Are you guilty of these 5 gardening habits that starve bees? A horticulture expert shares what you should be doing instead
These seemingly 'helpful' gardening tasks could be seriously harming the pollinators that visit your garden
There's no better time in the year to start working on your garden and making it welcoming for pollinators. But before you start adding florals and maintaining your lawn, there are some common garden habits you need to avoid for the bees' sake.
Adding essential plants for pollinators and participating in No Mow May are great ways to attract more bees into your garden. And although you will also be sorting your garden out a lot this time of year, some gardening jobs can actually harm bees and their ability to thrive in your outdoor space.
They're not exactly considered common spring gardening mistakes, but these apparently helpful garden jobs will starve bees from what they visit your plants for. So, to avoid upsetting their environments, here are the habits you'll need to change this summer.
5 garden habits that starve bees, and what to do instead
Looking to tick off some of your essential summer gardening jobs this week? Before you get the mower out, here are some of the tasks you might think are beneficial for your garden but can actually upset the ecosystem more than help it.
1. A late-spring tidy
With so many gardening jobs to tick off in May, it's easy to forget how maintaining your garden affects the wildlife that visits it. Especially bees.
"Cutting everything back, deadheading hard, and bagging up every leaf wipes out the 'in-between' flowers bees still use, including fading blooms and small weeds that keep nectar and pollen available between showier flushes," starts Patrick Martin, Horticulture Specialist and Farmer at Frantoio Grove.
"It also removes tucked-away places bees use to rest and hide, such as leaf piles, hollow stems, and dry corners under shrubs. When this happens all at once, a garden can look neat but become briefly low on both food and cover right when gardens shift into summer," he adds.
Instead, he recommends not doing all your tidying up at once and leaving a small messy patch for the bees to enjoy. Similarly to mosaic gardening, which boasts a balance of kept and unkept garden space.
Patrick is a 6th-generation farmer who works at Frantoio Grove, where he helps on the olive farm, preparing biological preparations and mineral sprays whilst also overseeing production roasting.
2. Only planting spring blooms
Whilst you might've mastered when to plant your spring bulbs for an impressive display, it's key to also prioritise plants that bloom for the rest of the year too.
"A common mistake is planting mostly spring bloomers, so once they finish, the yard turns into a no-food zone for weeks," explains Patrick.
"Even a garden that looked full in March and April can stop supporting pollinators if there are no overlapping bloom times, forcing bees to leave the garden to find steady nectar and pollen," he continues.
Adding some late summer flowers to your plot can help fix this problem and will make your space look great for longer, too.
3. Mowing everything to one height
If you're not into the rewilding trend, it's more than likely that you're on top of mowing your lawn properly during spring and summer. However, there are benefits to keeping it a little less manicured.
"When lawns and edges are kept uniformly short, bees lose sheltered spots to rest out of the wind and heat, and they lose safer corridors to move through the garden. A perfectly even cut also reduces the small, protected spaces that make a garden usable during the hottest parts of the day," points out Patrick.
"This habit can remove a lot of low-effort habitat without the gardener realising anything has changed beyond appearance," he adds.
To avoid this, you can keep one small strip or corner a little longer out of sight if needs be. That way, your garden looks neat, but there's also a spot for bees to find a little shaded respite.
4. Overwatering potential nesting areas
During the spring and summer months, it's extremely important to know how to water your garden plants properly. However, you'll also want to make sure you're not overwatering areas where bees can nest.
"Heavy sprinkling can turn dry soil into mud, collapsing ground nesting spots or washing them out. It can also soak areas that need to stay dry, especially in hot spells when watering increases and sprinklers run longer. This is an easy way to damage nesting areas without noticing, because the impact shows up in the soil structure and small openings rather than on the plants themselves," Patrick explains.
The best way to stop this from happening is to water in the morning and always aim near the base of the plants. Patrick also recommends setting out a shallow dish with a few stones in it so bees can land safely. Just be sure to replace the water often so mosquitoes don't lay eggs in there.
5. Choosing double-flowered species
You might've planted lots of flowers that bloom nonstop for a vibrant garden; however, some flowers, no matter how impressive they are, can be quite the challenge for bees to pollinate.
"Double-flowered varieties can look full and tidy, but the extra petals often block access to the parts bees are trying to reach. The plant may still be flowering, yet it provides less usable nectar and pollen or makes feeding slow and inefficient, so bees move on," says Patrick.
"This is a common issue with 'fluffy' blooms chosen for impact in beds and containers, where the garden looks busy but offers less practical value to pollinators," he finishes.
All you need to do to remedy this is to add single-flowered plants, such as cosmos, sunflowers, marigolds, and daisies. They're still bright and welcoming, but they also stay open long enough for bees to feed on quickly.
An easy way to attract more visitors to your garden and keep them happy is to leave wildlife-friendly weeds to grow in your garden. They provide food and pollinating opportunities all without you needing to do a thing.
