Your Bees Need You!

'Our bees are in serious decline. We have lost over 50% of our bees through disease, loss of habitat and intensive farming. Lots of crops are pollinated by bees and without them we are in trouble.'

So I spent this warm Spring afternoon digging over, de-weeding and levelling a patch of the border by the fence that has been a bit neglected until now. And then unrolling the ready seeded mat onto it, covering it with a thin layer of compost (5-10 mm) and watering it in.

Like all gardening (especially mine), it's an experiment; I have no great expectations but am prepared to be pleasantly surprised. And if it does what it says on the box, then I will have 'a great source of nectar and pollen for bees', including: common knapweed; greater knapweed; golden rod; chrysanthemum mix; borage; anise hyssop; cornflower; verbena; lady phacelia; and viper's bugloss. What's not to like about that?