Helping out the Bees

 After living in our house for a year, I thought it was about time that we started making our garden look a bit nicer than it did. We don't tend to spend that much time in our garden because it's across a path to our house (we share the path with neighbours) and it's up a slight slope. That being said, I would like to be able to use it more, and as a starting point, Tom and I took a trip to our local garden centre to buy some plants. 

 As a child I would spend as much time outside and in the garden as possible, but I can't say I was ever one who was into the actual gardening side of things. I like looking around gardens and at all the pretty flowers, but I don't have the motivation to be out spending hours digging up beds or having to maintain lots of flowers. 

 As a mid-meeting point between no flowers and an unmanageable amount, I decided to buy a couple of pots for flowers and place these along the brick wall, which can be seen from inside our kitchen and our spare room. I know a tiny bit about different flowers, but as I would have turned up to the garden centre and just bought whatever looked nice without regards to the care instructions, I wanted to go in with a bit of an idea of what I was looking for to know that I would be able to keep them alive! 

 I decided to get a lavender plant and an anemone because they don't require too much looking after, and one of the main reasons I chose these plants was because they're especially good for bees. I knew that whichever plants I bought, I wanted them to be ones that are great for bees, because they need all the help they can get! My mum used to keep bees and I think it's so important to help them in anyway that we can. I'm sure you know, but bees are in a decline and by having plants such as these, we can help to reduce this trend. For a comprehensive list on how you can help bees and which plants are good for them, please visit the Royal Horticultural Society's page on this. Most garden centres should have a section dedicated to bee friendly plants, or will have a symbol such as that above Also if you ever see a bee on the ground, please don't assume it's dead. Often they're completely exhausted and just need a pick me up - if you can, take them a spoon full of sugar water and this should rejuvenate them! I'm hoping that by putting these plants in my garden that the bees will start to visit, and I'll definitely be adding some more plants in due course.

Jess x