Tuesday 28 July 2015

Keep Bees Alive

I am so pleased that this year our lavender has been so big and beautiful that some local bees have been keeping us company from morning till night! I have never seen our lavender so busy. I love it. I do not fear bees; if you leave them to it they do not bother you.

I was listening to Radio 2 the other day and heard a really interesting interview about the decline of the bumble bee. After looking into it a bit I have found that in the UK, due to changes in the countryside cropping techniques, bees are becoming more and more rare.

This is all mainly to do with the more modern ways of planting and growing, so bees are not getting large opportunities to pollinate. With land where wild flowers would usually grow being used for crop planting instead, the bees are slowly dwindling in numbers.

So, why am I writing about this? Well as I have said, our lavender has been an actual hive of activity and the only way to help keep bees pollinating is to make areas in your garden that allow them to find a good source of pollen through the summer time.

If you fancy filling your garden with some good pollen and nectar rich flowers why not try out some from this list?

Bees love Purple flowers! (they see this colour most clearly, hence why my lavender is buzzing!)

Bees love tube shaped flowers like honeysuckle, snap dragons and fox gloves.

All of your blossoms are obviously key in pollination early in the spring.

Summer flowers like scabacious, sedum, aster, cornflower, wildflower, dahlia, erynigium, lavender, astilebe, campanular, delphinium, sweet pea and heather all attract bees.

Gardens are so important for bees but also, my garden wouldn't be as blooming if it wasn't for the bees! we help each other out!

I love having our bees around. The kids aren't bothered by them and they just watch them on the flowers. I think it's good as it gets them used to seeing them and rather than the usual scream of terror, they just get on with whatever they are doing!

We also love honey in our house so if we can contribute in any way to the local honey makers stores then that is a good thing!