Snail mail

There's got to be some sort of pun waiting to fight its way out of 'snail mail' and bees, but I can't quite put my finger on it. Writing a letter to your MP seems a quaint way to go about things and emailing it rather than actually putting it into a postbox doesn't make it much less olde worlde, but perhaps every little helps.
The most impressive environmental campaign of the moment has to be the fight to put a stop the use of a group of pesticides called neonicotinoids. The evidence seems to suggest that they're very bad news for bees, or at least that they may be bad for bees.
Very soon Europe may decide to suspend the suspect substances, but how will the UK vote on the issue? The charity Buglife is worried that our Government will block the measure and is calling for those of us who care about bees, pollination and a healthy environment to apply a little pressure by writing to MPs.
Can't do any harm. Read Buglife's point of view in a guest post at Mark Avery's blog and then visit the Buglife site for some ideas about what to write.
 

Bee better

Photo: Bernie

A bit late for a New Year resolution, but better late than never. I've decided that I need to do more to make my garden bee-friendly in 2013 after spending time on the Bee Kind pages at the Bumblebee Conservation Trust's website.
It asks you about what grows in your garden and awards you points per bee-friendly plant. I went into the process feeling a bit smug, expecting to get a good score.
And 2,200 points didn't seem so bad until I got to the page that gives you details of other people's scores where you live. However, it turns out that the average for a garden in Wales is 2,327 while the top score is a hefty 6,114.
So, I'm below average - and must try harder. In my defence I'd say that my garden is more about trees, nettles and long grass (for butterflies and moths, amphibians and small mammals) than it is about flowers, but I can see that there's room for improvement.
As it happens the Bee Kind test does provide a route to enlightenment by coming up with a list of planting suggestions. For me it recommends 10, including Mahonia, Alliums and thyme; time for a trip to the garden centre I think.

Spring's first bee

I'd just typed in a couple of sentences of this post when the window cleaner turned up. Cue lots of barking from our enraged terrier and a scramble for me as I search for change.

What I'd written went something like: Seen your first bumblebee yet? The weather has been just right here for the last few days, but no sign of any queens.

But now I'm back in front of the computer that's out of date. While I was at the front door chatting my first bee of the year flew by, fast and high. Fresh out of hibernation, it looked like it was a bee on a mission. 

Anyway, what I wanted to do was put a link here to a really useful crib sheet for gardeners who want to make their gardens as bee-friendly as possible. It's been put together by the charity Buglife and it offers the general advice that you'll find elsewhere, but also links to a detailed list of plants that are useful to bumblees and the ones that are not good at all.