Hopton House Blog Comments
Bees
Posted by Karen Thorne on 23/06/2010 10:24:36
I think it's great these days that there is more emphasis on gardening for wildlife. We visited the Malvern Show this year, and watched Chelsea & Gardeners World at the NEC on the TV, and there were lots of gardens filled with wildflowers and designed to be friendly for wildlife.
I've always gardened for wildlife, and now my garden is mostly filled with flowers and plants that are loved by bees, butterflies and birds, with the odd notable excpetional that is let in for looks alone!
We're lucky to have space for a wildflower meadow and that is alive with bumblebees and moths. We do battle with some plants in the wildflower meadow. There is a lot of dock and thistle. However the dock seeds kept a family of bullfinches, too shy to come to the feeders, alive all winter, so I'm not so focussed on eradicating that now.
Our nettles are great for butterflies but sparrows also love the seeds.
I do find it odd, though, that people will spend so much money on wildflower seeds and plants yet do their hardest to aim for the perfect lawn and "weed" free flower beds. Our lawn is covered in very pretty buttercups, daisies and clover, which are in their turn covered in bees, distracting if you're trying to help England win at Lords I guess.
So come to Hopton House, enjoy the gardens but please don't expect perfection unless, like me, your idea of perfection is a view like this alive with the sound of buzzing bees.
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