Herbs are not only popular with people, but also enrich the diet of bees. Here you will find 10 bee-friendly herbs for the garden and balcony.

You can also support bees with flowering herbs

Beneficial insects such as bees and bumblebees are extremely important for our ecosystem and biodiversity. Unfortunately, many bees cannot find enough food to make ends meet due to one-sided garden design and bee-unfriendly plants. If you want to support the hard-working beneficial insects, you often reach for bee-friendly flowers. These are beautiful at first glance, but often have no other use apart from their attractive appearance. In addition, many flowers bloom in late spring and summer - but it is important for bees that they are supplied with enough food in early spring or late summer. This is where the bee-friendly herbs come into play: if you not only want to do something good for the bees, but also for yourself, you can also use well-known kitchen plants. These not only taste good to us humans, but also offer a good source of food for bees with their flowers, since the flowering time of various herbs is often spread over the whole year. Find out below which herbs are particularly good for bees.

1. Sage

Sage (Salvia) is certainly known to most as a medicinal plant or kitchen spice. But the plant can not only be used as a powerful spice or homemade tea: With its violet flowers, the plant is a small paradise for bees, which attracts wild bees and bumblebees in particular. Sage (Salvia officinalis), crested sage (Salvia viridis) and clary sage (Salvia sclarea) are considered to be particularly bee-friendly herbs ). While common sage blooms from May to June, clary sage blooms from June to August and crested sage from July to September - so you can create a stable food base for bees from spring to late summer simply by planting different types of sage.

2. Thyme

Thyme (Thymus) is an absolute must for Mediterranean dishes, but it can also have a cough-relieving effect as a tea. But not just hisAroma, but also its extraordinarily beautiful flowers make the herb so popular: purple, pink and white carpets of flowers decorate the plant from June to October, depending on the species. Thyme reliably attracts bees, because the flowering herb has a particularly high nectar value and thus offers a good basis for foraging in summer.

Blooming thyme is popular with bees

3. Borage

Borage (Borago officinalis), also known as savory, is one of the particularly bee-friendly herbs that you can grow in the garden. The decorative, star-shaped flowers of borage provide bees with a good nectar yield and are also pretty to look at for humans. Borage is particularly popular with bees because of its long flowering period, which begins in May and can last into September. In addition to their good looks and long flowering period, the flowering herbs also impress with their undemanding nature and pleasant taste.

4. Hyssop

Hyssop (Hyssopus officinalis) is probably one of the lesser known herbs. Nevertheless, it is worth growing the perennial plant, because the perennial herb is not only considered to be particularly tasty, but also magically attracts bees. In fact, the blue-violet and pink flowers of hyssop are so popular with bees that the plant is colloquially called beeweed. The long and persistent flowering of the plant, which lasts from July to October, is one of the main reasons why hyssop is one of the bee-friendly herbs.

Blooming herbs like hyssop are very popular with bees

5. Lemon Balm

The fresh aroma of lemon balm (Melissa officinalis) is very popular with people and is often used in food and drinks. In addition to being used for teas and desserts, bees also like to use lemon balm as a source of food. The small, almost inconspicuous flowers of the plant appear from June and attract not only bees but also bumblebees.

6. Rosemary

Blooming between March and April, rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) is one of the first bee-friendly herbs to bloom. The herb thus fulfills a particularly important task, because while nectar is often plentiful in summer, food sources for bees are often scarce in early spring. But the flowering herb is not only a pleasure for bees: people also enjoy itcolorful flowers and the characteristic aroma of the Mediterranean spice.

Tip: Our Plantura bee pasture contains a variety of bee-friendly flowers and herbs. In this way you can optimally provide bees and bumblebees with food and turn your garden into a true bee paradise.

7. mountain savory

Mountain Savory (Satureja montana) with its strong aroma is a great addition to hearty dishes and is often used to flavor beans. In addition, the plant is considered to be particularly easy to care for, undemanding and quickly forms a small lawn carpet. The plant displays its small flowers from July to October, reliably attracting bees and other beneficial insects that cannot resist the bee-friendly herb.

The small flowers of mountain savory act like a bee magnet

8. Oregano

Oregano (Origanum) is one of those herbs that no garden should be without. Especially in the Mediterranean cuisine, almost every dish is seasoned with the spicy plants. But did you know that the herb is also good for bees? Wild bees and bumblebees in particular love the white-pink flowers of the bee-friendly herb, which appear on the plant between July and August.

9. Lovage

With its intense taste, lovage (Levisticum officinale) is a great addition to soups and stews, which is why the plant is also known as maggi herb. But lovage is also attractive for bees: from June to August, the flower of the lovage is available for insects. Although their yellow-green flowers are rather inconspicuous, the herb is ideal for wild bees and bumblebees as a food supplier.

Despite inconspicuous flowers, lovage is a bee-friendly herb

10. Mint

Mint (Mentha) is arguably one of the most popular spices in many gardens at the moment. It is particularly popular in drinks or sweet treats. It is precisely the numerous types of mint and the associated aromatic variety that make the plant so popular. But mint is also very popular with beneficial insects: it is one of the plants that are suitable as herbs for bees and butterflies. Peppermint (Mentha × piperita) flowers from June to August. However, other species of mint flower at different times - like spearmint (Mentha spicata), which flowers from July to September. Especially smaller wild bee speciesbenefit from the bee-friendly plant. By the way: Even if catnip (Nepeta cataria) is only distantly related to mint despite its name, it also reliably attracts small beneficial insects such as wild bees with its flowering period from July to September.

In addition to herbs, there are many other plants that bees like. For example, see this article for a selection of bee-friendly flowers.

Category:

Hedgehog, Squirrel & Co.