As the days grow longer and the weather gets warmer, many of us are itching to roll up our sleeves and get out into the garden to give it a tidy up. There is a very important reason why it is best to wait just a little while longer. Many of our pollinator species hibernate and overwinter in the piles of leaves, and among the dead plant material.

When you are clearing up these areas of your garden, you may well be clearing a whole seasons worth of bees and butterflies with it. So if you can, please try to wait until the weather is consistently warmer and you are regularly seeing bees and butterflies. This will help protect their habitat and ensure that you have a robust and healthy population of pollinators.

How else can we help our pollinators?

Dandelions are one of the first sources of food for many pollinator species. By spraying these flowers with weedkiller, you are not only removing a vital food source for these species, but also could risk killing many insects as they ingest the weedkiller along with their food.

Water is essential for all of our garden wildlife. If you already have a bowl of water or shallow pond in your garden for the birds and other wildlife to use, you could consider adding a few stones for insects to land on so they can have a drink without the risk of drowning.

Reducing the amount you mow your lawn, or perhaps growing a wild patch will make a massive difference to many of our pollinator species throughout the spring and the summer. There are many different species of flowers which can be planted to help our bees, visit our guide to find out how to attract more bees to your garden.

Finally, creating a bee hotel is an easy and fun way to provide bees and other insects with a safe place to rest and lay their eggs.

Thanks,

Amy Bastow
Visitor Centre Assistant