Kent's Plan Bee Competition

We are launching a bee project prize competition for schools working with the Bumblebee Conservation Trust’s exciting, new, Lottery funded  project: Making a Buzz for the Coast, restoring habitat along North Kent’s coastline to safeguard our wild bees.

You can play a part in important conservation work too, and there’s a good cash prize for the competition winners. By providing habitat for bees at your school you could create a much needed corridor to connect our wild bee populations. The competition will start in March of next year to find the Primary and Secondary school who can design and make the best bee-friendly garden or a bee hotel or something which makes the world better for our bees.

There’ll be a cash prize and a bee activity day for the winning Primary and Secondary schools.

Please pencil this into your diaries and planners as something to be part of in the spring term of next year.

Please find below some ideas for seeds and plants that you can use with some useful weblinks:

Annual wildflower seed mixes (ideally native species) can be sown in early spring (March) for summer flowering but this alone wouldn’t be ideal for a bee garden (and is short lived) so perennial wildflowers and/or garden plants should be an important part of any bee garden.

• You can refer to our Gardening for Bees page and our Bee Kind tool on the Bumblebee Conservation Trust website for planting ideas.
• You could start this project by designing the garden and fundraising over the winter so you've got money to buy plug plants or ready-grown plants in the spring.

Judging will take place towards the end of June and the winner will be announced before the end of the summer term with the activity day taking part at this time.

Contact details

Allison Campbell-Smith, Programme Manager, Economic Development
Telephone: 03000 41 70 40
Email: Allison.Campbell-Smith@kent.gov.uk