The Scottish Wildlife Trust is delighted to be working with the Prince’s Foundation for Building Community for a second year running at the Ideal Home Show Scotland taking place at the SECC between 2nd-5th June. Both organisations share the goal of achieving a more harmonious balance between man and nature and the Scottish Wildlife Trust has designed a wildlife friendly garden outside the Prince’s House.

This year, the Scottish Wildlife Trust’s garden has a bee-friendly theme.  All of the plants chosen, such as lavender, bugle, coneflower and hebe, are attractive to bees and beautiful to the human eye too. Bees are a vital part of Scotland’s food industry, pollinating crops such as strawberries and raspberries for free.  It has been estimated that the service they provide is worth £43 million a year to Scotland. As they have suffered a recent global decline, we hope this garden will inspire visitors to create their own buzzy place for bees.

Bees like flowers that produce lots of pollen and nectar; they prefer single flowers to double flowers, native plants or near-natives and flower colours that they see best such as white, yellow, blue and violet.  The Scottish Wildlife Trust recommends a variety of plants so that bees have plenty of food and nectar throughout spring, summer and early autumn when they are most active.

Other wildlife friendly features in the Scottish Wildlife Trust garden including a bird box and bird table, invertebrate hotel and water feature. By recreating this look visitors will not only be helping Scotland’s wildlife but will also get closer to nature on their doorsteps, which has been shown to be beneficial for health.