Now is the time of year if the weather ever warms up that we can be planting in the gardens. Can I make a plea for bees? The poor bees have not had an easy time of late, falling victim to viruses, dealing with the relentless rain and the lack of bee friendly plants. As you probably know a healthy bee population is crucial for our planet, for pollination , for creating food for us humans.  We may not be able to do much about the rain or the virus, other than try to contain it and treat as we can but we can create more bee friendly gardens.  And we need to do it now before it is too late.

If you want to know what you can do to help put this date in your diary, Thursday April 18th at St. Michael’s Centre, Abergavenny 6.45-9.45pm - The Plight of the Humble Bee.  Abergavenny and Crickhowell Friends of the Earth are promoting The Bee Cause campaign with an open meeting featuring a number of speakers.  Entry is free and the broad theme of the evening will be discovering all about bees and other pollinators, hearing about their potentially catastrophic decline, looking at ways of supporting pollinators in our gardens and seeing what actions we can take in our community.

If you have the space to create a wild meadow garden,  Monmouthshire meadows would love to hear from you. Get in touch at www.monmouthshiremeadows.org.uk/  Even if you just have a small area, they will be happy to provide advice.

If you want to take steps to becoming a bee keeper, contact Bees for Development, www.beesfordevelopment.org  for details of their weekend course on the 6 and 7 of April. They will also be running day courses at Humble by Nature throughout the summer months.  If you want to support bees but don’t want a hive in your garden, then plant, plant, plant. As a rule of thumb, single blooms are better than doubles and if you can provide flowers from Spring until Autumn you will be helping the bumble bees and our planet.

Here is a selection of flowers which bees love that would enhance any garden.

Spring flowers

Bluebell, bugle, crab apple, daffodil, flowering cherry and currant, forget-me-not (Myosotis), hawthorn, hellebore (Helleborus corsicus, H. foetidus),  pulmonaria,  pussy willow, rhododendron, rosemary, viburnum.

Early summer flowers

Aquilegia,  campanula, comfrey, everlasting sweet pea (Lathyrus latifolius), fennel, foxglove, geranium, snapdragon,  teasel, thyme, verbascum.

Late summer flowers

Angelica, aster, buddleia, cardoon, cornflower (Centaurea), dahlia (single-flowered), delphinium, fuchsia, globe thistle (Echinops), heather, ivy, lavender, penstemon, scabious, sedum, Verbena bonariensis.

I am quite in awe of bees, their cohesion as a community working together astounds me. Watching bees swarm from a distance of six feet might have been quite scary had I not been with an expert, he explained that they were looking for a new hive and as such were having a conference. They buzzed around in a huge circle for 10 minutes or so, apparently sharing information then divided up into groups going north, south, east and west. About 20 minutes later they were back reporting their findings. After more discussion they all left to go to what had been identified as the most suitable spot. It was an extraordinary sight and one I felt very lucky to have seen.  I would like my children to see that sight too.

If you are a bee keeper we would love to hear your comments, experience or stories.