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Recent Posts
- How to Make Seed-filled Bombs That Bloom Into Flowers for Bees, Insects and Other Wildlife
- It’s Time For Gardeners to Break Their Silence on Climate Breakdown. What we Do in Our Gardens and Allotments Does Affect the World Around us
- Add Water, Add Life: How to Make a Simple DIY Wildlife-attracting Pond in Your Garden, Allotment, Greenhouse or Polytunnel Using Free and Found Materials
- Make Your Own Easy, Cost-free Biodiversity-Boosting ‘Insect Hotels’ For Your Garden or Allotment and Encourage Wild Solitary Bees and Pest-eating Wasps to Live and Nest There
- Here’s Some Real Gardening News: Peat-free Composts – Fertile Fibre and SylvaGrow – Bag Two Out of Three Which? Gardening Best Buy 2017 Awards for Container Growing
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- Tree Surgeon East Sussex on Surprise Sale of Ryton Organic Gardens: A Revealing Email Sent to Garden Organic Volunteers on 1 February 2018
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Category Archives: bees & other insects
How to Make Seed-filled Bombs That Bloom Into Flowers for Bees, Insects and Other Wildlife
Dropping bombs is the sweetest, most gentle kind of revenge we can take for the savage treatment of our flora-rich roadside verges. Our gardens are brimming with ripe seeds, so it’s time to get vengeful – with flowers. By John Walker. Originally … Continue reading
Posted in bees & other insects, climate- & earth-friendly gardening, earth-friendly books, eco gardening, environment, glyphosate, green gardening, leaf mould, nature & the natural world, organic gardening, peat & peat-free compost, published articles, renewable gardening, wildlife gardening
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Wonderful Weeds: TEASEL – A Striking and Spiky Wild Plant That Benefits Bees and Butterflies in Summer, then Seed-eating Birds During Autumn and Winter
Teasel Dipsacus fullonum Other names: brushes and combs; Venus’ basin. Life cycle: Biennial Only treat teasel as a ‘weed’ if it interferes with your gardening as it has many positive benefits. In late summer plants reach 1.2-1.5m (4-5ft) tall and are topped … Continue reading
Posted in bees & other insects, blog, earth-friendly books, green gardening, nature & the natural world, organic gardening, soil, weeds
Tagged allotment, books, garden, gardening, nature, organic, soil, weeds
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Wonderful Weeds: BORAGE – A Prolific Self-seeding Plant Which Can Swamp its Neighbours, But is a Big Hit With Bees and Other Insects
Borage Borago officinalis Life cycle: annual/biennial Grown as a herb, this prolific self-seeder has escaped in many gardens and should be treated as a weed, except for any plants which you want to allow to develop and flower throughout the summer. … Continue reading
Posted in bees & other insects, blog, earth-friendly books, green gardening, nature & the natural world, organic gardening, weeds
Tagged allotment, books, garden, gardening, nature, organic, soil, weeds
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Wonderful Weeds: DANDELION – Let Some Wet-a-Beds Bloom to Provide Vital Food for Bees and Insects in Early Spring
Dandelion Taraxacum officinale Other names: pee-a-bed, wet-a-bed, blow balls Life cycle: perennial Dandelion’s deep taproot must be dug or forked out and older plants, with very deep roots, may need several attempts. However, dandelion doesn’t spread sideways, so I let a few … Continue reading
Posted in bees & other insects, blog, earth-friendly books, green gardening, nature & the natural world, organic gardening, weeds
Tagged allotment, books, garden, gardening, nature, organic, soil, weeds
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Wonderful Weeds: HOGWEED or COW PARSNIP – A Big, Tall Weed Whose Flowers Are a Magnet for Bees, Hoverflies and Other Beneficial Garden Insects
Hogweed Heracleum sphondylium Other names: cow parsnip, keck, limberscrimps Life cycle: biennial/perennial Often seen on roadsides, this tough, taprooted weed can be difficult to remove if it gets a foothold in beds or borders. Leafy rosettes of deeply lobed leaves … Continue reading
Posted in allotments, bees & other insects, blog, earth-friendly books, green gardening, nature & the natural world, weeds
Tagged allotment, books, garden, gardening, nature, organic, soil, weeds
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Make Your Own Easy, Cost-free Biodiversity-Boosting ‘Insect Hotels’ For Your Garden or Allotment and Encourage Wild Solitary Bees and Pest-eating Wasps to Live and Nest There
Media buzz about bee conservation can have a real and positive effect, but virtual wildlife gardening only goes so far. I wanted a more immediate way of boosting wild bee (and wasp) populations on my own, real-life patch, so I … Continue reading
