Category: Posts

Well, the Bee Garden has been a huge success!  Much more so than my ultimately unsatisfactory attempts to grow veggies in the same beds.
And it’s not just bees that have been attracted to the garden, all sorts of beneficial insects like hover flies, butterflies, wasps, ants and many more previously unobserved bugs have arrived.  Many of which have eluded my desperate attempts to photograph them.

I’ve gained a new respect for nasturtiums and their bee attracting powers, although I now know why it’s often considered a weed, and I’m about to replant with a less rampant variety.

Salvia, perennial basil, sweet basil, cosmos, mint and even parsley gone to seed have all performed well, but yarrow was a bit of a disappointment.  The flowers are quite attractive, but not a single insect to be seen.  I wonder if some yarrow varieties don’t attract bees?

My newly replanted beds include the best performers, plus a few experiments like cat’s whiskers, borage, bergamot and coleus which the Blue Banded bees seem particularly attracted to. Crossing my fingers and hoping for a repeat performance …

I had assumed that whilst I was in Sri Lanka I would miss most of the beautiful spring weather at home. But temperatures stayed low and 40mm of rain just before my return meant that I came back to a blooming garden and bees making themselves busy everywhere.

The nasturtiums in the bee garden are putting on a spectacular show and attracting hordes of native bees – sometimes three or four in just one bloom. And I’m appreciating their delicate scent as I wander around the garden.

Such wonderful value for a $4.00 packet of seeds. I’m collecting from this crop of flowers, so I should never have to buy another packet of seeds.

Encouraged by all this bee activity, I decided to risk removing the top layer of the roof of my native beehive, and to place a honey pot over the exposed hole. The idea is that the bees will fill it with honeycomb and then I can just keep replacing the pot for a modest but unending supply of honey.  After an initial show of interest, the bees returned to their pollen collecting duties, and I’m optimistic that once they fill the main chamber with honeycomb, they’ll start filling my honeypot.

I also added a simple roof made from a sheet of propeller plate folded in the middle.  Now I think we are ready for summer ….