Wildlife garden
A small garden or balcony for bees and butterflies
Even on a balcony or in a small town garden you can help bees and butterflies: put native herbs and flowers such as thyme, wild marjoram, harebell, field scabious and bird’s-foot trefoil in pots at least 30 cm deep, alongside lavender, rosemary and sage.
What to do
- Choose large, deep pots or troughs (at least 30 cm) with a drainage hole, and fill them with peat-free compost mixed with a little sand.
- Put them in the sunniest spot: most bee plants want at least six hours of sun.
- Combine plants that flower one after another: chives and thyme in May–June, wild marjoram, harebell and field scabious in summer, biting stonecrop along the edge.
- Hang a small bee hotel facing south and put out a shallow dish of water with a few pebbles.
- Water early in the morning or in the evening, and leave dead stems standing over winter: insects hibernate in them.
Why it helps
- In towns, gardens and balconies together form a network of small flowery spots, with bees flying from one to the next.
- Herbs such as thyme, marjoram and sage are loved by bees and bumblebees and are useful in the kitchen too.
Which plants?
- Breckland thyme Thymus serpyllum herb · flowers June–August Native
- Broad-leaved thyme Thymus pulegioides herb · flowers June–September Native
- Wild marjoram Origanum vulgare herbaceous plant Native
- Meadow clary Salvia pratensis perennial · flowers May–July Native
- Harebell Campanula rotundifolia perennial · flowers June–September Native
- Maiden pink Dianthus deltoides perennial · flowers June–September Native
- Biting stonecrop Sedum acre perennial · flowers June–July NativePoisonous
- Bird's-foot trefoil Lotus corniculatus perennial · flowers May–September Native
- Musk mallow Malva moschata perennial · flowers June–September Native
- Chives Allium schoenoprasum herbaceous plant Native
- English lavender Lavandula angustifolia Dwarf shrub · flowers June–August
- Rosemary Salvia rosmarinus Dwarf shrub · flowers March–May
- Common sage Salvia officinalis Dwarf shrub · flowers June–July
When?
March–September.
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Take up the challenge
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Make a bee hotel (March–May)
Hang a bee hotel in a sunny, dry, south-facing spot, or leave a patch of bare soil for ground-nesting bees. -
Put out a water dish (June–August)
Put out a shallow dish of water with a stone in it, for birds, hedgehogs and insects. Refresh it every few days.
Did you know? Harebells and other bellflowers are the only pollen source of the harebell carpenter bee, a small bee that collects from nothing else.