Bee Friendly Garden

Help Honeybees from Your Own Backyard

Creating a bee-friendly garden is one of the most effective and rewarding ways to support honeybee populations. By planting a variety of flowers and providing safe spaces for pollinators, you’re also supporting butterflies, solitary bees, and other vital insects.

Honeybees rely on nectar and pollen as their primary food sources. But due to habitat loss and pesticide use, these vital resources are increasingly scarce. A diverse garden full of bee-friendly plants can help reverse this trend. Learn more in our Pollination section.

“What you plant matters – every flower helps build a pollinator paradise.”

To keep bees nourished throughout the year, aim to include a mix of native plants that flower across spring, summer, and autumn. Even a small selection of snowdrops, bluebells, lavender, foxgloves, rudbeckia, sedum or ivy can provide a continuous food source. You’ll be surprised how much life a simple border or flower bed can support. See our How Bees Make Honey page to understand how your plants contribute.

Don't overlook the vegetable patch either. Courgettes, tomatoes, beans, strawberries, and pumpkins all offer nectar-rich blooms, especially if you let a few herbs like mint and chives flower. Bees are drawn to these natural food sources, and you get better pollination in return.

It’s also important to provide a clean water source. A shallow dish with pebbles, or a bird bath, gives bees a place to land and drink safely. Just be sure to keep it clean and topped up, especially during warmer months.

Minimise or avoid pesticides in your garden altogether. Many are harmful to bees even in tiny amounts, particularly when sprayed on flowering plants. Opt for natural pest control methods or simply allow nature to keep things balanced. For further guidance, see Diseases and Pests.

If you have a traditional lawn, consider transforming part of it into a wildflower patch or replacing it with clover. These alternatives offer much more value to pollinators and require less upkeep too.

Leaving a quiet, wild corner in your garden can do wonders. Dead wood, hollow stems, and patches of bare ground provide essential nesting sites for solitary bees and other beneficial insects.

For those wanting to do even more, small additions like a bug hotel, compost heap, or native hedgerow can dramatically improve biodiversity. These features provide food, shelter, and safe places to nest or overwinter. Learn more about bee behaviour in Honeybee Behaviour.

Even if you're short on space, a window box of lavender or a pot of thyme on a balcony can still make a difference. Every plant matters. Start small, and your garden will grow into a thriving pollinator haven over time.

Plant a variety of native, nectar-rich flowers that bloom across all seasons to give bees a continuous food source.

Other Ways You Can Help

Avoid using pesticides and herbicides: These chemicals can be harmful to bees and other pollinators. Instead, opt for natural pest control methods such as companion planting or using beneficial insects like ladybirds. Neonicotinoid-based insecticides such as thiacloprid and acetamiprid have been found to be harmful to bees and can lead to their death. Despite their potential risks, these insecticides are still approved for home and garden use and are readily available at most garden centres and DIY shops. To avoid harming bees, it is important to carefully read the labels of any insecticides and refrain from using neonicotinoid-based products in your garden.

Create nesting sites: Some bee species nest in the ground, while others prefer to nest in hollow stems or holes in wood. Provide a variety of nesting sites in your garden, such as small piles of twigs or a bee hotel. Visit our Anatomy page to learn more about bee adaptations.

Get involved in citizen science: You can help scientists better understand bees and other pollinators by participating in citizen science projects, such as bee monitoring or bumblebee surveys.

Support local beekeepers: Beekeepers play a critical role in protecting and conserving honeybee populations, so supporting local beekeepers by purchasing their honey and other bee-related products can help to promote their work and ensure the continued health of local bee populations. See our Help the Bees page for more ideas.

Educate others: Raising awareness about the importance of honeybees and the threats they face is an essential part of saving the bees. Share information about the importance of bees with your friends, family, and community, and encourage them to take practical steps to support honeybee populations.

By taking these and other practical steps, we can all play a role in protecting and conserving honeybee populations, promoting their importance to humans and the environment, and ensuring a healthy and sustainable future for our planet.