This category is about plants that actually feed bees: what to grow, when it flowers, and what is worth putting in a normal British garden. The guides cover nectar and pollen plants, trees and hedges, and the seasons from early spring to late ivy. Start with the article that matches the month or the patch of ground you have.
Give me a bare strip and eight weeks and I would sow this before most catalogue perennials. The bees find it. They stay on it. On a warm morning the blue-purple coils look dusted with movement. That is phacelia for bees in a British garden: a fast annual, a green manure you actually let flower,
On a midsummer afternoon the landing board changes. The bees come in paler, and the smell off the combs is lighter. Walk the ride behind the apiary and you see why. Tall pink spikes, four petals, a stand that looks like it was poured down the edge of the wood. That is rosebay willowherb for
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You do not attract bees with a wooden ornament and a hopeful label. You attract them with food they can find, reach and return to. I watch this from the hive entrance. On a good day the foragers leave in a line and come back heavy. They are not touring the neighbourhood for scenery. They
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