Category: bees
Bumblebees – Friends of Every Gardener
April 5, 2017
May Miscellany
May 26, 2013
Scrambling through the shrubbery
Sunshine at last here in the north Cotswolds (second day running!) and, according to the Met Office weather chart, it’s pretty much stable over the whole of England and Wales. High pressure of 1024 millibars over the whole country, so not much damaging wind either. The sunshine is much needed to encourage my young seedlings to put on a growth spurt. It’s been far too cold for newly sown veg to thrice, except the lettuce under cloches. And the high winds a couple of days ago have destroyed any chance of a crop of walnuts this year – all the male catkins were blown off before pollinating the female flowers.
The greening of late Spring
May 26, 2012
self-seeded honesty in the orchard will have beautiful seed heads in the Autumn
At last – sunshine! And warmth, sufficient to sit outside; sufficient for my courgette seeds to germinate in only a week after sowing. Foxgloves (Digitalis) in the courtyard potager are flowering, grown from plant plugs supplied last year; their tall green spikes ‘navigating’ towards the sun. Everywhere are the signs of a late Spring – a hum of bees in the orchard, and in the wild area by the ‘eco-garden’ a female blackbird collects a beakful of moss, tugging it from a thatch of over-wintered plant detritus. She hops into a tangle of honeysuckle growing through a Jargonelle pear. Cow parsley and honesty have colonized the space around a century-old fallen apple tree – a magnet for orange-tip butterflies. Wild flowers and weeds abound in this acre; tolerating their existence whilst keeping them under control benefits the garden, bio-diversity and the environment.
Moving on with Ornamentals
April 20, 2012
Joys to come: self-seeded alliums in the neglected shrubbery
– note the encroaching brambles!
It is truly remarkable what a little bit of neglect can do to a garden! Flowers secretly proliferate and propagate themselves; plants that began life as a single plant or seed: and almost without warning, you have a multitude of young seedlings, or a bank of blossoms. It has happened in our own acre over the years, and brings such delight whenever something unexpected occurs. Such finds do not prevent me from endlessly increasing my stock of new seeds and plants, but what began as a bag of three summer-flowering bulbs, is by now a drift of purple starbursts (or will be next month).
The remarkable ‘Edible Garden Show’
March 16, 2012
Stall holders were busy selling throughout the Show
I’m just back home after spending the day at ‘The Edible Garden Show’ at Stoneleigh Park, Warwickshire, just outside Leamington Spa. Before I enthuse about the exhibitors, there are still two days when you can visit, if you are in the area, and grab a slice of the ‘Good Life’. Just click on this link for more details. High quality plants, seeds, equipment and advice were in evidence throughout the two halls and a marquee – all undercover, so no problems if the weather turns wet over the weekend. The Show focused on more than just edible plants: livestock and food stalls, plus plenty of gardening advice, given by individual exhibitors or in the Experts Theatre.