Welcome Wildlife at Home

• You don’t need a garden to make your home supportive of bees and other wildlife. In fact, all you really need are some windows, a doorstep and some supportive walls – and we’re pretty sure most homes have all of that.

So whatever type of accommodation makes up your town, the good news is every resident can have the opportunity to get involved in making it as bee friendly as possible.

If you don’t have a garden:

• Secure window boxes to sills and fill them with flowering herbs such as mint, chives, thyme, rosemary and oregano.
• Place plant pots either side of your front door and fill them with pollen-rich plants – erysimum is good bang for its buck with flowers from March that just keep on coming, and hebe is another strong option (opt for blue or purple flowering varieties). Not much space? How about a hanging basket of ivy and scabius?
• Fix bug hotels to sheltered, walls south-facing.
• Got any crevises that could be home to poppies, creeping thyme or even individual violas? Consider scattering seeds in pavement cracks or any nooks in outdoor steps.

• Say ‘No to the Mow’. It sounds like such a simple act but leaving areas of lawn uncut allows pollen-rich clover and, yes, dandelions, too, to establish, both of which are much desired food sources for bees.
• Ditch pesticides. Enough said.
• Make sure your beds and borders are earning their worth by packing them out with all the bee-friendly plants you can find – there are a lot of them. The more diverse the plants you have on offer, the more varied the wildlife you’ll attract.
• You probably put out food and water for birds but have you a drinking source for pollinators? A saucer, simply filled with water and some pebbles or corks (as landing pads) is all you need.