I’ve been away for a week, and come back to find the Verbascum in full flow. It’s a great plant, and bees and hoverflies love the tall spikes of exquisite little flowers. The buddleia is also in flower, as are the evening primrose – currently full of pollen beetles. I have masses of bindweed all over the garden, and I have always had a fondness … Continue reading Summer Garden
I don’t have a lawnmower, and use my numerous guinea pigs and rabbits to keep the lawn down. I only have two guineas and one bunny now though, and the lawn has rather taken over. I say lawn but my garden backs on to intensive arable fields so it’s rough grass, and years of mole activity have made the whole garden pretty lumpy. This year … Continue reading No Mow…at all
We have just had the solstice here, although as often happens with the longest day, the cloud cover was so pronounced it wasn’t particularly obvious! There has been copious rainfall, but at least the ducks are happy. I keep ducks mainly because they are always so enthusiastic and contented with rain and mud, unlike the chickens who get themselves in to a profound sulk. They … Continue reading Moths and Ducks
I did my first Zoom wildlife gardening course on Saturday which went really well. It’s definitely a different experience but I had a beekeeping couple join the session who live in the Netherlands with a large area of land, so obviously the advantage is that I can reach out far more with online courses. Part of the ‘wildlife’ factor is of course birds, and we … Continue reading Gardening for Birds and Bees
Our insects and wildlife are suffering severe declines, but gardening and getting outside is the perfect opportunity to learn how we can help our bees and other insects and wildlife in these valuable spaces. If you’re already a beekeeper and would like to know how best to increase the natural forage and biodiversity for your bees, this course covers this often-neglected part of honey bee … Continue reading Zoom Gardening for Bees and Wildlife
In January last year, I attended a conference on landscape use and sustainability at Sussex University, and I took away a strong, galvanising feeling of implementing necessary change. Then – bam – the pandemic hit which actually obliged me to pursue the avenues I had pledged to consider. I thought about putting my Introduction to Sustainable Beekeeping courses online, but I alter these courses according … Continue reading Ways to be Wayward this Christmas
This Christmas is going to be a strange one for many, although less so for me as I usually spend Christmas Day on my own or with my children, and actually I find it blissfully relaxing! My older two have moved away so now it’s just Rosie and me, and this year we have our new pup, Ned. I really enjoy cooking, baking, decorating the … Continue reading Bee Courses for Christmas
The UK is currently under high alert for Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (H5N8) so even those of us with a few hens are required by law to adhere to the biosecurity measures set out by government. Oh, if only it were as simple as donning a mask and maintaining social distance… I am disappointed as I have recently – finally – had a few birds … Continue reading Bird Flu
I have been in my house for nearly 12 years now, and one of the first things I did was to plant some crocus bulbs. They are the early flowering purple ones – a variety I never manage to say correctly on the first attempt: Crocus Tommasinianus (it’s up there with ‘diatomaceous earth’ which I use with the hens…) and I have some Ruby Giants … Continue reading Bulbs for Bees
Beekeeping is more than just keeping bees, and right now, with the world in a state of flux, I feel it is more important than ever. Not, I hasten to add, because we should all be installing hives, but an understanding of a bee colony allows us to connect with the interactions of nature so much more effectively than anything else. We see bees come … Continue reading What can beekeeping teach us?
