Create a Bee Friendly Garden – Educational School Holiday Activity
Educational School Holiday Activity: How to Plant a Bee Friendly Garden
If you’re looking for a fantastic, educational school holiday activity, why not consider planting a bee friendly garden with your child? Bees are disappearing all around the planet and planting even a small garden can be such a huge help – and it gets you and your kids out in the fresh air, having fun! Plus, they’ll learn so much about biodiversity, botany, and saving the planet.
We’ve got everything you need here to get you started – what plants bees like best, how to plant them, the dos and don’ts, and how you can make sure the plants you’re buying are bee friendly. Read on to find out more about bee friendly plants and how to plant them these school holidays!
Why Bees?
Bees are a keystone species. This means that they play a vital role in preserving biodiversity and ecosystem health. Without bees the ecosystem would be dramatically different or cease to exist altogether. Not only do bees pollinate our plants, they also help in the reproduction of the crops we eat and those we feed to livestock. Considering bees are responsible for 1 out of every 3 bites of food worldwide, they are essential to our food security. Unfortunately, due to climate change, pesticides and disease, there has been a decline in the number and diversity of bees worldwide.
How Planting a Bee Friendly Australian Garden Can Help
Smart gardeners know all about good insects like bees and how much work they do in the garden – without bees, the seeds, fruits and veggies that people like to eat just wouldn’t exist! This fact always blows kids’ minds. In Australia, we’re lucky enough to have over 1500 species of native bees – all of which are fantastic pollinators. A backyard garden can be a haven for native Australian bees and provide a long-lasting and varied source of nectar, pollen, and the building materials bees need to make their nests.
By cultivating a wide range of plants that flower throughout the seasons you can create a vibrant, bee friendly garden. When planning your garden, it’s important to consider having a range of plants for each season. As you can probably imagine, winter can be a tough time for bees to find pollen and nectar as less flowers are in bloom. You can help them out by planting perennials such as golden alexanders, larkspur, and columbine. Fruits that bloom in early spring are also a good option, such as cherries, plum and raspberries.
During mid-season, flowers like anise hyssops, black eyed Susans and coneflower prove to be a great source of nectar and pollen for honeybees and native bees. For the late-season period, dahlias, asters and ironweeds are a good choice for your bee friendly garden. Fragrant herbs such as lavender, oregano, rosemary and parsley are also a favourite of bees.
For a comprehensive list of bee friendly plants, you can download the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation’s report Bee Friendly: A planting guide for European honeybees and Australian native pollinators.
Top 5 Tips for Attracting Bees!
Select plants that flower throughout the year.
Many native bees need nectar and pollen throughout the year. Depending on the species, certain bees will only fly during the warmer months of the year, while others fly year-round.
Select flowers with a variety of shapes and colours.
Just like with people, different bees have different tastes. Some have short tongues and like shallow flowers like daisies, tea tree, and eucalypt blossoms. Others have long tongues and like tubular flowers like native rosemary and lavender. Some bees prefer flowers that are blue and purple, while for others, pink, yellow and white flowers are the tastiest. We bet you’ve never considered bees tongues before, right?
Plant each species of flower in groups.
Having particular species of flowers planted in groups will attract bees more easily than if you just randomly throw them anywhere. Of course, if this isn’t possible, even a small garden will still attract bees!
Select plants that also provide nesting materials for bees.
Bees don’t just need nectar and pollen; they need materials to build their nests. Again, depending on the species, different bees like leaves or tree resin to build their nests. Try to make sure the plants you buy offer either one or the other!
Avoid insecticides.
Insecticides will kill native bees as well as garden pests. If you need to use some sort of insecticide, try one that is a low toxicity for bees and won’t kill them, or use something natural that won’t harm them.
For more fabulous, fun ideas of what you and your child can do together these school holidays, check out these activities from May Gibbs!
Librarian Bec
Right now, Librarian Bec’s hard at work at your local library, sharing a passion for reading with little people and big. Bec writes about inspiring little readers and embracing lovely literature.