I’ve just ordered some seeds to add some new interest to my garden…............all Bee favourites

Cosmos, Mexican sunflowers and some Scorpion Weed which is apparently very easy to grow and I’m going to sow it straight into some pots.

Plants I’ve bought locally…..our WI market is great for plants….........monkshood a couple of scabious and some yellow yarrow.

Early days still so I’m sure I’ll squeeze some more in

     

Well done Paula, they sound fab, let us know how the bees respond.

Cosmos are very long flowering and the short-tongued bees feed on it all year. It will flower until the first frosts, so it’s great, also as it’s an annual you can recover the garden space.  It is my favourite and for a couple of pounds for a packet of seed cost effective. I got over 70 plants last year. Having a small garden i had to give lots away. They do well in containers though if you are short on space and they are very pretty to look at too.

     

I grow food and flowers for pleasure as well as growing plants specifically for bumblebees and other beneficial insects. The garden is small, and holds a 2m x 1m (approx) raised bed for vegetables, a part-shade/shade fern bed and a large south west facing flower bed as well as a gazebo, compost bin, cold frame, greenhouse and shed.  We live 3 miles from a City Centre, slap bang in the middle of a vast housing estate and near to an industrial estate.

I am trying to grow more plants specifically for bees, although I already grow the obvious suspects like lavender, echinacea, alliums, veronicas etc etc. Space is restricted so I can’t grow as many as I would like. However I am trying penstemons this year (pina colada pink and electric blue), and a blue salvia. I usually grow tithonia rotundifolia ‘torch’ but am trying ‘fiesta’ this year as it is a shorter, bushier plant and may do well in a large pot. 

I grow most things from seed..I was waylaid in Wilko today and had to rescue some leucanthemum that were languishing on a shelf….*sigh*