A Small Garden Is Plenty for Bees

You do not need an acre of wildflower meadow to make a real difference. A courtyard, a balcony or a modest back garden can supply as much nectar as a much larger plot if the planting is generous and well chosen. French gardens have shown this for centuries: the walled potagers of Normandy and the gravel-and-lavender courtyards of Provence are small, formal and humming with insects by June. The lesson is that bees care about density and duration rather than acreage. A honeybee will forage within a few hundred metres of its hive, and many solitary bees travel far less, so the patch you can see from the kitchen window is genuinely worth planting well.

Plant in Drifts, Not Singles

The single most useful thing you can do in a small space is to plant in blocks rather than scattering one of everything. French kitchen gardens rely on repetition and rhythm, and bees respond to the same logic. A lone lavender in a mixed border is easily missed; a metre-wide drift of it becomes a landing strip. Foraging costs energy, and insects quickly learn where the reliable supplies are, returning to the same patch day after day.

• Aim for at least three plants of the same variety together, ideally five.
• In a tight border, a group works well planted in a rough square of about 60cm by 60cm.
• Repeat the same group in two or three places around the garden to guide bees through the space.
• Keep tall spires such as salvia and hyssop towards the back, with catmint and thyme spilling forward over gravel.

The Best Nectar-Rich Flowers for a Small Plot

These are all reliable, easy to source and happy in British conditions. Choose single, open flowers where the centre is visible, because that is where the nectar sits.

• Salvia — Salvia nemorosa varieties give violet-blue spires from June to September and cope with dry, sunny spots.
• Catmint — Nepeta is one of the hardest-working plants in any small garden. Cut it back after the first flush and it will flower again into autumn.
• Rudbeckia — the golden daisies of late summer and early autumn, when bees are stocking up for winter.
• Lavender — Lavandula angustifolia types are compact enough for pots and hedging, and drought-tolerant once established.
• Herbs — oregano, thyme, rosemary, hyssop and borage are all first-rate bee plants and earn their place in the kitchen too.
• Early risers — pulmonaria, hellebores and wallflowers feed queen bumblebees emerging in March and April.

Skip the Doubles and the Empty Show-offs

Some of the most popular bedding plants are close to useless to bees. Double blooms — pom-pom dahlias, double begonias, many floribunda roses — have extra petals where the stamens and nectaries should be, so there is simply nothing to collect. Others, such as busy lizzies and most pelargoniums, offer very little nectar despite being visited occasionally. This is not a reason to ban them, but it is a reason to keep them as accents rather than the bulk of your planting.

Where you want colour, choose the single forms instead. Single dahlias, open-faced roses, cosmos, hardy geraniums and single asters all give bees somewhere to land and something to drink.

Keep Something in Flower from March to October

Bees need a continuous supply, not a June glut followed by famine. Plan your small garden as a sequence, and check each month has at least one thing in flower.

• March to May: pulmonaria, hellebores, wallflowers, rosemary, early flowering currant.
• June to July: catmint, salvia, thyme, lavender, borage.
• August to October: rudbeckia, hyssop, oregano, sedum, asters.

Leave the seedheads standing through winter. They cost nothing, look handsome in low light, feed the birds and shelter overwintering insects in the hollow stems.

Small Details That Make a Big Difference

Beyond the planting, a few small touches turn a tidy garden into a productive one.

• Add water. A shallow dish with a few pebbles gives bees somewhere to drink without drowning. Refresh it every couple of days in summer.
• Think warm and sheltered. Bees bask before they fly. A south-facing wall, a patch of gravel mulch and stone paving all hold heat and extend foraging hours.
• Plant in pots generously. Terracotta containers grouped together, filled with thyme, salvia and catmint, will support bees on a balcony.
• Leave a little bare soil. Many solitary bees nest in the ground rather than in a bought bee hotel.
• Avoid sprays. Even organic-approved insecticides can harm pollinators, so deal with aphids by hand or with a strong jet of water.

Do these few things and a small British garden becomes a genuine larder — French in its discipline, generous in its effect, and busy with bees from the first warm day of spring.