Plant colorful wildflowers
To support bees and butterflies, you can sow valuable wildflowers. This will create new feeding grounds for insects.
Flower boxes or pots
Common balcony plants such as geraniums or petunias are completely uninteresting for wild bees and almost all other native insect species. Instead, plant annual flowers, wild herbs or perennials in balcony boxes or patio pots. A variety of plant species will bloom from April to October. Thanks to the different flowering times, this also provides aesthetic variety.
The following plant species are suitable for sowing:
- Campanula glomerata
- Campanula poscharskyana
- Campanula rotundifolia
- Sedum rupestre
- Sedum acre
- Thymus serpyllum
- Calamintha nepeta
- Aubrieta deltoidea
- Aurinia saxatilis
- Allium sphaerocephalon
- Allium lusitanicum
Garden soil mixed with a little sand is recommended as a good growing medium. You can enrich the soil with organic fertilizer from time to time.
Flower meadows
for dry and warm locations
Developing an existing lawn into a species-rich flower meadow by mowing less is usually only moderately successful due to root competition between the grasses. It is easier to completely remove the existing vegetation in small areas and create wildflower meadows.
The following plant species are suitable for sowing:
- Lotus corniculatus
- Onobrychis viciifolia
- Vicia sepium
- Lathyrus pratensis
- Veronica chamaedrys
- Salvia pratensis
- Ajuga reptans
- Knautia ssp.
- Scabiosa columbaria
- Campanula rotundifolia
- Ranunculus bulbosus
- Daucus carota
- Leontodon hispidus
- Centaurea jacea
Small-scale wildflower meadows require care and patience. However, they can be expanded every year.
If the remaining lawn is only mowed three to four times a year, the existing flowers such as daisies, creeping groundsel, meadow dandelion, buttercup, white clover or speedwell will still bloom there. This also represents an improvement for insects.