Flowers & pollinators.

Fill the garden with flowers and life, from growing blooms from seed to planting for bees, butterflies and hedgehogs. 7 guides.

Guide categories

Plant for pollinators
Grow single, open flowers across all four seasons, plant them in groups, skip the pesticides, and leave a little mess for shelter.
Wildlife-friendly garden
Add water, keep something flowering all year, leave shelter and breeding sites, plant for diversity, ditch the pesticides, and give animals a way in and out.
Make a wildlife pond
Dig in autumn or spring, give it one gently sloping side, fill it with rainwater not tap, leave the fish out, plant natives, and let the wildlife find it.
Nectar through the year
Plan your planting so something is in flower every month, and give extra thought to the two lean windows: late winter into spring, and late autumn into winter.
Hedgehog-friendly garden
Cut a 13cm gap in your fences so hedgehogs can roam, leave out meaty food and water (never bread or milk), stop using slug pellets, and clear the hazards that kill them.
Grow flowers from seed
The cheapest way to fill a garden with colour: sow hardy annuals straight into the ground, start tender half-hardy ones under cover, and plant those out only once frost has passed.
Grow cut flowers
Give a small patch over to flowers grown for picking, sow in rows, keep cutting so they keep flowering, condition the stems in deep cool water, and sow in succession for a long season.