How I Started a Bee Garden With No Previous Gardening Experience

I've taken up many hobbies over the years (and still continue with many of them to this day); dancing, musical theatre, blogging, painting, knitting and more. However, I have never considered myself to have green fingers. I remember doing a few bits and bobs in the garden as a child but I never committed to spending a lot of time sowing vegetables or making a raised bed. Until the other day. I suddenly became very interested in flowers and after seeing some inspiration by way of a gardening catalogue, I was sold on the idea of planting some myself.

My immediate thought was to create a little bee garden because I thought it would be a simple project to start with. So, here I am starting up gardening after never previously having much of an interest in it.

To start off this venture, I needed to buy some seeds. I picked a few from DT Browns Catalogue that were both bee-friendly and colourful. There were various plant varieties in my selection including Cosmos, Lobelia and a Wildflower pollinator mix. If you want to get excited about flowers then just have a look at photos of any of these plants and you will not be disappointed.

I made my bee garden bed via a quick method to make a raised bed. This method requires you to put down a layer of soaked cardboard on top of a mown area of grass and then pile various other things on top such as grass clippings and coffee granules. After this, you can put soil and compost on it and your bed is ready! It is a quick way to make a nice little garden plot and it was great because it enabled me to start a small garden without too much effort. Seeing as I'm not an experienced gardener, I wanted to experiment to see whether growing straight in the soil or in pots first was a better option and how the different varieties coped with the different conditions. When the seeds arrived I started by planting the Lobelia seeds into a container so they could grow up inside before being planted in the garden. Alongside the seeds, I also planted a nasturtium, a hollyhock and a sunflower (which you can see in the photos) in the bed. I placed old bottles over these to start with to protect them from insects and other elements which may harm the young plants.

It was exciting to see the shoots first appearing and I am looking forward to seeing the garden grow into a proper wildlife space and a place for the bees to enjoy.