Headlines about the plight of honey bees and the drop in numbers of garden butterflies are more than bald statistics.

These insects, and others such as bumblebees, hoverflies and wasps, are vital to the pollination of fruit and vegetable crops.

For years scientists have warned of food crises if the number of pollinating insects continues to decline. In 2010, Professor Norman Maclean from the University of Southampton published the research of several leading experts under the title Silent Summer: The State of Wildlife in Britain and Ireland.

A comprehensive overview of the state of wildlife, especially insects, it summarised the many environmental changes to habitats, and outlined urgent priorities for conservation, concluding: “our wildlife is clearly in for a bumpy ride”. Last month, 25 environmental and wildlife conservation organisations collaborated to produce the first State of Nature report covering the UK and overseas territories. Among the organisations pooling their research data from surveys were Butterfly Conservation, Buglife, The Wildlife Trusts and the Bumblebee Conservation Trust.

Bees and many other pollinating insects must have sources of nectar such as wild flowers in order to survive, and, in the case of honey bees, make honey. In the 50 years across the middle of the last century vast numbers of nectar-rich arable weeds such as corncockle and ox-eye daisy disappeared from the countryside. These vital flowers of the cornfield have struggled to survive the onslaught of herbicides and nitrogen fertilisers, as well as the loss of the bare fallow areas where they grow. As a result, farmland butterflies have declined by 32 per cent in the last 21 years. The decline of important nectar and pollen sources is a real threat to bumblebees and the commercial crops and wild flowers they pollinate. Of the 97 food plants that we know bumblebees prefer, 76 per cent have declined over the last 80 years. Amidst the doom and gloom of these statistics shines hope from unusual sources. Roadside verges, brownfield sites where factories and warehouses once stood, amenity land, landscaping around business parks, and gardens in towns and cities are all potential life-saving habitats for pollinating insects. Roadside verges have become strips of mini-meadows as councils cut back on the mowing instead of cutting down wild flowers. Disused and derelict land is often colonised by nectar-rich plants such as ragwort, poppies and the escapee garden shrub, buddleia, providing sources of pollen for hoverflies, bees and butterflies. Local authorities are recognising the value of creating wildflower areas in parks. One local landscaping company not only plants nectar-rich native ornamental shrubs and trees around business parks, they’ve installed beehives as well. But it’s in our gardens and allotments, window boxes and patio tubs where we can make a real difference for the friendly insects that help to make sure we have delicious food to eat. BBOWT is a partner in the Urban Pollinators Project set up two years ago under the UK Insect Pollinators Initiative. This project is finding out what will help the conservation of insect pollinators and reduce the decline in populations, and improve the way honey bees are managed in commercial hives.

Scientists from the University of Reading, one of the academic partners in the project, are comparing the pollinator diversity in urban areas with farmland and nature reserves, visiting gardens and parks to find the pollinating hot-spots, and identifying what we can do to improve the diversity and abundance of insect pollinators, ensuring healthy populations for the future. The gentle buzzing of bees as they visit different flowers around the garden, or the louder ‘angry’ sound if one gets stuck deep inside a courgette flower are synonymous with summer.

And it doesn’t have to be a silent one in your garden; there’s still time to plant the summer-flowering lavender, foxgloves, geranium and marigolds, and then sit back to listen.