bumblebee garden party

Hello
 
Well we had a wonderful day yesterday for the first bumblebee garden event. We were so pleased with how many people came along, we think over 120, so many thanks to all who joined us. The weather held up, although it was a bit windy but to be expected at Dungeness. Louise Barton opened up her garden to show all the amazing range of flowers and plants she has for bumblebees. In fact Louise had over 10 bumblebee species foraging in her garden, which is an amazing number, she even has the rare Bombus humilis (brown banded carder bee). It really shows what you can attract in your garden by planting the right flowers. On the lavender we also saw a humming bird hawk moth. By planting flowers and plants for bumblebees you can also attract many species of moths, butterflies and other invertebrates. If you choose wildflowers in your garden this also helps their conservation, in the UK we have lost over 97% of our wildflower meadows, species such as red clover, foxglove, knapweeds, catmint and vipers bugloss are brilliant for our bees! 

I have also had a great couple of weeks following on from our bumblebee farm day event. I have visited a few of the farmers which came along to the event and seen the wonderful areas they have created for bumblebees. I shall report more on this next time.....

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