Bees & Blossom
Apple Blossom and our wildlife log pile
Hello All,
What a beautiful spring we have had so far, be it a little late but now it is here it has suddenly all come at once. The trees are all covered in beautiful blossom and the hedge plants and trees Graham and I planted are out in full leaf. We are now in a lush green oasis here at Naish Farm with the joys of Spring all around us.
We have seen a huge increase in wildflowers around the nature reserve of our gluten free bakery this year, the setaside areas and meadows have come in to their own so far we have spotted celendines, bluebells, lords and ladies, wild garlic, primroses, wood stichwort, dotted yellow loosestrife, pink champions and wild forget me nots to name but a few.
We have discovered an excellent guide to help you indentify wild flowers, see the link ;http://www.judywoods.dial.pipex.com/British%20Wild%20Flowers.html it has a really useful guide with photos of all the flowers in colour coded sections.
The veggies are coming on very well in the poly tunnel, with all the seeds we planted now up and ready to be potted up and planted out. We picked the first spinach and salad leaves last week for the Bee shack , it’s such a lovely reward to have delicious fresh home grown leaves on your plate !
The nature reserve is really taking shape, the coppice areas we have left ungrazed already have young saplings growing, we hope to add to them by planting more fruit trees this year creating a mini orchard.
This is where we will house the new chickens, the run and house is being delivered tomorrow and the chickens are coming next week, we will feed them scraps and peelings from the Bee shack and in turn use their dung as a fertilizer on the garden!
After a huge succes in my own garden I have asked my hubby to make us some Bee boxes, the idea is to provide solitary bees – leaf cutter bees, mining bees, mason Bees etc a safe place to lay their eggs.
The best thing to use is garden cane cut to different lengths, set in a wooden frame to keep them dry that you then hang on a warm wall at about eye level.
The bees then create little chambers with an egg and pollen in each one, blocking the end with mud or leaves. So having plants and flowers to attract Bees and provide them with a good supply of nectar and pollen is very important. Trying to have blooms from Mid March to August is ideal.
The bird life has been incredible too, we have a blue tit trying to nest right outside the office door! We have seen an increase in goldfinches and as I write this I am watching a greater spotted woodpecker on the bird feeder!
Thanks alot for reading and we’ll keep you posted on chickens – photos to follow as soon as they have settled in !!
Charlotte x
New fruit patch, so far containing strawberries, rhubarb and black currants
