Create your own
BEE GARDEN The Scenic Rim Summers are the season of outdoor feasting: barbecues and sweet sips from the nectar of the gods. But it’s not just us that enjoy it. Our native bees are out in force, living life to the fullest extent possible: revelling in the excesses of pollen, sipping the abundance of nectar, travelling far and wide to explore the beauty of the blooms en masse. Within our 1660+ species of Australian native bees, there are a few that forage on specific plants but many of our most common native bees are generalist foragers. This makes it easy for each of us to not only choose plants that will suit our own individual lifestyles, but will also provide for the native bees as well. Flowering natives will always be popular: grevillea, eucalypts, bottlebrush, daisies, leptospermum, dianella, hardenbergia, and pigface. A flowering herb and vegie garden are also a favourite hang-out: think oregano, basil, rocket, bok choi, sage, borage, and rosemary. Exotic flowers like lavender, cosmos, roses, salvia, nasturtium, alyssum, gaura, and petunias provide plenty of forage for bees. Roses do double-duty (triple-duty if you consider what a delight they are to our senses) by not only providing a food source for stingless bees, but also for providing nesting material for solitary bees. The leafcutter bee snips little circles of rose leaf (or other soft leaf like stone fruit, or crepe myrtle) with her mandibles to line her nest with (a bit like a baby blanket). Rest assured that little holes in your rose leaves is a good thing: don’t spray for caterpillars! If your green-space is the setting for summer feasts and fun, be sure to indulge in some summer gardening. Both you and the native bees, will enjoy it all summer long. IMAGES BY AMY MACKAY | WORDS BY ALEX GRIFFITHS
