Bee expert Benny Hawksbee gave an insightful talk on gardening for wildlife at the South London Botanic Institute. The audience including many community gardeners from Lambeth who were supported by IEL to attend. Focusing on solitary and bumble bees, Benny offered a host of useful tips for gardeners:
– focus your planting on the flowers that are used by specialist species, and they will cater for generalists as well.
– grow what you like in your garden, but don’t neglect our native wildflowers which our native wildlife needs.
– create homes for bees using bamboo canes, rose/bramble stems and substrates like crushed concrete.
– be less tidy: leave deadheads on plants for moths and other species to lay their eggs in.
Benny can be found at Thursday morning volunteer sessions at Eden Nature Garden in Clapham.
