Forage gap

Definition

The classic case is oilseed rape: a hundred hectares in flower feeds colonies superbly for three weeks and then offers nothing at all, and a colony can go from surplus to starvation inside a fortnight. Temperate gardens have two gaps — midsummer after the spring blossom, and the long stretch from November to March. The gaps matter far more than the peaks, because a fourth June plant helps much less than a first February one.

Where the word gets used loosely

Bee-friendly planting is usually judged by how much is in flower in summer, which is when a bee has options anyway. Value should be weighted by scarcity at that moment.

Honey records that discuss this

• Phacelia honeyMild, clean and gently floral with a faint herbal freshness — an easy honey with no rough edges at all.

Plant records that discuss this

• PhaceliaOne of very few plants rated top for both nectar and pollen, delivered late in the season when both are scarce. That combination is why it appears in nearly every agri-environment seed mix in Europe.
• Winter honeysuckleModerate ratings that punch far above their weight because of when they arrive. Nothing else that is easy to grow flowers so reliably in December and January.
• Bee bee treeOutstanding on both counts, and precisely timed to the late-summer forage gap.

Guide records that discuss this

• Why flowering seasons matterBees and flowers have to be in the same place at the same time. That synchrony is being pulled apart by warming, and for specialist bees with narrow windows it is a serious problem.
• Summer plants for beesSummer looks abundant and contains a real gap. The weeks between the spring blossom finishing and high summer starting are thinner than most gardens realise, and colonies are at peak population when it happens.
• A bee-friendly garden in Britain and IrelandAround 270 bee species, one honey bee among them, and a climate that gives you flowering months at both ends of the year that most of the world does not get. The British gaps are February and late June, and both are fixable.
• A Mediterranean bee gardenThe one climate where the bee-friendly planting and the drought-tolerant planting are the same list. The Mediterranean gap is not winter — it is the dead of summer, and the plants that solve it are mostly herbs.

Question records that discuss this

• What can I plant for bees?Plant for the months your garden is currently empty rather than for the months it already looks good. In most temperate gardens that means late winter — hazel, willow, crocus, lungwort — and the June gap between spring blossom and high summer, covered by clover, knapweed, scabious and bramble. Autumn belongs to ivy, which needs only to be left alone.
• What plants help bees all year round?No single plant covers a year, but a handful come close — dead-nettle, gorse and perennial wallflower flower across most of it in mild climates. The practical answer is four or five plants covering different windows: hazel and willow in late winter, blossom in spring, clover and knapweed through the June gap, marjoram and scabious in high summer, and ivy in autumn.