Here at Food Is Free Inc. you’ll notice how much we love insect attracting gardening methods. Especially when it comes to our own gardening spaces. Wander through the Laneway or our Green Space and you’ll see many of the methods below in action

1). Please don’t use any chemicals in your garden that damage the life cycle of bees. They are very sensitive creatures and don’t respond well to them. Growing beneficial insect attracting flowers and plants mean you won’t need nasty sprays – let nature sort itself out, it has for centuries before us, why intervene?

2). Plant bee friendly plants. Bees especially like blue and purple, so masses of those colours are bee magnets. Natives especially will bring in the native insects and pollinators. Let some of your plants go to seed, attracting all sorts of bees and pollinators to your garden is key.

3). Watch them in action to get an understanding for what they do. It’s quite mesmerising. Did you know a bee returns to its hive and does a figure eight on the honeycomb they deposit the pollen collected on their cute furry legs)? This is how they communicate with the rest of bee colony: the speed and the waggle of this little dance advises the colony how far away the pollen was collected, what direction it came from, and other nuances of where the food source was. Educating yourself on how much we rely on bees to pollinate our crops (especially fruit) is imperative to understand how much they link us to life.

4). Where possible buy only organic and biodynamic produce that you eat. Sending a message to our producers/growers happens with point of sale.

5). Ask your nursery or gardening supplier where their stock comes from before you buy. Insist on accessing plants that were raised pesticide-free. Plant out your own cuttings from plants or those of other gardeners you know have not treated them with chemicals. Save seeds and share the love with fellow gardeners.