Yesterday I was very surprised to encounter a frantic looking bee whizzing around the Smallest Smallholding. I don’t know whether it was a bumble bee, as I’m well aware I call any sort of fluffy-fat looking buzzy bee ‘bumble’, when in fact it could be one of a number of different types of bee.

I looked around me and wondered where it was going to find some nectar - there was nothing around in flower, only berries on the pyracantha and it seems the hens had done a great job of trampling down what few crocuses there were. In a way I felt a bit guilty that I hadn’t managed to provide for Mr Bee. No winter colour, no winter pollen or nectar. I just hoped he could find something somewhere so he wouldn’t starve. I’m pretty sure he was a solitary bee - maybe a mason bee? Who knows, before I could get a proper look he’d zipped away.

So it made me think really long and hard about planting schemes. I’ve always said my objection is to make the Smallest Smallholding a hub of food and shelter for all sorts of wildlife, so naturally there is going to be a lot of wildlife planting. I’m keeping my fingers and toes crossed that the verbena bonariensis seeds I sowed last autumn will come through this summer - bees and butterflies love them and the goldfinches feast on their seeds in the late autumn. Which is actually quite helpful as they’re actually quite prolific self-sowing plants. And the riotus colour of the cosmos were very welcome last year, as well as being a veritable success as far as Mr Bee and Miss Butterfly were concerned. Oh, and more sweet peas. But I need more! More interest, more colour, more juicy sweet nectar.

I have a woodland area that I’m currently trying to design too, that’ll hopefully eventually look like it’s been there since the year dot and serves the wildlife well. Can’t have anything that might be toxic to hens though (so foxgloves are a definite no-no), and I need height. In a rainshadow under the fruit trees. So plants that look great but are dry shade loving. Argh! Hellebores?

I think soon I’m going to get the seed catalogues out again. I’m supposed to be saving up to fix the car and mend the fence, and get a haircut (much needed after 6 months, I look like worzel gummage), buy the wood for the greenhouse staging, finish renovating the kitchen….but somehow the seeds always take priority, don’t they?

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 7th, 2008 at 10:18 am and is filed under wildlife, plans, seeds, flowers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.