How to Create a Garden for Bees & Beneficial Bugs

Pollinating and predatory insects are an important part of a healthy garden ecosystem. Bees and other pollinating insects like Hoverflies and butterflies promote better harvests of fruiting plants and trees. Vegies like Zucchinis, Cucumbers and Pumpkins, as well as fruit trees like Apples and Oranges, need to be pollinated by the transfer of pollen around and between flowers. Predatory insects like Ladybirds, Wasps and Praying Mantis help reduce the population of damaging insects like aphids and caterpillars. So growing plants that attract pollinating and other beneficial insects in and around vegetable gardens and home orchards boost the harvest as well as help reduce levels of insect pests.  

Insects also provide a valuable source of food for other garden visitors like birds and frogs. So, creating a garden that’s rich in a wide variety of insect-attracting plants is beneficial for both us and local fauna. 

There are lots of different insects that are beneficial garden visitors, including: 

• European honey bees
• Australian native bees 
• Butterflies 
• Moths
• Wasps
• Ants 
• Beetles
• Flies 

• Ladybeetles (and their larvae) 
• Wasps 
• Spiders 
• Lacewings 
• Hoverfly 
• Praying Mantis 
• Assassin Bugs 
• Platyhelminthes (terrestrial flatworms) 
• Dragonflies 

Here are some easy-to-grow, predator and bee-friendly flowers that can be started from Yates seeds. Yellow, blue and purple flowers in particular are great bee attractors. 

• Forget me nots are spring annuals that have lots of pretty blue flowers. They also produce copious quantities of seed, so if you leave the seed heads, it ensures that the plants re-appear year after year. 
• Nasturtiums grow readily from seed. An added bonus is that both the bee-attracting flowers and the leaves are edible. 
• Catmint, with its grey foliage and soft mauve blooms, makes a delightful edging for vegie beds. 
• Salvia, especially the blue flowering varieties, attracts bees, including the Australian native blue-banded bee. 
• Borage has beautiful blue flowers and is a renowned bee attractor.  
• Zinnias, like Yates Zinnia Sunrise Mix, have vibrant-coloured flowers which bees and butterflies find irresistible.  
• Calendula create a winter warming display of yellow and orange flowers. They provide a welcome source of food for beneficial insects during the coolest months.  
• Sunflowers are irresistible to bees and other pollinators. 
• Yates Bee Pasture Pollen & Nectar Mix contains a colourful blend of flowers that are attractive to bees and other pollinators. It includes flowers like phacelia, borage, poppies, zinnia and calendula.  
• Yates Butterfly Field Beneficial Insect Mix includes a beautiful mix of flowers to provide forage for butterflies and food for caterpillars. It includes flowers like asclepias (milkweed), cosmos, salvia, agastache, monarda and calendula.  

Many herbs are also very bee and beneficial insect friendly, particularly when they develop flowers. Try these herbs that can be easily grown from seed: 

• Basil is an annual that grows right through the warmer weather, producing sprays of white, pink or mauve flowers in late summer and autumn. Allowing a few flowers to develop will attract bees. 
• Thyme is a perennial mini shrub that has insect-attracting flowers in late summer. 
• Sage, the culinary form of the ornamental salvias, is an excellent bee attractant. 
• Rocket can be classed either as a herb or a salad vegetable. Allowing some rocket to flower and go to seed will encourage friendly insects to visit the garden. 
• Dill’s yellow flowers are loved by ladybirds. 
• Chives & garlic chives develop pink or white edible flowers as they mature, which beneficial insects enjoy visiting.  
• Coriander develops white flowers which attract a wide variety of insects.  
• Parsley, both Italian and curled, produce masses of flowers towards the end of their life cycle, which are attractive to hoverflies, wasps and other beneficial insects.  

There are lots of flowering shrubs that provide food for bees and other beneficial insects.  

• Lavender in all its forms is a wonderful bee attractant and, because of its long flowering period and its range of varieties, it’s possible to have lavender in flower for many months of the year. Yates Dwarf Lavender Munstead can be grown from seed. 
• Buddleja’s common name is butterfly bush, giving a hint to the type of insect it attracts! Bees also love buddleja’s honey-scented flowers.
• Pentas flowers during summer and its blooms are a favourite with butterflies.
• Dahlias come in a range of beautiful colours and varieties with open, single flowers like Yates Dahlia Cinderella make it easy for bees to visit and access the pollen. 
• Australian native plants like Callistemon, Melaleuca, Banksia, grevillea and Eucalypts have flowers that are ideal for attracting native insects as well as European honeybees.  

Try to leave some natural parts of your garden. Areas with unmown grass, logs, ponds and rocks all help provide suitable nesting and feeding sites for native insects and other small creatures. Include a shallow dish of water in the garden where insects can have a drink. It can help to put some pebbles in the base of the bowl, that sit just above the water line. This allows insects to land safely and drink.  

Insect and bee hotels are an additional way to create a habitat in your garden. You can construct an insect hotel from recycled materials as well as bark, logs, dry leaves and straw. Here are more details on building your own habitat hotel.  

If you see neat, circular shapes cut into your leaves, these are made by Leaf-Cutter Bees. In most circumstances they won't cause too much damage to your plants, so there’s no need for concern.