A dandelion growing in asphalt
Would you pay €10 for three small nettle plants? Some people will apparently.
Advertised on E-Bay, I actually thought they were joking but
no, there they are, small rooted offsets being marketed as “Organic” and “All
health giving”.
True, nettles are pretty good for making tea, soup, fibre
and balms but I’m sure of you poked your head out of the door you will see a
clump somewhere within throwing distance.
Well apart from the 17 people who have bought the item, they couldn’t
find any obviously.
You can get 1000
seeds for €3 too if three small clumps aren’t enough. To find the offer on E-Bay just look above
the advert for Roundup packets to “Eradicate Nettles”
Dandelions
Then there are dandelions. You can get 3000 seeds for just
€5 but to be fair they can be used as food for tortoises.
Here’s a question – Dandelions, are they weeds, medicinal
plants, play things for young children, food for bees and of course food to the
aforementioned tortoise? The answer to
all is Yes, that’s what dandelions are.
It won’t be long before there’s a national dandelion day.
There are loads of posts popping up on social media about
how great the flowers are for the bees as they come out early. It’s got to the
stage where the very mention of daring to pull up a dandelion plant from the
pathway is met with a barrage of negative comments about how the bees will
starve if we dig up some plants, even the ones growing in cracks on the drive way.
For the very attentive among us you could be brave and
wait until the flower turns into a seed head and then dispose of that before
they set in more cracks on the driveway ( or save the seeds up in a jiffy bag
and sell them on e-Bay)
Honeybee conservationist Michiel Verspuij from Boomtree Bees
in Buncrana agrees that dandelions are a valuable source for bees. But also understands that the more diverse
flora the better it is for bees. “This time of year there isn’t a great
selection of flowers for them to forage on. So from my perspective, if they can
be left, the better it is for the bees. Also what harm is there if there are a
few dandelions growing in a garden?” and
Michiel knows, he has three bee colonies move into his garden this year.
Michiel also feels that it’s a slippery slope getting rid of
all the dandelions from the garden and wonders where it’d stop once you started
“Unwanted plants” He has a good point.
To save the garden becoming too sterile and lacking in
biodiversity he suggests leaving a few borders natural then annually mulch with
leaves in autumn to keep weeds at bay.
“Bumblebees like untidy gardens” Michiel says, so mine is a
pretty good hang out. He also suggests we allocate a little area in the garden
for wildlife; it doesn’t have to be much.
This could be a great way of not feeling guilty or apologetic about the
‘neglected corner’ of the garden that you always think you need to tidy up. It’s
now miraculously turned into a ‘Bee Feeding Station’
Any landscaping work Michiel does is focused in bee friendly
gardening and he will always try to incorporate plants for bees and early on in
the season we have the bumblebees out.
Bumble bees, out
first visitors
Bumblebees are able to fly in cool temperatures earlier in
the year because they are able fly chemically without needing heat. This allows
them to fly in cool weather, unlike the honey bee. In fact, five species of
bumblebee actually thrive within the Arctic Circle.
Why are bumble bees
so important?
Bumble bees pollinate the earliest crops and these include
currants, broad beans, gooseberries and early fruit trees. The bumble bee has
the ability to vibrate pollinate flowers. It shakes the stubborn pollen down by
buzzing enthusiastically inside the flower. Some plants (like tomatoes and
other members of the solanum family) can only be pollinated in this way.
Bumblebees are much more likely to browse from one flower to
another, whereas honey bees go back and forth to the same plant systematically.
This ability to browse makes bumble bees excellent garden pollinators.
Early plants for bumblebees
- Large petals - mallows, hollyhocks and most hardy geraniums
- Borage family - pulmonarias, comfreys and echiums
- Pincushions - scabious, knautias and cephalarias
- Thistles - cardoons and globe artichokes,
- Tubular bells - penstemons, foxglove, catmints, Hellebore
- Herbs - lavenders, sages, origanums and thymes
- Annuals - blue cornflower Daisies - echinaceas, anthemis and asters
- Climbers - Lonicera x purpusii
- Bulbs – Muscari, crocus,
- Then don’t forget the willow catkins, ribes and winter flowering heathers.
- Did I mention dandelions? You can decide yourself if you want to keep them in the garden.
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