Bee-friendly garden planner
Build a planting plan for the space you actually have — one that covers the whole year, supplies pollen as well as nectar, and serves more than one kind of bee.
8 plants from 168 suited to small gardens
The plan
- Dead-nettle
Lamium
Chosen because it covers 12 months nothing else here does, adds pollen in 12 months, brings in 3 bee groups the plan did not yet serve.
Flowers january to december · nectar high · pollen moderate
- Knapweed
Centaurea nigra
Chosen because it brings in 16 bee groups the plan did not yet serve.
Flowers june to september · nectar very high · pollen high
Invasive in some regions — check before planting.
- Apple
Malus domestica
Chosen because it brings in 6 bee groups the plan did not yet serve.
Flowers april to may · nectar high · pollen high
- Comfrey
Symphytum officinale
Chosen because it brings in 5 bee groups the plan did not yet serve.
Flowers may to september · nectar very high · pollen moderate
- Bugle
Ajuga reptans
Chosen because it brings in 5 bee groups the plan did not yet serve.
Flowers april to june · nectar high · pollen moderate
- Angelica
Angelica archangelica
Chosen because it brings in 4 bee groups the plan did not yet serve.
Flowers june to august · nectar very high · pollen high
- Heather
Calluna vulgaris
Chosen because it brings in 3 bee groups the plan did not yet serve.
Flowers august to september · nectar very high · pollen high
- Goldenrod
Solidago
Chosen because it brings in 3 bee groups the plan did not yet serve.
Flowers august to october · nectar very high · pollen very high
Invasive in some regions — check before planting.
What the plan covers
| Month | Nectar | Pollen | In flower |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | Yes | Yes | Dead-nettle |
| February | Yes | Yes | Dead-nettle |
| March | Yes | Yes | Dead-nettle |
| April | Yes | Yes | Dead-nettle, Apple, Bugle |
| May | Yes | Yes | Dead-nettle, Apple, Comfrey, Bugle |
| June | Yes | Yes | Dead-nettle, Knapweed, Comfrey, Bugle, Angelica |
| July | Yes | Yes | Dead-nettle, Knapweed, Comfrey, Angelica |
| August | Yes | Yes | Dead-nettle, Knapweed, Comfrey, Angelica, Heather, Goldenrod |
| September | Yes | Yes | Dead-nettle, Knapweed, Comfrey, Heather, Goldenrod |
| October | Yes | Yes | Dead-nettle, Goldenrod |
| November | Yes | Yes | Dead-nettle |
| December | Yes | Yes | Dead-nettle |
Bee groups this plan names: 45
African mountain honey bee, Bilberry bumblebee, Blue mason bee, Blunthorn bees, Brown-banded carder bee, Bumblebees, Common carder bee, Common eastern bumblebee, Digger bees, Early bumblebee, Early mining bee, Eastern carpenter bee, Garden bumblebee, Great banded furrow bee, Hairy-footed flower bee, Heath bumblebee, Horned mason bee, Japanese orchard bee, Large scabious mining bee, Leafcutter bees, Long-horned bee, Long-horned bees, Mason bees, Metallic green sweat bee, Mining bees, Moss carder bee, Mourning bees, Nomad bees, Pantaloon bee, Patchwork leafcutter bee, Plasterer bees, Resin bees, Ruderal bumblebee, Rusty patched bumblebee, Shaggy bees, Sharp-collared furrow bee, Short-haired bumblebee, Shrill carder bee, Sweat bees, Violet carpenter bee, Western bumblebee, Western honey bee, White-tailed bumblebee, Wool carder bee, Yellow-faced bees.
Counted from the bee relationships recorded on each plant. These are the well-documented associations rather than an exhaustive record of who visits what, so treat the number as a floor.
Flowers are only half of it
This plan covers forage only. Nest sites limit wild bee populations at least as much as flowers do — bare sunny soil for mining bees, standing dead stems for stem-nesters, undisturbed tussocky grass for bumblebees — and no planting plan addresses that. A garden with perfect forage and no nesting habitat supports honey bees from somebody else's hive.
Check your region
Plant suitability is regional and this catalogue is written from a northwestern European perspective. Several plants here — ivy, buddleia, purple loosestrife, gorse, broom — are seriously invasive elsewhere, and each record says so. Check your own region before planting anything from a list.
Britain and Ireland · United States · Australia · New Zealand · Mediterranean and dry climates
- Nest sites limit wild bee populations at least as much as flowers do, and a planting plan does not address them. The output says so.
- Plant suitability is regional. Several plants here are seriously invasive outside northwestern Europe, and the tool flags them rather than filtering by a region it cannot know.
- Greedy selection is not the mathematically optimal cover. It is chosen because every pick can be explained in one sentence, which an optimal solver could not manage.
- Bee-group counts come from the documented relationships on each plant record, which are the well-attested ones rather than an exhaustive list of visitors. Treat the number as a floor.
- It cannot know your soil, and soil pH decides whether a good many of these plants will grow at all.