4
The Plans
In this chapter I have drawn on the information we have accumulated in the previous chapters to produce a range of planting plans that I hope will enable you to create your own bee-friendly space. You can either copy the ideas as they stand or use the plans as an inspirational springboard to produce your own, unique, design.
Favourite plants
As any garden designer will tell you, you quickly develop a range of ‘core’ plants that you are drawn to and which become your ‘signature’ plants; most of these, and often all of them, crop up in just about every design you create. I am no exception! You will see Allium, Lavandula (lavender – especially the variety ‘Hidcote’), Echinacea, Aster, Geranium, Achillea and no end of herbs appearing repeatedly in my plans, and I make no apology for this: they are all excellent garden plants and, more importantly from my point of view, they are first-rate bee plants. You will no doubt have your favourites, too, and with luck these will be good for bees; if they aren’t, you might find yourself persuaded to replace them with bee-friendly choices – after all, a border that is good for bees is what we want to achieve!
Plants that are easy to obtain
I have been careful to use plants that are fairly easy to obtain – from nurseries, garden centres or online. There are new introductions and ‘choice’ varieties to be had, but if they are not easy to source, or if they cost a king’s ransom when you can find them, there is little point in including them, in my opinion.
Plant omissions
You may detect some omissions. I am thinking of Hedera (ivy) in particular. This is a bee plant par excellence, providing abundant nectar late in the season when the bees are topping up their stores to last them over the winter. Although I would never discourage anyone from planting a new specimen in their garden, it takes some time (15 years in some instances) to reach the mature stage when it will produce flower heads. For this reason alone I would let the bees venture into parks and countryside to source it and its nectar.
You will also discover that I have included very few trees in the planting plans. This is not because they are no good for bees – quite the contrary, in some instances; it is rather that few gardens can play host to more than one good-sized tree. So instead of suggesting specific trees I have listed a number of selected, bee-friendly ones in the table of plants at Appendix 2 – you will find them under the ‘Focus’ headings.
Plant spacing
The amount of space I have allowed for each grouping of plants is roughly the area they will cover two or three years after planting; don’t worry if when newly planted they look a little sparse. You can supplement the planting with fillers, such as annuals and bulbs, at least for the first couple of years.
Soil and aspect
Unless the plans are specifically for particular conditions (such as acid soil or shade), I have assumed that the soil is neutral, moist but free-draining, and that the site is either full sun, or in sun for a good part of the day.
Seasonality
You will notice that the plants I have chosen, when taken together, cover the foraging period of the bees, namely spring to autumn. There is a chart for each of the plans which shows the season each plant is in flower. This is only a guide, and you may find that some plants defy their expected flowering season, starting blooming early, or going on flowering a lot later than anticipated – much depends on the weather. You could also get a second flush of blooms from early flowering plants that have been cut back after flowering: this frequently happens with Geranium, for example.
Many of the plants I have chosen are evergreen, so there will still be some interest during the winter period; of those that are not, a number have interesting seed heads that can be left on the plant over the winter to provide food for birds, and nesting places for insects such as ladybirds.
Size of plans
The plans vary in size from a hanging basket up to a border measuring 5.5 metres by 6 metres – with lots of variations in between – to show that however large or small your planting space is, you can provide something to sustain our buzzy friends.
Plan keys
Rather than trying to put a lot of information on each plan, you will find that areas are designated with letters and/or numbers. You will find the corresponding letter and/or number in the planting schedule that accompanies each plan, so you can see precisely what suggestions I have made, and how many of each plant you will need. I have also indicated the scale, where appropriate.
Illustrations
A number of illustrative photographs accompany each of the plans; these give you a good idea of what some of the individual varieties of plants look like. The corresponding number of the plant in the plan key appears in brackets after the name of the plant.
Not every single plant in each plan is illustrated; however, some plants are used in more than one plan, so it is worth checking the Index of Illustrated Plants to see whether a particular plant is shown elsewhere in the book.
There are a few sketches that give an impression as to how part of the plan might look; these are purely for illustration and are not to scale. Note that the colours used in both the plans and the sketches are for illustration only and should not be taken as literal.
Categories of plans
I have divided the plans into the following categories:
| • | Garden Styles, with plans for two traditional borders, two cottage gardens, one designer border, three ‘naturalistic’ borders, and a shrub border. |
| • | Colour Themes, containing plans for blue and yellow, and red and yellow borders, plus a rainbow border. |
| • | Garden Conditions, where you will find plans to suit acid and alkaline soils, together with a plan for a shady area. |
| • | Utility Gardens, which contains practical as well as decorative use of spaces – a cutting garden, a herb garden and garden filled with flowers, fruit and vegetables. |
| • | A Beekeeper’s Garden, with a plan for an entire garden. This brings together, in a real garden, some of the individual plans – a culmination and realization of all the conceptual and theoretical ideas and suggestions that we have looked at. |
| • | Container Planting, with ideas and suggestions for planting in containers: seasonal planting and a herb hanging basket. |