The Birds and the Bumble Bees

My overgrown organic veggie garden

This time last year, despite the constant rain, I was reaping the benefits of planting out my veggie garden in April.  I had planted cucumber, tomato, spring onions, lettuce, spinach, parsnip and leeks in my organic garden.

This April, it was still raining and Mr Duncan and I decided there was no point in planting the garden as we'd have our Australian visa and not be around to harvest any of it.  Its a bit of a pity as this year we have some amazing rich compost from the past two years of veggie scraps and juicer pulp.  I'll need to decide what do do with it if we have to get rid of the compost bin when we move out.

It continued to rain and each weekend I thought 'ooh those weeds are getting out of control, I really need to weed next time it isn't wet'.  We finally had a good weekend and I went outside all ready to tackle the weeds which were above my knees and blooming with little flowers.  I saw more than half a dozen bumble bees and some normal bees and other insects flying around from blossom to blossom. The bumble bees seemed especially to like the blue flowers from the wild comfrey.

There has been a lot of information in the media lately about the decline of bees and especially bumble bees due to the wet weather, declining habitat and use of pesticides.  So I've decided that the garden will remain au-natural until we have to return it to some level of respectability when we move out. 

As the weeds have become more wild, I've noticed more birds in our garden too and almost have a respectable morning chorus going on (when its not raining). Its nice to see the bees buzzing around each time I go into the garden.

Be happy little bees.

L. x