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Educate yourself

Just deciding you want to have a bee-friendly garden won't be sufficient. You need to do your research and you need to do it well in order to attract bees in your garden and also to keep the environment safe for you, your family and for the bees. There's a broad variety of discount gardening books are available at The Works that you can check out. That way, you know exactly what you have to do, what plants attract bees and how you can make them come back to your garden.

If you have a lawn in your back garden and no plants at all but you do want to attract bees there, then maybe it's time to rethink this whole arrangement. You either have to replace completely or partially the lawn with flowering plants. 

Now that you've done your research you need to find the perfect spot for planting flowers. Bees usually prefer sunny spots, so if you have that in your garden, you can concentrate your attention there. 

Did you know that bees pollinate any number of plants, including fruit trees and vegetables? In fact, it's estimated that they pollinate between 75 percent and 85 percent of all food crops that humans consume. It is very important to plant species that bloom in sequence. That way you make sure they have a constant supply of food and that will make them come back to your garden.

For example, you can pick Crocus, hyacinth, borage, calendula, and wild lilac for spring. In summer you can go for echinacea, snapdragons foxglove and in autumn for zinnias, sedum, asters, witch hazel and goldenrod. 

I am a lavender fan and I thought that just one sort of plant would be ok in order to attract bees in a garden but I was wrong. There are so many species of bees that you would be surprised! That's why it's very important to include flowers of different shapes in your garden. 

Everyone loves a colored garden, especially in spring/summer, right? Well, I think you would be happy to know that bees love colors too. Flower colors that particularly attract bees are blue, purple, violet, white, and yellow.

It is important that you plant in clumps because it's easier to attract bees to a group of flowers than to single ones because they like to collect pollen and nectar from the same type of flowers.

It is best to avoid pesticides and herbicides in the bee garden. It's not only dangerous for the bees but also for you and your family. You can choose the natural way and go for ladybugs, spiders, and praying mantises that will naturally keep pest populations in check.

All living creatures need water and bees are no exception. That's why it's important to provide that to them. Fill up a bucket of water, place some wine corks inside in order for them to have a place to land. You can also do this project with children by placing a plate with water near the place where bees come often and then let them help you place colored marbles inside. Like the wine corks, the marbles will help the bees land safely. 

If you are really serious about this and you really want to attract a lot of bees to your garden then you should also consider making a shelter for the native bees. You can build a bee house for the solitary bees and also leave some bare patches of earth near the plants. Many bees live beneath the ground or use mud for building. 

As you can see, attracting bees to your garden is not such a difficult task, especially if you do some research first. Bees are wonderful creatures that also bring the garden to life, so embrace this passion and share it with your friends, you never know how you might inspire them to do the same.