Wildlife Gardening for Cold Bees

Wildlife Gardening for Cold Bees

Summer flowers are still flowering while, here and there, early spring flowers are jumping the gun. All good for bees and other pollinators with the bonus of being good easy plants for busy wildlife gardeners






 pink Alstroemeria, purple Michaelmas Daisies, 

Evening Primrose and


 Borage. Ahead of time, other easy-care plants, Dame’s Violet

 and Poached Eggs

 are in flower early and crazy. As for those valuable food pollinators... after these flowers are finished, the honeybee is going to weather the cold well looked after in a hive. The Queen Bumbles will get through hibernating in their underground nests. BUT some are now waking up in these milder winters and start snacking... so growing winter nectar flowers is increasingly important e.g. mahonia, winter heather, snowdrops, crocuses, winter honeysuckle, winter aconite.


And what about those solitary bees from last week’s post?




 These Red Mason Bees will spend the winter protected from wind and weather in our ‘store everything shed’ like last year

. But this time the orthodox bee hotels are joined by bits of sawn-off irrigation pipe  which the Leafcutter bees

 perversely chose to use instead of the orthodox hotel accommodation on offer!


The rough old stone walls of the shed offer shelter for others too. Spiders and others emerge from the crevices eager for meaty bee snacks... hence the protective wrappings of veggie mesh 


, remnants of a thin cotton skirt, loose weave old canvas bag; old tights and laundry bags lend themselves too. Protection against predators must allow easy passage of air for the treasured pollinator larvae breathing within.


All these pollinators will pay you back a hundredfold... apple and blackberry crumble and much else besides, including last week’s recipes in photo 1!




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