In celebration of Earth Day I’d like to shine a light on the tiny creatures that are so vital to our very existence – wild bees, honeybees, and bumblebees. Sadly, worldwide bee populations are in decline, which is why we need to protect them and encourage them into our gardens. We can make our gardens bee friendly by planting flowers with open petals, planting colourful flowers with lots of blues and purples and yellows, providing a source of water so the bees don’t get dehydrated, planting native plants, and creating nesting habitats for them.
A few of the plants that bees love include alyssum, daisies, asters, bergamot bee balm, lavender, rosemary, cosmos, echinacea, borage, anise hyssop, and salvia.
These are a few of the beautiful bees and bumblebees that have visited our garden over the summer.
I painted this canvas of a furry bumblebee for my dear friend, Erica, who has just retired and is looking forward to having more time to spend with nature in her lovely garden.
Foxgloves and Bumblebees 
Christine, your photos are all so beautiful! Love the bumblebee theme running through all this post. What a great illustration as well to conclude this post. Well done!
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Thank you so much!
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Beautiful pictures – vibrant and colorful!
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Thanks, Bernice!
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As long as they stay over by the flowers, I’m o.k. but I have to admit that I developed a fear of them as a child. Your flower collage is pretty. 🙂
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Thank you! Yes, it doesn’t pay to get too close!
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Happy Earth Day! I loved seeing all the bees in your garden and the flowers are so pretty 😁. Your canvas looks amazing, the colours are glorious with the big bee and the dried flowers are beautiful. You share such an important message for Earth Day, we need to look after our bees more. We have planted bee friendly plants in our flower border and it seems they like the blossom on our apple trees too. Thank you and wishing you a wonderful week! J 😊 x
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Thanks, Jo! I love seeing the bees on all the blossom in spring. Have a great week!
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Beautiful pictures of all the magical wonders. The bees on the borago off. are ones i’ve never seen before. They seem so light coloured. Very different. Your painting and collage is so lovely and special. Those are the things that matter in life. The gift of giving. Giving and serving one another is what life is all about. Happy Earth day every day 🙂 Blessings to you!
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Thank you so much, Ingeborg!
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How fortunate you are to have wonderful bees in your garden, Christine. I am so sad that there are none in ours, even though we have plenty of flowers to bring them here. The area we live in, although with plenty of bushland, lots of lovely gardens and native flowering trees, seems to be almost devoid of bees, and I cannot figure out why. We had so many just a few years ago, but they gradually disappeared. It is scary! 😦
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It is such a shame that the bees have disappeared from your area despite having an ideal habitat. It must certainly make you wonder what has happened to cause their decline. As you say, it is scary, especially when it is happening all over the world!
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So true, Christine. 😦
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Your friend is going to get a lot of enjoyment from your beautiful art. I love Bees – they make the world go around!
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Thank you! Bees are amazing little creatures!
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Its truly colorful and wise idea to plant those beautiful trees as to enable good and friendly environment for the bee’s
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Thank you, Lucas!
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It’s been a while since Iast checked on your post you always do make a good sense in your post thanks so much.
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Thanks Lucas!
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Borage and lavender are so easy to grow, but more northerly (if you are in the northern hemisphere) areas will now support grape vines and they are a magnet for bees.
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Thank you, David. Good to know. I have never tried growing grapes. I will have to add it to my ever-growing wish list for my garden!
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