Published on 12, July, 2020
....aka Battle Of The Borage
There have been rumblings for the past week or so but I thought now would be as good a time as any to get the show started. Today I sowed between 16 and 20 seeds.
I thought it might be nice for any members who want to join in to sow borage seeds and chat about it. We all know bees and pollinators need a helping hand and this is a lovely plant we can have in our gardens to help. The flowers are pretty star shaped blue, sometimes pink or purple. You can eat the flowers or put in ice cubes and you can use the leaves to make borage fertiliser for the garden.
I thought it might be a nice way to unite online friends by doing something remote in real life.
It does self seed so I take no responsibility if you end up with more next year! The more the merrier. Apologies if you have no outdoor space. Maybe do a bit of guerilla gardening if you can
This post was inspired by Jamie (who I cannot tag for some reason) and Number
So lets help our wildlife!
"No-one can do everything but everyone can do something".
We have an awfully worrying dearth of bees this year.
By now our lavenders and wildflowers are usually smothered in all types of bees but I actually saw our first honey bee only today and have only seen a couple of buff tailed bees at all this year.
Also, very very few butterflies.
I have now noticed a few more bees now the weather is warmer, but the flowers are not as full as I have seen previously.
I was watching Springwatch this evening and they mentioned that people are noticing there are less insects. They suggested that there are likely two main reasons. One is industrial farming removing hedgerows and using pesticides. The other is the droughts we have had in recent years. I have a shallow bird bath and have noticed previously insects drinking from there. This has made me realize how important providing water in drought periods is for insects as well as birds.
That's lovely. Sounds like your garden is a lovely place for insects.
We've had one or two more but the depletion from previous years is extreme, especially in bees and butterflies but also fewer other insects, including ladybirds.
We actually have more bee and butterfly friendly plants this year, including 180 pots! (a lot of watering).
We have water for the bees (shallow), birds, foxes and hedgehogs
I was watering the garden the other day and a bee landed on a leaf and drank the water.
Nice to see