Monday 7 July 2014

I like my lawn to buzz.....

Tony thinks I'm cracked.
'Look at it' he exclaims, looking across the lawn '... it's full of clover'.

Spot on there pal. Job done.

I know that most people will choose a monoculture of grass as their ideal lawn. Moss killer. Worm killer. Weed and feed. Shaved closer than David Cameron's face. Well, that's not my idea of lawn heaven. I garden for biodiversity: I like my lawn to buzz.

These photos show you why.

Today, our recently reintroduced honey bees were very evident on the clover. But also carder bees, red-tailed and white-tailed bumble bees were also stuffing their pollen baskets.

Kris gifted us 'A Sting in the Tale: my adventures with Bumblebees' by Dave Goulson and I'm reading it at the moment. It's as stuffed full of interesting bee facts as bombus pascuorum's pollen basket. Here's one:
  • A queen bumblebee may use her own weight in sugar each day to incubate her brood of baby bees which necessitates her visiting up to 6000 flowers.
I predict several re-readings of this new natural history classic.

Our bees need as much help as we can give them: I'm glad the lawn is buzzing.

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