A place to bee

‘To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow’ – Audrey Hepburn

When we moved out of central London to the beautiful Surrey Hills a few years ago, we began the extensive but exciting journey of renovating our house and garden, and by ‘garden’ I mean a large area of wasteland. Luckily, the Landscape Architect we enlisted to help us held our same belief – that it should remain a natural haven, albeit a tidier one! So it evolved and developed but remained a bee and butterfly friendly garden. So much so in fact, that our very own garden fairies moved in shortly afterwards.

Fast forward to a few years later and I’m learning more about plants and flowers every day.  For example, bees favour blue and purple flowers and can’t see the colour red.  Gardening was daunting at first, but my love for the bumble bee – followed by my awareness of the plight of the honey bee – cemented my intent to do all I could for the wildlife in my garden.

I am now a member of the British Beekeeping Association having recently completed their course with a view to keeping my own bees this Summer.  It’s all very exciting, and also a little bit daunting, but I’m looking forward to hosting small, half-day beginners beekeeping workshops from home next Spring.  My journey to living country life to the full has truly begun.

So, all of this brings me right back to where I started - the garden and what I love most about mine.  The foxgloves which have always been there, and the swathes of wildflowers we’ve sown between our planted beds.  The variety of colours and shapes of the wildflower seeds you can choose from is spectacular and, better still, whatever you choose to sow will always look pretty.  You will enjoy their colourful gorgeousness year after year, and the bees and butterflies they attract will be an ongoing source of intrigue.

Our local garden centre is fantastic – it has chickens roaming freely, and rabbits for sale – and has a great display of Sarah Raven products.  Her seed packs always inspire me to plant more variety.  Each Spring I take my girls there to choose a new set of seeds to plant – this year we’ll be giving Cosmos a go and I’ll be spreading the word about these pretty little flowers all summer long!

If you’d like to follow our progress, learn more about the honey bee or see the garden – and our Cosmos – flourish come Summer, please visit www.aplacetobee.co.uk.

Laura x