Saving the bees old style

RE: Saving the bees old style

beacon_dave — Thu, 20 Jul 2023 15:10:27 GMT

The bumblebees are still very active here but the Allium Sphaerocephalon have taken a bit of a pounding for sure.

They quickly start to fade to grey once the bees have done their bit (or perhaps the rainfall here just rinses the colour out !).

Having increased to around 80 plants this year has made them last longer though.

The next offering on the bee-friendly buffet table was supposed to be Salvia, however it looks like I was sent frost-damaged stock earlier in the year, so I've just been removing it all and replacing with replacement plants which arrived this morning. At least these ones have all got leafy green bits where they are supposed to have leafy green bits by now. They have a bit of catching up to do but half of them should flower into October.

RE: Saving the bees old style

shabaz — Thu, 06 Jul 2023 23:22:06 GMT

Hi Dave,

Amazing photos! Just flicking through them all, I'm wondering how you got them all consistently very good! What's the new camera?

RE: Saving the bees old style

cstanton — Thu, 06 Jul 2023 19:34:23 GMT

Bees <3

RE: Saving the bees old style

ralphjy — Wed, 05 Jul 2023 23:28:45 GMT

Great pictures! I’ve been seeing a lot of native bees on my walks with the grand dogs, but because they are on leash and haven’t the patience - I haven’t been able to get any decent pictures. Plus as you mentioned, any wind adds to the difficulty. I think I should go out with a real camera instead of using an iPhone, but I don’t get many long walks without the dogs.

You’ve done a great job with your yard. I haven’t taken the opportunity to apply what I learned about bee friendly plants yet. My wife has decided to get our yard certified as a “backyard habitat” - part of a local and national program in the US, not sure if the UK has something similar. Certification is pretty straightforward as we have enough native plants, don’t use pesticides, and have water features for the insects and birds. We don’t have high canopy (trees > 30 ft), but my neighbors do. Best parts of the program are that they do a site visit and give advice and recommendations about how to improve your habitat. And they also provide discounts at local nurseries that sell native plants. Good news and bad news is that the program is very popular, so even though she applied a few weeks ago and paid our fees and donations- we still don’t have a site visit scheduled.

RE: Saving the bees old style

dougw — Wed, 05 Jul 2023 21:22:37 GMT

Nice work - great flowers and pics.

RE: Saving the bees old style

genebren — Wed, 05 Jul 2023 19:11:01 GMT

Beautiful! Providing resources and habit for the bees is a great way to go.

Between tons of native plants and forest of sunflowers we have had a bountiful number and species of bees in our yard this year. Now as the heat goes on, the vegetation is starting to fade off, but there will still be some solid choices left for them.