http:/www.treadlight.co.uk
going wild for a beautiful world
The buzzing of bees on a warm summer evening is the background to many a romantic idyll. Yet spare a thought for the bee that is really hard at work. Bees play a pivotal role in plant pollination, both commercial and ornamental. Without the bee, we would be deprived of many things that delight our eye and feed our stomachs.
However, six of Britain’s twenty-four Bumblebee species are in serious decline and according to the Bumblebee Conservation Trust the current plight of Britain’s bee population has reached a crisis point. Urgent action is needed.
Treadlight undertakes...
To help make your garden an attractive habitat for bees. Bees are quite modest in their needs; their main desire is to collect nectar and pollen and to avoid pesticides.
A bee garden should provide a succession of flowers extending across several seasons. They are particularly attracted to drifts of colour on the blue side of the spectrum and clumps of ground cover plants. Native plants and heirloom species are best suited to providing nectar.
So if you love your flowers, your herb garden and your flowering shrubs, a bee garden may be just for you.
There are some 250 different species in Britain. Solitary bees are also pollinators in our gardens, as important as their more high profile and gregarious cousins the honey and the bumble bee. In America they play a vital role for fruit farmers.
Spare a thought for solitary bees.
You can attract them to your garden by providing them with a home. The bees live in wood cavities or in sandy banks; so drill shallow holes in old wood, leave hollowed dry stems, loosen some bare soil in a sunny spot, or consider erecting a bee hotel of various thicknesses of hollow cane and let nature do the rest.
