#GROW

​​Get your garden buzzing!

Our guide to gardening for bees gives tips on growing beautiful indigenous plants that create a thriving ecosystem for pollinators

MAR 4, 2021 | Written by Zoë Chapman Poulsen. Photographs by Megan Griffiths, Phil White, ‘rozlynnvr’, Sandra Falanga, Jimmy Whatmore, Jeremy Gilmore and Zoë Chapman Poulsen.

Above: A Cape honeybee (Apis mellifera ssp. capensis) feeds on flowers of the hardy succulent groundcover sour fig (Carpobrotus acinaciformis). Photo: ‘rozlynnvr’/iNaturalist.

Few people realise there are more than 1 000 different bee species that make South Africa their home. But like other wildlife worldwide, insects are often being squeezed out of their habitat as urban areas become more built up.

Insects are a vital part of the world’s ecosystems – but more than 40% of the world’s insect populations are declining. More than a third of insects are now recognised as being endangered.

Above: Double-banded carpenter bees (Xylocopa caffra) are perhaps one of South Africa’s best-known solitary bees. They are common visitors to wildlife-friendly gardens. Photo: Phil White/iNaturalist.

Despite being perhaps some of the most loved and charismatic insects, bees have not escaped this. Like many other insects, they play a key role in human survival as well as sustaining South Africa’s natural biodiversity. This is because they pollinate both food crops that sustain humans and our indigenous flora.

Anyone with access to an open space to garden can make space for bees to feed. There are many ways that you can make your own back garden, local community garden or park a more bee-friendly place.

Above: Cape honeybee (Apis mellifera ssp. capensis) visiting pink joy (Crassula ovata). Indigenous to the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal, it is often grown as a houseplant and also makes a hardy, bee-friendly addition to the indigenous garden. Photo: Zoë Chapman Poulsen.

One of the best ways that you can create space for bees is choosing locally indigenous plants. South Africa’s extraordinary plant diversity means there is a huge range of different species to choose between – from tall trees and shrubs to lower-growing herbaceous perennial and annual species.

Many indigenous species are waterwise, too, so they need less precious water during the dry season, whether in winter or summer-rainfall parts of the country.

Above: The easy-growing, colourful September bush (Polygala myrtifolia) provides year-round floral displays and is much loved by carpenter bees. Photo: Sandra Falanga/iNaturalist.

The more people create pollinator-friendly green spaces for wildlife in urban areas, the more these places act together – helping wildlife thrive and move between habitats within urban areas.

As your garden or green space grows, enjoy seeing what creatures great and small may come to visit. Document your findings on the iNaturalist app to help scientists better understand South Africa’s biodiversity.

Above: The weeping sagewood (Buddleja auriculata) provides a wonderful shelter or screen in the indigenous garden. Bees, butterflies and other insects love it, in turn attracting insect-eating birds such as white eyes and southern boubous. Photo: Jimmy Whatmore/iNaturalist.

Above: Treasure flowers (Gazania species) make easy-to-grow and bee-friendly groundcovers for the indigenous garden. They are tough and can tolerate nutrient-poor sandy soils. Photo: Jeremy Gilmore.

Above: Bee hotels are a place for solitary bees to make their homes in gardens. Unlike honeybees, solitary bees live alone and do not make honey. Photo: Megan Griffiths.