This month we are focusing on fruit and vegetables and how you can encourage a healthy population of pollinating insects to ensure you get good crops.
Honeybees are important but fruit and vegetables also need bumblebees, solitary bees, hover flies and other insects for pollination.
Bumblebees are particularly good pollinators for beans. Solitary bees are excellent for fruit, and hover flies help produce beautifully shaped strawberries.
Blueberries and tomatoes need specialised buzz pollination. Bumblebees are some of the few insects that can do this.
How to encourage pollinating insects
- avoid using pesticides
- grow flowering plants for pollen and nectar throughout the year
- choose a variety of different shaped flowers with simple blooms rather than doubles as they will feed a range of pollinators
- provide nest sites near your fruit and vegetable plot.
Top tips for hotels for solitary bees
Hotels for solitary bees are places where they can nest. Hotels should be:
- sunny, sheltered spot and not shaded by foliage
- south-facing
- protection from rain
- firmly fixed
- created with tubes or holes between 2 and 10mm diameter at least 15cm long and closed at one end
- made of breathable material to avoid condensation and mould
- smooth ends to the tubes.
Hotels should be put out mid to late March with mud and grit nearby to seal their nest chambers.
Top tips for bumblebee nest sites
Queen bumblebees often look for nests:
- under hedges
- in tussocky grass
- in old rodent burrows
- in compost heaps
- under sheds
- in birds’ nest boxes.
Provide these habitats and leave them undisturbed to help bumblebees to breed successfully.
Fruits and vegetable tips
- plant soft fruit bushes including raspberry canes
- cut back autumn-fruiting raspberry canes to ground level.
February plants
- Crocus
- Witch hazel
- Mahonia.
Enjoy a bumper crop and do your bit for nature at the same time.
Sources: Gardening for a Wilder Kent / Bumblebee Conservation Trust: Make space for bumblebee nests / Buglife: Gardening for Pollinators / Royal Horticultural Society advice on growing fruit and vegetables.
