Water mint (mentha aquatica) is now playing a blinder around the pond.
Like thyme and marjoram, it is a herb whose flowers are attractive to pollinators.
The seasonal clock is turning, now, with cyclamen hederifolium flowers.
Teasel seedlings arrived among the perennials and 
grasses.
The garden is loaded with simple flowers just now...
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| Caterpillars of cinnabar moth on ragwort |
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| Peacock butterfly |
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| Carder bee on innula magnifica |
Always keen to have a look at other folks' gardens, we went over to the village of Epperstone to enjoy their open gardens on Sunday.Foxgloves are at their perfect best now. Foxgloves are native woodland plants. Their tall, pink flower stems are characteristic of our local woodlands. A bonus is that they tolerate the sandy Nottinghamshire soils.
In the news this week has been advice that gardeners should consider keeping bees.
A conversation at the allotments was on this subject too. At Leapool, we are not allowed to keep bees because there is a ban on keeping 'livestock' and bees are considered to fall into this category. There are many allotment societies that have this rule.
Allotments without bees would ultimately be allotments without fruit, beans or anything else requiring pollination. Bees need more friends. Allotment holders and bees are a marriage made in heaven. Clearly, the rule should be changed to allow plotholders to responsibly keep bees. But, I don't think that this is all of the answer.
Too few allotment holders are gardening for wildlife and encouraging beneficial insects through sympathetic use of flowers. Without changing the rules, allotment holders could ensure that there is adequate pollination of apples and runner beans by planting simple flowers amongst their vegetables.
Pictured is a great big queen red tailed bumble bee enjoying borage flowers. Borage is the best for bees. I encourage it to grow through vigorous potato haulm - or anywh
ere that it won't be in the way.
Also shown are calendula and convolvulus tricolor flowers that are growing in the brassicas. Hoverflies in particular love these two flowers.
So, whilst beekeeping on allotments should be encouraged, much more can be done by individual plot holders to make their allotments 'insect friendly'.
The allotment is alive with flowers in early July.
Borage fights it out with the potato haulm assisted by calendula, cornflowers and foxgloves.
Little dorrit attracts hoverfly to the root bed and young calendula are poised to flower there.
Calendula are in full flower in the legumes and amongst the brassicas & leaves convolvulus tricolor are now in bloom along with marjoram.
In the permanent beds we have left some flowering comfrey uncut to indulge the bees, a lemon verbascum has overcome mullein moth caterpillar ravages and is now in flower among the asparagus. The apples and raspberries host foxgloves.
All of these nectar sources have been aided by some very warm weather. On Sunday there was an irruption of ladybirds. Larvae (pictured), pupae and adults seemed to be everywhere. Hoverflies were very active and the borage in particular was buzzing with bumble bees and honey bees. I even spotted what appeared to be a black honeybee with a white underbelly: distinctly different.
After two wet summers that have been very difficult for insect life, it is good to see (and hear) the difference that warm weather and sympathetic management have made.
Readers of this blog will know my affection for borage. It has beautiful blue flowers that bees go boogalloo for. Its flowers are used in Pims at Wimbledon.
haulm and providing a nectar boost where there wouldn't normally be one.
Viper's Bugloss: the name conjures a herb that Hermione could have searched out to get Harry Potter out of some scrape.
Our native Viper's Bugloss (echium vulgare) is said to love dry, bare and waste places. Have we got an ideal home for you!!!! Our garden!
'Blueweed' is a biennial, and is adored by bees. I read somewhere that it 'drips nectar'. We'll have some o'that!
But we've planted it with some trepidation. It has a very long taproot, making it difficult to remove. It's stems and leaves are prickly - not ideal for it's position against the path.
But our hope is that it seeds and becomes another of those wanderers, that give such a sense of naturalness to gardens.
Primroses have finished flowering and are building up strong seedpods at this time of year.
Now is the time to multiply up those native primrose so that you have even more of them next year, providing even more early flowers for early insects.
Lift the clumps of primroses and knock off the soil. using either fingers or a sharp knife, to tease the clump apart. into separate plants.
Each parent usually yields four or five plants when divided. I cut off any of the big lumps from the divided plants, cut away seed pods and also trim the leaves before dropping the plants into planting holes in their new position ready for flowering next spring.
A good drink of water and a general fertilizer (I am using granulated chicken manure pellets at the moment). Watch them as the summer comes on, because they can dry out. Otherwise look forward to the first flowers - sometimes even before Christmas!
Sweet Williams. Planted by Frank for no better reason than his wife loved them. It is Frank's wife's funeral on Wednesday and our thoughts will be with him.
It is good to know that the flowers of Sweet Williams are also loved by our native insects. This stand of flowers was attracting bees in the pouring rain yesterday.
Sweet Williams are a good choice for wildlife gardeners, bridging as they do, 'the hungry gap' that exists for insects between the first flush of spring flowers and the abundance in June.
This beautiful allium should be buzzing with bees on this, the hottest day of the year.
But the garden is quiet and bees are counted in singles visiting the flowers that wait around the garden.
There has been a lot of hyperbole about falling bee numbers: but this silence in our garden is deafening.
Has anyone else noticed this fall?
By the middle of May, the potatoes needs have been met: are all earthed up. It is time to check that the needs of wildlife are met in the busy plot.
So, look carefully and you'll see that I've transplanted verbascum, foxgloves and borage between the ridges to attract insects. Primroses have finished flowering and will be split and transplanted around the allotment when I get a minute. The cowslips are heavy with seedpods and I hope to see lots of seedlings next year.
The finishing touch will be to plant African marigolds between the ridges. They will be another insect favourite and their roots exude a chemical that prevents eelworm. That's if we can bring the plants on enough to plant out after this cold weather.
Providing food for hungry bees is very important. Changes in agricultural practices have resulted in a serious fall in bee populations across the world.
It is vital, then, that we do all we can to provide food for bees by planting flowers that they like.
Here's a favourite I blogged about a little while ago. It's the cowslip (primula veris) and the full head of flower shows lots have already been pollinated.
The second photo shows good news for next years bees: tiny seedlings that have grown from last years seed. They're growing amongst the garlic. I'll let them get a little bigger and then move them around the allotment to spread them.
Mention of our native cowslips (primula veris) in my last post, prompted me to drop in this photograph.
Cowslips are considered to be one of the best plants for attracting bees. You can see that their simple flower allows easy access for a big, bumbly bee. They are a native plant and have had 10.000 years, since the last ice age to attune themselves to our native insects and for the insects to become attuned to them.
I love the simple beauty of native flowers and this one is especially good. Traditionally a plant of unimproved pasture, the habitat for cowslips has been lost all over the country. This is especially so in Nottinghamshire, caught as it is in the clutches of mega agro-industry. Where we once had meadows dotted with thousands of cowslips, we now have the uniform green of monoculture.
I am pleased to say that cowslips thrive on the heavier soil of our allotment and self-seed abundantly. I always try to make way for them and plant around the plants. This little family group is flowering in our potato bed.
Allotments are community gardens in the UK.
Ours is dedicated to food production and this means that there is not a lot of space to give to wildlife. A special effort is needed.
So, each year, we plant flowers among the growing vegetables to encourage insects. Simple flowers are best.
In 2009, our plan is to encourage self-sown borage plants to grow up among the potatoes. Borage is wonderful for attracting bumble bees. We will also plant African marigolds among the potatoes - 
they are a true 'companion plant' and enzymes from their roots are said to combat potato eelworm.
Our onions and roots will have alyssum (Little Dorrit) planted among them. This little low growing annual is very attractive to hoverflies.
The legume bed will be sown with antirrinhums (Snapdragons). Bees love diving down into the well of the flowers to load up on nectar. Antirrinhums are members of the legume family and so fit comfortably within the roation. The legume bed will also be marked by beautiful sunflowers.
Our brassicas will have the pretty little convolvulus tricolor. This is a brilliant flower for attracting hoverflies which, I hope, will help combat some of the brassica pests.
Now is the time to be sowing up seeds for a spectacular summer season that will brighten the garden and benefit garden wildlife.
Our garden redesign moved to the end of the garden last summer. Garden walls were extended and a new patio built.
I then dug over, and incorporated into the soil lots of compost. During the dig I disturbed a lot of bulbs and corms and tried to gather them all for replanting.
The digging and soil improvement has seen lots of snowdrops pop up, and also the clumps of our my favourite native wood anemones (a.nemorosa) are beginning to flower.
But the small corms of anemone blanda slipped through my careful screening and found their home in the place that will become the pond this year. So, incongruously nestled within brick rubble grow these exquisite flowers.
Is it just me............? Or has anyone else noticed what a fantastic year it has been for snowdrops?
I visited to North Yorkshire, England this week and I have never seen snowdrops so late, so vigorous or so beautiful.
They often flower early in the New Year when snow is still around. the cold weather we enjoyed at the beginning of 2009 postponed their flowering and now, everywhere where there were small clumps of snowdrops there are heaving great mounds.
I thought that we had planted the blousy snowflakes in our garden by mistake until I realised that I was looking at snowdrops as I had never seen them before.
In a couple of weeks the flowers will die back. This will be the time to split the clumps. You will then have twice as many snowdrops and splitting and moving the plants encourages vigour.
2009 - the year of the snowdrop!
