Wildflower meadow in a planter

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

The RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show 2013 saw a number of planters designed – the content, so to speak, not the planters themselves – by garden celebrities. This was one of them.

Designed with bees and pollinators in mind this planter design shows that every garden, however small, can have a small plot, as in pot, of wildflowers to attract bees and pollinators who then will also come and pollinate the crops, hopefully.

Designed by Jekka McVicar the planter is entitled “wild flowers contained” and it says that this planter was specifically designed to attract birds, bees and butterflies.

Such a wildflower planter will work in any stetting and would not look out of place in formal gardens, parks, and in towns.

The planter “Wild flowers contained” can be found in the Ecover inspire zone and inspirational it is – the planter I am referring to – as are a number of others.

© 2013

Bee kind to the bees

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

We need bees and honey is just a byproduct. We need honey bees, and other bees and pollinators, for our crops to produce. Without bees no food. It is as simple as that.

But the bees also need us and now more than ever.

They need us to provide nectar plants for them, especially in the form of wild flowers and not just crops that we want them to pollinate.

Too much of the natural habitat has been destroyed and meadows with wild flowers have nearly become a thing of the past due to the overuse of herbicides on farms.

Therefore it is up to us, all of us, to feed the bees and plant the flowers that will do this and at the same time attract them to our vegetable gardens to pollinate the crops.

Do them a favor and plant a patch of wildflower, annual or perennial, even in a large tub or such, and also add some other flowering plants and flowers to your garden, even if you just grow veggies, to attract the bees and to feed them. Ideally those flowers should be nectar-rich.

There are resources all over the Internet that will advise you are to the flowers, wild and cultivars, that are right for bees and especially for your area.

Let's all give the bees a helping hand. They sure need one.

© 2013