It’s the week of the green garden. Perhaps a pleonasm for some, but according to information organization Milieu Centraal, one green is emphatically not the other. There are a lot of misconceptions, especially when it comes to how best to serve insects with your plant.
That starts with a poison-free cultivated plant, and for that you don’t have to do what everyone else does: choose the most beautiful looking plant. An opinion poll showed that 65 percent of those surveyed did. “Organic plants can look less attractive upon purchase,” explains Milieu Centraal. “Precisely because they are poison-free, insects may have eaten from a leaf.”
Happy with a bee bow
So these are exactly the plants you need if you want a bee in the garden, something that a quarter of the respondents say they want. Those people should also not be seduced by a picture of a bee, which many producers print on the accompanying card of a plant. They should pay more attention to whether a plant is indigenous, i.e. whether it occurs naturally in the Netherlands. If not, Dutch bees and other insects cannot do much with it.
A tip that can make both bee and garden owner happy is to make a ‘bee arch’; place or sow flowers with as many different flowering times as possible, so that there is something to collect from early spring to late autumn. Happy, and there is something to see in the garden all year round.
Read also:
The essence of gardening? Learning to deal with failures, say the authors of The Garden Schedule
Garden enthusiasts may already have it at home: The Garden Tear Calendar for 2023, by greenery authors Romke van de Kaa and Paul Geerts. Every day a practical tip, useful facts regarding gardening and plants, background information, recipe or even a garden poem.
