First time gardener, how to start on a patch?

[Cassandraprobs]

I've never really gardened before, besides the odd growing something little on the windowsill but we've not long bought a house with a garden, after years of renting with no garden, and now I'm catching the bug .

I hate lawns for some reason - I've got a patch of about 5.5m x 3.5m that I'm currently removing the grass on, it's closed in on 3 sides by a shed, a fence and a wall but it gets decent sunlight for most of the day. I'd like something a beginner can handle and really want it to be a garden for the bees rather than for my benefit (ie, not bothered about growing veg for us) - I'd love to look out and see loads of flowers but not bothered about them being 'florist' types like roses.

I'm torn between making the whole patch into a mini wildflower meadow or making raised beds for flowers, any ideas/advice?

Are you on Instagram? If so, there are thousands of gardening accounts to flick through - find ones where you think “that’s the kind of garden I’d like to have” and then work out what it is about those that you like.

@TheDinosaurTrain

Are you on Instagram? If so, there are thousands of gardening accounts to flick through - find ones where you think “that’s the kind of garden I’d like to have” and then work out what it is about those that you like.

Thanks, I've been looking and I've narrowed it down to the idea of having a garden full of flowers for bees and having it quite wild, not necessarily all traditional wildflowers but nothing too cultivated. Beyond that I'm struggling though, there seems to be a nearly infinite list of what might be good but it's hard to tell what's easier for a beginner and what can be planted at this time of year, I'm looking up individual plants but getting very lost.

I'm doing similar in part of my garden, also a beginner.

First, I'm looking at flowering shrubs; they won't die back in winter, so they give structure to the garden in winter, as well as hiding places and possibly berries for wildlife. There are shrubs with great autumn colour or fragrance as well; if those things are important to you, it can really narrow down the list of possibilities, which is handy!

Then I'll fill in around them with perennials, which come back every year. There are loads of fabulous pollinator friendly flowers in this category, and if you don't clear them away when they die back in winter, but rather leave the dead parts there till spring, that's better for birds and insects, who can eat the seeds or nest in the stems, respectively.

You can play around with annuals if you want but try and use self-seeding ones if you're as lazy as I am Though a load of nice sunflowers along the back would be great, both for bees and birds. They're not hard to grow from seed, and if you save seed from the flower you like best, you can plant those the following year. Sweet peas are great as well, a doddle to grow and very fragrant and pretty and bees love them, and you can just grow them up one of your boundaries, so they won't really take up space.

I know you say you're not interested in growing veg, but how about some fruit canes? Raspberry or currant bushes would be good for pollinators and for you. Or a strawberry patch - it's immensely satisfying growing your own.

If you have a cat, grow some catnip - bees love it even more than cats do, mine is always buzzing.

You want to think of when things are in bloom, as well. There's not a lot around in winter or early spring for pollinators, so you could try and fill that gap for them.

A shallow water source is also useful, in times of drought, with some stones in it for the insects to stand on while they drink.

If you want a garden for bees (and other insects) then there are two main things to think about

Habitat

Prolonging the pollen season.

Most bees in the UK - and there are several hundred species - don’t live in hives and make honey for beekeepers. They are often solitary bees, who need protection from cold and damp in winter months when they are inactive. Providing suitable habitats for them to overwinter and to breed is vital to their survival. Google making insect or bee hotels, it’s a good time to start making them and getting them established.

For pollen you need to find early flowering plants and late flowering plants, those are the crunch times for bees. There are plenty of summer and early autumn plants for them to use. So think about early bulbs like crocus and daffodils and plants like hellebores and pulmonaria for spring. Sedums and ivy (make sure you let it flower) are good for late autumn.

Bees also need a source of water, so some sort of bird bath will benefit them as well as birds.

Think about having a small tree if you have room, a crab apple for example will provide nectar and pollen, a habitat for many insects and also crab apples , spring blossom and then autumn colour for you . If you don’t want to eat the crab apples or make jelly the birds will like them.

Depending on your budget you could buy pre-prepared collections of plants like the Beth Chatto ones? They’ve curated ones that look well together

www.bethchatto.co.uk/collections/bees-bugs-butterflies-collection.htm

I’m not a very good gardener but I watched a programme where they said that the daisy shaped flowers are great for solitary bees as it gives them a source of food when they don’t have a hive to go to. Google says it’s the Asteraceae family but I’ve no idea if that’s correct. Basically anything that has that daisy shape I think, perhaps most of them flower earlier than other types of flower? I know I have some tall yellow daisy looking things (great information there ) and they flower pretty early on.