Kitchen Garden Forum

http://www.soilassociation.org/supportu ... ainbuzzing

Phacelia tanacetifolia = blue honey!

I'm already very big on this but not in a qualified sense. Twelve years ago I bought 2 kilos of wildflower seed from a specialist supplier, many of the species have been lost to invasive grasses over the years.

I annually split perennials and collect seed. All very well the purists telling me to strip the top soil which is the de-riguer sowing technique but they're unrealistic.

What I did first was to start a nursery bed of about fifteen square metres, when the seeds turned into plants I grabbed handfulls of soil/plants and dug them into places where I had glyphosated the invasive grasses or perennials I didn't want.

Many species have survived, some haven't done well and some didn't show though I have instated a wildflower population and am continuing to do so each year.

This year I managed to buy more wildflower seed from Lidl. 100 grams packet was £2/3 ish. (I can't remember) and whilst they aren't certified there are a lot of varieties and anything is better than nothing. I bought five packets and the early sowings are through right now.

Best compliment has been from a pal last year walking past an embankment of buzzy-ness, "I haven't heard a sound like that since I was child" is what he said.

I don't know this variety on offer for free but i'll have some and same again, I never cast the seed randomly. I always start them under nursery conditions.

If you look into our hedge-rows you'll see tiny wildflowers surviving amongst invasive grasses and i'm certain it's to do with the twice annual hedge-cropping routines the local-authority or farmers use. The graveyard adjacent to our chapel is a compendium of wildflower all living amongst invasive grasses.

Four years ago I was stung by something, we have horsefly here and weird insects i've never seen before so it's anyones guess. I went into anaphylactic shock and the ambulance had to negotiate the usual sheep escapees and tractor meetings so that was a scary event but I still love the sound of bees and insects.