I want bees in my garden

[PersisFord]

Hello green fingered ones! I am a dreadful gardener (usually limited to lawn, hedge, bulbs and bedding plants).....but I do love bees. Love them. What do they like and how can I attract them? We have loads of lavender which is popular. Garden is north facing but slopes up so the back bit is very sunny and exposed but there are shady places near the house.

To give you an idea of my poor skills, plants I have killed in the last couple of years

Buddlea (sp??) x3
Countless fuschias
A well established honeysuckle
A well established apple tree
Clematis x3

I even think my mint is on its way out! So anything really, really hardy please!!

I have a raised bed that was supposed to be for salad stuff but the bastard slugs kept eating it. So instead I've stuck some herbs in. Bees are currently going crazy over the sage bush which has loads of purple flowers at the mo. I have masses of rosemary too, such has proved fairly bombproof...

Did you prune the Apple tree?

Thought this was an oblique reference to the 'buzzing in my fanjo' thread at first

The bees are going demented in our rhododendron at the moment-rolling about in the flowers covered in pollen.

We have a bee nest in a bird box, I hate them! They dive bomb me every time I go out to the tumble drier. We are paying £120 for a beekeeper to come and take them away this weekend as bees are protected so I can't just bash the irbid off the wall with a cricket bat and lob it into the abandoned house next doors garden which I would do if they were wasps. If you are in the midlands you can have mine!

My bees seem to love catmint and as mentioned upthread cotoneaster. They also like the mahonia early in the season which is frankly the onky reason we keep it. Heather is also popular in early spring.

We have 2 white and purple lavenders and the bees love them! We currently have them around our pond which is nearest the house but there so many honey and bumble bees we might have to move them for next year. It's lovely to see them all though

Bees in my garden are currently loving the aquilegia which is growing very happily in partial shade. However, pretty sure aquilegia is toxic so you might not want it if you didn't want foxgloves.

Bees are also loving the flowers on my broad beans but these would need sun (and you'd need to plant them in autumn/early spring to have them flower now).

As well as lavender we have big rosemary and sage bushes also growing in partial shade and which the bees visit also. Bonus of being edible.

Just outside today and the Hebe is also good for bees. Is growing in the shade and I do nothing special with it.

My wandering thyme is supposed to attract bees but it's not flowering yet. Good for rockeries etc.

my borage is popular with bumblebees...

i have a dog rose....bought from Woolworths...remember them?

Anyway, it got shoved in against the wash house wall, I fixed up a trellis and every so often I fasten new bits to the trellis, or hack bits back. it has beautiful shocking pink flowers smells like turkish delight and the bees just love it...I fantasise about what the honey would taste like for bees in a grove of dog roses

Only downside is that it is as prickly as hell! So get good gloves on for any dealings with it.

The bees are all over my ceanothus, alliums (purple sensation? They're big lollipops!), erysimum Bowles Mauve and pyracantha at the moment. They're all in the sun though.

They were keen on the forget-me-nots too although they're just going over now.

I posted a few pics on the Homebase pinned post as I'm doing the wildlife challenge

Nasturtiums sound like a good bet. I have a couple of hanging baskets and fence-straddling planters on my north facing fence. The sun just catches the top of them as it moves round in the afternoon.

I did not prune the apple tree. Possibly I should have? I took out a branch that was crossing and rubbing.

Rosemary and herbs are good ideas - I feel we are lavender-replete! Hebe also a good idea. And I do have aquilegia and a Rose which is the original graft grown through (was here when we got here) but the beees don't seem all that bothered! Similarly with my massive, ugly rhododendron hedge!

The back of my garden is really sunny - I have a grape vine growing on my back wall. And my front garden is south facing so I could squeeze in some of those alliums - I've seen those in people's gardens and they are gorgeous!

Lots of great ideas, thanks!!