Bee service station

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I’m not a very strict gardener. My vegetable patch is nothing like those immaculate allotments you see, with rows of perfect vegetables and not a weed to be seen between them. If plants self-seed and I don’t yet need the space for any vegetables, I just leave them to it, especially if they produce flowers that bees and hoverflies like. The result is that this spring the plot was almost entirely covered with forget-me-nots, and now that those are gone I have several patches of huge poppies. I really shouldn’t have left so many, because a few of my broad bean plants are struggling as a result (and of course bees also like bean flowers), but now that they’re flowering they are absolutely buzzing with activity in the mornings. It’s like a service station on a busy bee flyway. I guess they all hurry there to get to the flowers that have newly opened. I couldn’t capture them in a photo because they fly from one to another so fast, but the place was simply buzzing with honey bees and bumble bees as well. Once the flowers are over I’ll pull them out and just leave a couple of plants to produce seed for next year. Are you a strict gardener? All rights reserved. © Text and image copyright Fleur 2026.