Why a Small Garden Matters More Than You Might Think

If you garden on a balcony, a courtyard or a narrow strip behind a terraced house, it is easy to assume you cannot make much difference to wildlife. The opposite is true. Bees forage within a few hundred metres of their nest, and in a city that radius covers a lot of paving, tarmac and mown grass. A single well-planted balcony can be the richest feeding stop on the block.

Urban gardens also tend to be warmer than the surrounding countryside. That extra couple of degrees brings flowers on earlier and keeps them going longer, which suits bees emerging from winter at slightly different times. You do not need a big space. You need the right plants, a source of clean water and a few small changes in how you garden.

Choose Flowers That Actually Feed Bees

Not every pretty flower is useful. Many modern bedding plants have been bred for show, with double blooms that hide the nectar and pollen behind layer after layer of petals. If a bee cannot reach the middle, it will move on. Single, open flowers in blues, purples, whites and yellows are the safest bet — bees see those colours well and find them easy to land on.

For a small garden, these are hard to beat:

• Lavender — English lavender is compact enough for a pot, loves sun and dries out happily. It flowers for weeks in midsummer and hums with bees.
• Salvia — both ornamental varieties such as Salvia nemorosa and culinary sage. Long-flowering, drought-tolerant and excellent in containers.
• Foxgloves — tall spires that suit a shady corner. The tubular flowers are built for bumblebees, which push their way in for the nectar.
• Catmint — soft, grey-green and generous. Cut it back after the first flush and it will often flower again in late summer.
• Borage — an annual that self-seeds freely and refills with nectar faster than almost anything else. Good in a large pot.
• Oregano and thyme — herbs you can cook with, and both are first-rate bee plants in mid to late summer.
• Hardy geraniums — low, spreading and tolerant of part shade, with flowers from early summer onwards.
• Sedum — the flat, pink flowerheads of autumn sedum are a lifeline for bees stocking up before winter.

Growing Nectar-Rich Plants in Pots and Tight Borders

Containers dry out faster than borders, so use a peat-free compost with some loam or soil mixed through for weight and water retention, and make sure drainage holes are clear. Group pots together rather than scattering them — bees find a clump of flowers far more efficiently than isolated plants, and the foliage shades the compost, slowing evaporation.

Plant in layers where you can. A tall salvia or foxglove at the back, catmint or lavender in the middle, thyme spilling over the front. This gives bees a landing platform at several heights and gives you a fuller display in a very small footprint. Deadhead regularly to keep flowers coming, but leave a few plants to set seed at the end of the season for birds.

Give Them a Drink

Bees need water, both for drinking and to cool their nests on hot days, but they cannot swim and they will drown in a deep, steep-sided bowl. The answer is a shallow dish with pebbles, gravel or wine corks arranged so there is always a dry landing spot just above the waterline. A saucer from an old terracotta pot works perfectly.

Top it up every day or two in warm weather, and empty and refill it rather than letting it stagnate. Place it in shade, near the ground, and keep it away from where you are watering with a hose so it does not get flooded. A bird bath with a gently sloping edge does the same job, as long as the water stays shallow.

Change How You Garden, Even Slightly

The single most useful thing you can do is stop spraying plants while bees are active. Most garden insecticides, including several "organic" ones derived from plant extracts, will kill bees on contact or leave a residue on the flowers for hours afterwards. If you genuinely must treat something, do it in the late evening when flowers have closed and bees have gone to bed, and never spray an open bloom.

A few other habits are worth adopting:

• Let a patch of clover or dandelion flower in a corner. Both are outstanding bee plants, whatever the lawn experts say.
• Water in the morning or evening, not at midday, and water the soil rather than blasting the flowers.
• Leave a small patch of bare, sunny soil. Around seventy per cent of UK bee species nest in the ground, and they need open earth, not mulch.
• Resist the urge to tidy everything in autumn. Hollow stems, seedheads and leaf litter give solitary bees somewhere to overwinter.

Plan for a Long Season

Bees need food from February to October, not just in high summer. In a small garden the trick is to have something in flower at each end of the year: crocus and hellebores in late winter, wallflowers and pulmonaria in spring, lavender and salvia in summer, sedum and asters in autumn. Sow a few hardy annuals such as borage or calendula in gaps for a cheap, fast top-up.

Start with two or three of the plants above, add a saucer of water and put the sprayer away. Within a season you will notice the garden is louder, busier and far more alive — and it will take up no more room than it does now.