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Did you all catch Adrian's blog about seeds for wildlife? If not, here it is again, some great ideas for what to plant for bees and butterflies this year!
What are you planning on growing from seed to attract in beneficial insects this summer?
Warden Intern at Otmoor.
Thanks for the very useful info Ian, I plan to get more butterfly friendly plants and ornamental berry shrubs/trees for the birds this year so that's a great help to give me some good reading, thanks again.
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Regards, Hazel
Hi All,
As many of you will know I've been actively planting for pollinators for a few years now and have perennial borders for pollinators and a wild flower lawn/meadow for wild flowers.
This year I have attempted to sow seed in my wild flower area that are native to Somerset or at least native to England. This has been a really interesting project and it would be interesting to see results if tried in other parts of the country??
Personally I have bought my seeds form Emorsgate Seeds as they list them as 'native region' specific and in my experience they are very reliable.
Up until now my garden project has seen massive increases of new and different insect species every year! Hopefully this helps to demonstrate that gardening for wildlife really does work!! I can't encourage you enough to have a go if you haven't already tried as it is so rewarding and our wildlife needs you!?
Here is a link that takes you to the page on my blog where all of this seasons seed types that I've purchased are listed....
higgysgardenproject.blogspot.co.uk/.../somerset-native-wild-flowers-big-garden.html
Best
Higgy
Always have Poppies, but adding Corn Marigold and Corncockle this year. Seed sprinkled amongst perenial wild flowers to make a good mix. Hope the early summer is better than last year! Awful weather, and there weren't enough polinators for the berries/fruit/seed crops so part of the reason we're feeding like mad in the garden now!
Has anyone else noticed a really poor Ivy berry crop? Usually at this time of year it is a vital resource and there are loads of Thrushes, Pigeons etc taking the berries, but hardly any this year.
Last week I bought some packets of seeds for bees butterflies and birds, which I'll sow just as soon as I can clear the beds. One is an Annuals Mix of meadow-type flowers including cornflower, corn marigold and poppy, which I'm going to put in the empty bed in front of where I've just planted the bird-friendly hedging, and one is a shaded areas mix including foxglove, Oxslip, Columbine and Wood Sage. Also a packet of sunflower seeds. The Silver Penny (Honesty) I planted last year should flower this year, and I'm hoping the Poached Egg Plant and Verbena I had last year will have seeded themselves.
I haven't currently got many of the plants Adrian mentioned, but I'll probably get some of them ready to plant out from a garden centre later on. It will be interesting to see if I get more than the (few) bees and butterflies I got last year!
Tricia
... I'd rather be gardening ; )
found some cheap boxes of mixed wild flower and garden flower and climber seeds in lidl so i bought a box of each not reading the label ...... when i got them home i found theyll cover 300m2 lol ...gardens gonna be pretty this year ...may have to go find some spare spaces to make pretty as well lol