Explore gardens and parklands
We care for more than 200 gardens and parks. From kitchen gardens full of fruit and veg to historic parkland, there’s something for everyone.
Explore bee-friendly gardens
Bumble bees, honeybees and wild ‘solitary’ bees love visiting meadows and gardens. Find out where you can see the most bee-friendly gardens in our care.
- Attingham Park, Shropshire
- Attingham's Walled Garden and orchard were probably built at the same time as the mansion in the 1780s for the first Lord Berwick. This productive area provided the Berwicks with a constant supply of fruit, flowers, vegetables and honey. It's still home to the Attingham bees and you can see them hard at work in the observation hive. Pop into the Kitchen Garden to see the Grade II-listed Georgian bee house.See busy bees at Attingham Park
- Beningbrough, Yorkshire
- Beningbrough’s flower gardens are home to several varieties of bee, including red-tailed and buff-tailed bumble bees. Take a wander past the bee hive by the south border and there’s a good chance that you’ll see the busy residents buzzing among the flowers.Take a trip to see Beningbrough's bees
- Clumber Park, Nottinghamshire
- Stroll around the orchards in the walled Kitchen Garden at Clumber and look out for the bee hives hidden among the trees and blossom. The orchards have over 58 local varieties of apples which attract bees and many other pollinators.Visit the orchards at Clumber Park
- Colby Woodland Garden, Pembrokeshire
- Visit the walled and woodland gardens to see many different plant varieties, which pollinators such as bees are attracted to.Visit Colby Woodland Garden
- Hare Hill, Cheshire
- The tranquil Walled Garden at Hare Hill is often full of buzzing bees. When you visit you'll see that the garden is planted with predominantly white flowers, including unusual varieties of iris, poppy, echinacea, lupin and phlox. The bees definitely have a favourite plant though: the white catmint.Find out about bees at Hare Hill
- Hughenden, Buckinghamshire
- While you're looking at the flowers in the garden at Hughenden, keep your eyes peeled for some foraging bees. If you look closely you can sometimes see the colour of the pollen they carry and work out which plants they have visited.Spot foraging bees at Hughenden
- Killerton, Devon
- Honeybees are vital to the health of the orchards and garden at Killerton and their efforts to pollinate flowers probably help your own garden grow too. Killerton’s bees also produce delicious honey which you can buy at the estate shop – any profit goes straight back into conservation work on the orchards.Discover Killerton's bees
- Oxburgh Hall, Norfolk
- Listen out for the gentle hum of the bees as they go from flower to flower. You'll find many buzzing around the orchard thanks to the long wildflower meadow and herbaceous border. It's also the perfect spot to help them pollinate the Victorian Kitchen Garden next door, which once fed the estate.Spot bee hives at Oxburgh Hall
- Rowallane Garden, Northern Ireland
- Rowallane Garden's bees both pollinate the garden and produce delicious honey, which you can buy from the shop. Relax and let the world go by as you stroll through the garden and admire the colourful blooms.Visit Rowallane Garden and taste delicious honey
- Speke Hall, Merseyside
- The bee hive in the Kitchen Garden at Speke Hall produces lots of honey, which is used in recipes in the Home Farm Restaurant. Plan your visit to Speke Hall to enjoy the colourful garden that many bees call home.Visit Speke Hall, Garden and Estate
- Tredegar House, Wales
- The Orchard Garden at Tredegar is the largest of the three gardens and hosts a range of bee-friendly plants and flowers. Wander through the Laundry Garden in the Home Farm, filled with lavender and hydrangea plants, and see if you can spot the rare brown-banded carder bee. As well as being a bee-friendly haven, for more than 20 years the gardens have been maintained by Growing Space, a registered mental health charity based in Newport. They provide green spaces and activities for adults with mental illnesses to boost their wellbeing.Visit Tredegar
- Wordsworth House and Garden, Cumbria
- The walled heritage garden at Wordsworth House in Cockermouth has been specially designed to offer these vital insects a year-round haven. The gardeners here grow pollen-rich, old-fashioned varieties that would have been recognised in the Georgian period. This very rich habitat means there is an unusually high number of bee varieties. How many will you spot when you visit?Come and see the bees
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