By Spring has certainly gotten off to a sputtering start this year! Through the unseasonable chilliness of the last couple weeks, we’ve done our best to bear up and keep plugging away at jobs around the farm.
This week we’ve an extra spring in our step, and not just because the weather looks set to warm up a touch! Like other green-fingered enthusiasts around the country, we’re excited to be celebrating National Gardening Week, which is ongoing until Sunday 5 May courtesy of the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS).
In support of this year’s theme – ‘Knowledge is Flower’ – we’re keeping up our annual efforts towards improving the biodiversity and animal-friendliness of our fields. We’ll talk about a few of these in this week’s post, including the cultivation and construction of our wildflower meadow, bug hotel, and rocket bee hive!
Beautiful and Beneficial: Sowing the Wildflower Meadow
In the UK there is now general awareness that populations of our natural pollinators – especially bees – have been deteriorating for some time. One of the reasons for this is the overwhelming decline in land reserved for conservation efforts like wildflower meadows. The numbers are staggering, with the WWF reporting a 97% decrease in UK wildflower meadows since the 1930s.
At Hitchin Lavender, we’re playing our part in resisting this worrying trend.
This year, we’re sowing a larger wildflower area than we’ve ever had previously. If everything goes well, and you pay us a visit in June or July this summer, you’ll find a glorious display of wildflowers at the top of our Main Field.
Sowing the wildflower meadow – 22/04/24
As it springs into life in the next few months, the wildflower meadow will add to the biodiversity of our fields, providing food and shelter for an array of insects and animals.
Bees flock to our lavender rows each year, but they certainly won’t turn their noses up at a wildflower! In fact, the diversity of wildflowers we’ve planted – around 50 varieties have gone into our meadow – will provide an extra resource for insects before and after the main lavender blooming period. A veritable floral feast!
Beginning a Conservation Area: A ‘Rocket’ Beehive and a Bug Hotel
Our conservation efforts are also kicking up a gear in the space that previously housed the wildflower meadow.
Last week we were delighted to take delivery of a ‘Rocket’ beehive, courtesy of Bee Kind Hives. The hive is now standing proud in the bottom corner of the Main Field, and – we hope – will soon become a home to a host of wild bees.
Produced by hollowing out a log of fir wood, this special hive takes a bee-centred, non-intrusive approach to beekeeping. As part of this, we won’t be going to any special effort to encourage our fuzzy friends to colonise it. Mike, the brain’s behind Bee Kind Hives, has rubbed a little propolis and natural beeswax on the inside panels of the hive to bring it to the attention of scouting bees. If all goes to plan, this should be all that’s needed to attract a colony to make it their home!
Rocket hive construction – 28/04/24
And just next door to the new beehive, we’re also building a bug hotel out of old pallets and farm bric-a-brac. Featuring lots of different habitats – with dried out sticks and flowers, clumps of grass and hay, and old air bricks – the hotel will be a neat addition to the bug-friendly environment in the conservation area.
That’s all for now, lavender fans! Check back soon for more updates as we build up to summer 2024!
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