Buzz Buzz Buzz – listen to the sounds of bees working hard while you lie on the grass and stare at the sky.
Try to provide flowers for bees all year round, also have a good range of flowers on the go during the months of bees’ highest demand. Here are a few examples: Alliums in flower from now all the way through to August. This month it is Allium Cristophii, then Allium Hollandicum with Allium Sphaerocephalon following on. Cirsium and Centaurea are very easy to grow perennials related to corn field annuals, (thistles and cornflowers). Candelabra primula are very long flowering plants, carrying on during the whole month and into July.
Cirsium rivulare
In Production: Sow annuals and biennials before the longest day. Start off broccoli and savoy cabbage indoors, sow dill, parsley (including the flat leaved kind) beetroot, carrot and salads outside. If you have room in your kitchen garden for winter veg that take up space for a whole season, plant out seedlings of broccoli, winter cabbage and leeks outside. Sow basil indoors, or divide supermarket bought plants and repot.
Keep it Going: Water anything newly planted every other day. Feed tomatoes and keep the greenhouse humid on hot days by damping down the floor, this helps pollination and discourages red spider mite.
Centaurea montana
Lawns: Keep the cutters high when mowing the lawn. This does not produce a bowling green smooth sward, but does encourage a species rich thick green healthy lawn, which stays green even in dry weather.
Prune cherries while in full growth and after flowering.
Ants: For the discouragement of – water their nests, they like a dry home. Alternatively, sprinkle talcum powder where they run, I used this method in my greenhouse last summer and it worked.
Candelabra prumula
