Gardeners can help the birds and the bees

17:08:20 7th August 2008

Britain is suffering a bee crisis, with repeated warnings that the bee population is dying out.

With this in mind, the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) has begun encouraging designers to display gardens that encourage wildlife.

Gardening trade show Glee has noted that consumers are becoming more aware of green issues, including how their behaviour affects wildlife.

It also reported that a recent Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) paper may have encouraged garden designers to make their displays more bird-friendly.

Worrying statistics from the RSPB show that the UK garden bird population has dropped by around 20 per cent in only four years, while 15 species of bees have decreased in numbers, according to the Bumblebee Conservation Trust (BCT).

Glee's Mary Clarke said that gardeners can make a difference in saving creatures like birds and bees.

"Garden conservation may be small scale, but it could help to reverse the decline in local bee populations," she said.

The British Trust for Ornithology is encouraging gardeners to feed birds throughout the summer to give them a better chance in the winter, while the BCT has said that planting flowers which bloom from spring until autumn will help boost bee populations.

Birds and bees help pollinate flowers and spread seeds and are essential to the ecology of the UK.