowering in winter and spring, they will love you for it. In return for which all your beans, tomatoes, fruit - well you name it - will be pollinated, so think flowers, think bees.

This is just a swift summary, Neil is happy to email you more information - just visit his nursery website ( you can message from there).

Thanks Neil, you were looking forward to the Dorset Wildlife Trust talk, and had kept the evening free to come - so lucky for us you could step in to replace Emma, whom we'll have to hope to meet, or one of her colleagues, in a future programme.