doorstep. We’ll be looking out to see if the same thing happens again this year.
Puting aside the possibility that the loss of their dandelions upset the bees, there’s no doubt that they appreciated them while they were there. Unless you are an ex-greenkeeper, odds are that your lawn will contain some dandelions, so, why not take it easy, don’t bother trying to dig them up (you know they’ll only return), stop mowing your lawn for a few weeks and let the bees enjoy the flowers?
Herbal bliss
Vronnie and I enjoy cooking and like to be able to pick fresh herbs from the garden. Our current house didn’t have a herb garden, so last April we decided to dig up an overgrown raised bed near our back door and turn it over to herbs. We were lucky to have it already built and large enough to take a wide range of herbs. Any garden centre or online gardening store is likely to have a wide range available at this time of year and will oſten have a multi-buy offer to keep the cost down too.
Flowering herbs are some of the most popular plants in our garden with the bees. Rosemary flowers quite early in the year and then we have a succession of chives, thymes, marjoram, oregano and mints. You don’t need to have a ready-made raised bed to grow herbs though. You can pop a few into an existing border or plant a few in pots near your back door.
Flowering herbs are some of the most popular plants in our garden with the bees.
Rosemary
Chives
Marjorm
Mint
Comfrey
Thyme
I lived in Dartmouth for a while and just had a concrete patio, but I made sure that I had a range of herbs growing in old apple crates. You’ll find yourself regularly nipping out to pick a few to add to your cooking, but make sure to let a few go to flower so that the bees can enjoy them too.
Another good plant to put in now, particularly if organic gardening appeals to you,
is comfrey. Since starting to work with the Garden Organic charity (
www.gardenorganic.
org.uk/) two years ago, we’ve taken over the propagation and harvesting of several thousand ‘Bocking 14’ comfrey plants on the Sutons nursery in Devon. We started selling them last year and they proved so popular that we ran out almost before the selling season started. This variety is sterile,
Your own carbon sink
If you don’t have a compost heap, now is as good a time as any to start one. If climate change concerns you, then you have an extra incentive to recycle your garden and kitchen waste in a compost heap. Producing your own compost and adding it to your soil helps you to build your own mini-carbon sink in your garden so you’ll be helping the plants in your garden but also helping the planet too. What’s more, if you are very lucky you might find a colony of bumblebees making its summer home among your cutings and kitchen scraps.
Bee Craſt April 2020
so won’t spread all over your borders, but was shown by Lawrence D Hills, in his trials in Bocking in Essex in the 1950s, to contain the highest nutrient content and a good balance of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. Hills went on to found the Henry Doubleday Research Association, now known as Garden Organic. The bell-shaped flowers of comfrey are atractive to many species of bees and other insects from late spring until the first frosts. Those foragers which can’t reach inside the deep flowers might nibble holes near the base of the flower and ‘steal’ nectar through them. Cut comfrey leaves and add them to your heap to further enrich your compost. Alternatively, if you have a compost bin with a tap at the botom, comfrey will produce a fantastic liquid feed for your plants.
REFERENCE
Wong, James (2017). How to Eat Beter. Mitchell Beazley.
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Photos: Richard Rickit, David Robinson and Supermoving CC BY 2.0
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