[Grubbypaws]

I always try and plant in a wildlife friendly way (excluding slugs, sparrows and cabbage whites  ).

 I get great pleasure watching  bees in feeding in my garden especially at the moment on my Cirsium.

Apart from bee friendly plants is there anything else that I can do? Should I be providing shelter and nesting sites as well or is this unnecessary? I dont use pesticides and I have unkempt areas.

[arugula]

It seems increasingly popular to keep a bee hotel. These can be bought or you can make your own, there are loads of pictures if you google it.

[Grubbypaws]

A quick google threw up http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1385669/Why-trendy-bumblebee-nest-boxes-really-waste-time.html

Has anyone any experience of bee hotels working?

[compostqueen]

I have a bees nest on my shed (for solitary bees) but it's not been used for about three years. When I first got it a bee nested in it but since then it's not been used. I cleaned it out though and still hope for the best. The bee that used it would visit a crop of clover in my allotment "lawn" so we left it unmowed until she'd gone.  She went back and forth to the clover non-stop.  The plot holders were entralled with it and I got loads of visitors. The bee didn't seem to mind the people who came to watch

I stood watching bees on my plot the other day. I have a bed that has been taken over largely by sage bushes and aqualegias but there is still a bit of room for some veg which I dot in amongst the flowers. The bed was alive with bees on both the sage and aquilegias. It was a sight to behold and I was ever so pleased to see them
The sage and aquilegia were grown by me from seed

[surbie100]

We've got lots of hives on our site so I'm used to seeing honeybees, but this year I've been really stunned at how lovely bumbles are. I have a lot of red-bottomed ones visiting my chives and comfrey, and am really hoping that the borage and others will flower soon to encourage them to stay.

I'm next to a boundary hedge, so am adding piles of sticks and rotting wood to encourage things to nest. I haven't seen any bee hotels on our site - but did find it fairly funny that a stall at the Edible Garden Show was trying to shift bumble bee hotels for £70, stressing that you could only use it for one year, then it would need replacing....

[Trillium]

Bees also appreciate a shallow source of water (so they don't fall in and drown), something like a bird bath. Keep it topped up.

They also have some very favourites like St John's Wort - I can't get anywhere near those plants for bees, same with borage I let grow through the veg garden.

[Asherweef]

I remember reading somewhere that 'bee hotels' don't work very well but you can often get solitary bees, digger bees etc in a 'bug hotel'. i.e. A load of bamboo sticks lashed together and placed in something that looks a little like a house. If I recall correctly the important thing was to have it on the floor as opposed to on the side of a shed.


Excited version: http://www.inspirationgreen.com/assets/images/Blog-Building/Insect%20Hotels/21%20insect%20hotel.JPG

Simple version: http://magicbelles.com/flutterbudclub/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/beeHotel.jpg


P.S. I'm not sure how you attach images to the post. Sorry!

[bendipa]

You don't have to plant wildflowers to attract bees. That way you also encourage weeds. Plenty of cultivated plants do just as well. From personal experience Lavenders, Limanthes Douglasii. Marigolds, Godetia, Penstemons, Lithodora Diffusa, Hypericum Hidcote, Forget-Me-Nots, Foxgloves, Blue Salvia all act like a magnet for bees. Also any of these listed are reckoned to be good.

[compostqueen]

Thyme is a good one.  Flat, open flowers. Doubles are a no-no such as those mop headed dahlias. The flat, single dahlias are the ones to grow apparently

My bee nest is a hollowed out birch log with a bundle of canes crammed in it. My niece bought it for me
I had bees once nest in my gate post at home 

[Sweetpea C]

July's Gardeners' World is dedicated to 'growing for bees'. Too much in it to put on here but lots of interesting info in it. The foxgloves in my garden are just going over and the bees love that - talk about bee hotel!

 

[allotmentann]

July's Gardeners' World is dedicated to 'growing for bees'. Too much in it to put on here but lots of interesting info in it. The foxgloves in my garden are just going over and the bees love that - talk about bee hotel!

 

I would second the foxgloves, my garden sounds like a race track at the minute with the bees going in and out of them!

[Growing4mykids]

I've grown phacelia to bring the bee's in and everyday(weather permitting!), they've been there in double figures, spent half an hour the other morning watching them with our 18mth old, she loves seeing them busy at work 

[compostqueen]

Phacelia is a great isn't it. Brings em in droves.  I stood watching bees on my sage and aquilegias the other day and I like the fact that my allotment is buzzing. It confirms that the plot is functioning and all is well.   I bunged some thyme plants in my greenhouse the other day as I want to lure them in there too 

[al78]

Bees also appreciate a shallow source of water (so they don't fall in and drown), something like a bird bath. Keep it topped up.

They also have some very favourites like St John's Wort - I can't get anywhere near those plants for bees, same with borage I let grow through the veg garden.

Seconded on the borage. Also chives and perennial geranium seem to be popular with bees.

[Madame Cholet]

Anything with single flowers for as long a seasonas possible.