What forage can you actually provide in a garden

[Newbeebeekeeper]

Hi everyone

Quick question how much forage can you actually provide for bees in a garden or say even 0.5 acres.

In my head in the grand scheme of things its a drop in the ocean of what the bees need.

So every little helps i imagine but does it really make a difference

Thanks

 

[Erichalfbee]

It will make a huge difference to bumbles and solitary bees. For honey bees a tree on the other hand will make a difference. Sycamore/ lime/ sweet chestnut...
if you have room for a few Hawthorn that would help too

 

[pargyle]

For a long season ...A pond with loostrife around the perimeter will provide them with a very long lasting source. Lavender is good as well ... again, a long lasting season.

I would look at providing sources of pollen/nectar that is available early and late in the seaon when the main flows haven't started or are finished.

Although they are not going to affect your honey crop they will provide forage for the spring build up and wiinter stores when bees are less inclined to fly large distances for high value crops.

Crocus, snowdrops, hellibores in spring. a range of plum/cherry trees - look at when they crop and five or six trees flowering consecutively before other fruits trees are out helps.

Autumn flowering honeysuckle comes to mind or Abelia and Ivy if you have a wall or a fence you don't care about or you could cover an old tree with it, Mahonia is another good late Autumn bee shrub.

A google search found this which agrees and gives some other useful suggestions:

https://friendsoftheearth.uk/bees/beefriendly-plants-every-season

 

[enrico]

Trees are what you want. Hundreds of flowers in one spot. Lots of drops in the ocean can make a big splash though so any help you can give......
E

 

[madasafish]

Trees are what you want. Hundreds of flowers in one spot. Lots of drops in the ocean can make a big splash though so any help you can give......
E

Agreed 150%

Easy trees to grow:
cotoneaster
Ceanothus
Buddleia
Korean Bee Tree.. (autumn)

All small- nothing over 5 metres - except Korean which can grow to 10.. but prunable.
All loved by bees.
All look spectacular in flower except cotoneaster

Hopefully I will have free seeds of Korean Bee Tree in autumn if anyone wants any.

 

[BMH]

Agreed 150%

Easy trees to grow:
cotoneaster
Ceanothus
Buddleia
Korean Bee Tree.. (autumn)

All small- nothing over 5 metres - except Korean which can grow to 10.. but prunable.
All loved by bees.
All look spectacular in flower except cotoneaster

Hopefully I will have free seeds of Korean Bee Tree in autumn if anyone wants any.

Yes please!!

 

[Murox]

I started to make a list of some garden plants that bees use and a few of the many wild flowers or flowering “weeds”:
Grape Hyacinths, Crocuses, Scabious, Wallflowers (especially Erysimum Bowles's Mauve), Sea-pink and Asters; also Allium, Hardy or Cranesbill Geraniums, Echinacea (Coneflowers) and Rudbeckias, the Heleniums {(sneezeweed) especially Helenium Autumnale & Helenium 'Sahin's Early Flowerer'}, Calamint, Borage, Veronicastrum virginicum, Sedum spectabile, Hyssop, Veronica spicata (Spiked Speedwell), Teucrium hircanicum (Wood Sage), Echium blue bedder (Viper's Bugloss), Campanula (Bellflowers), Lavendula (Lavender), Erygium giganteum (Sea Holly or 'Miss Willmott's' ghost). Himalayan balsam, Rosebay Willow Herb (Fireweed), Dandelions, Teasels, Thistles. Persicaria amplexicaulis also known as Knotweed: fire tail. and in the Self seeding 'bee' plants list
Alyssum (Lobularia maritima): Borage (Borago officinalis): Buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum): Calendula (Calendula officinalis): California poppy (Eschscholzia californica): Cornflower (Centaurea cyanus): Dandelion (Taraxacum): Honesty (Lunaria annua)
Nasturtium (Tropaeolum majus): Opium poppy (Papaver somniferum): Phacelia tanacetifolia: Poached egg flower (Limnanthes douglasii): Pot marigold (Calendula officinalis): Sunflower (Helianthus annuus): Teasel (Dipsacus fullonum):Verbena bonariensis: Welsh poppy (Meconopsis cambrica)
A few “must haves”
Thyme (Thymus vulgaris): Sage (salvia officinalis): Queen Anne’s Lace (Ammi visnaga): Cosmos (Cosmos bipinnatus):Coastal Daisy (Erigeron glaucus)
I haven't got onto trees and shrubs yet really.

 

[Newbeebeekeeper]

So far in my garden i have 3 apple trees,
a plum tree,
5 cottoneaster,
strawberries,
black currants
Gooseberrys
Italian alder
Fire thorn
Wild cherries

I have a bunch more seeds waiting spring to start more.

I just wanted to know if it did much for them

 

[madasafish]

So far in my garden i have 3 apple trees,
a plum tree,
5 cottoneaster,
strawberries,
black currants
Gooseberrys
Italian alder
Fire thorn
Wild cherries

I have a bunch more seeds waiting spring to start more.

I just wanted to know if it did much for them

Bees love raspberries. (so do I)

 

[charlievictorbravo]

Bees love raspberries. (so do I)

.... and so do blackbirds!

CVB

 

[charlievictorbravo]

The only things in my garden that I've seen my honey bees on are

• sycamore
• cabbage palm - Cordyline australis
• echium
• lavender

All of the other stuff I've planted for my bees is foraged by bumbles, butterflies and solitary bees but they have to live too!

CVB

 

[madasafish]

.... and so do blackbirds!

CVB

Our blackbirds are very well fed....

 

[Woodland bees]

When we first got bees they were often found on the garden plants but once they've settled in they mainly fly off further afield. We do notice them on plants in the winter / early spring so I'd concentrate on that. Here they love gorse and snow drops early on. I also plan to plant more perennial (spring flowering kale) and blackberries.

 

[Newbeebeekeeper]

That was what i was finding as well. Mostly bumbles on my plants so far.

What has everyone actually seen honeybees on?

 

[Ian123]

Unless your garden extends to acres it will make little odds what’s planted, keep to things of interest and if anything will help your bees it’s early sources of pollen.

 

[madasafish]

That was what i was finding as well. Mostly bumbles on my plants so far.

What has everyone actually seen honeybees on?

Trees I mention earlier when flowering (no buddleia yet)

Opium poppies.
Phacelia: they love it
Heather
comfrey
Borage

 

[Antipodes]

They do vary their diet enormously, and don't just stick to one thing or another.

I have noticed that it can be strange what bees do and don't go for sometimes, but there are some bee favourites already mentioned (like the ceanothus) which never fails to attract them. I have an abundance of silver wattle here growing wild in the garden (mimosa over there) and I have read on this forum that it attracts bees in huge numbers in the UK, however I've never seen a bee on wattle blossom here. I know they visit them here (as I have read they are a good source of pollen etc), it's just that I've never ever seen them do so.

 

[Murox]

They do vary their diet enormously, and don't just stick to one thing or another.
I have noticed that it can be strange what bees do and don't go for sometimes, but there are some bee favourites already mentioned (like the ceanothus) which never fails to attract them. I have an abundance of silver wattle here growing wild in the garden (mimosa over there) and I have read on this forum that it attracts bees in huge numbers in the UK, however I've never seen a bee on wattle blossom here. I know they visit them here (as I have read they are a good source of pollen etc), it's just that I've never ever seen them do so.

I think it was Eva Crane who noted that bees in different locations micro climates even, don't necessarily use plants in the same way or are/are not attracted to a particular plant.

 

[Uncle Betty]

That was what i was finding as well. Mostly bumbles on my plants so far.

What has everyone actually seen honeybees on?

We have fifty yards of Cotoneaster lactaeus, and they absolutely love it.

 

[GuyNir]

We have fifty yards of Cotoneaster lactaeus, and they absolutely love it.

Absolutely one of (all) bees favourite in our garden.