Be kind to bees

Our vitally important honeybees have taken a lot of knocks in recent years, so it pays to be kind to bees. This poor little worker was suffering from cold and exhaustion this morning (not an uncommon sight early in spring) but was soon up and buzzing again once she'd had her fill of a drop of honey.

One of the easiest (and very pleasant) ways to be kind to bees is to plant lots of flowers. A nice mix of just about anything flowering will do - just try to get a succession of things flowering throughout the year to keep them around. Some flowers make better meals than others though, so if you're keen to host more honeybees try planting borage, phacelia, calendulas, hollyhocks, foxgloves, lavender, poppies, alyssum, buckwheat, rosemary... to name just a few.

They'll also have the added benefit of feeding beneficial insects like parasitic wasps, which sound rather scary but are actually the gardener's best friend. These tiny insects, harmless to humans (and bunnies!), will help control aphid infestations, using methods rather remeniscent of Alien and best not thought about too carefully, really...

So plant a platter of goodies for our friends the bees - and all the other beneficial insects - and they'll reward you with better and healthier harvests. Who could ask for better friends than that?

Tom time!

Well the weather forecast was suggesting a burrow-bound day for me today, but instead it's gloriously sunny. I've been taking advantage of this meteorological good fortune by repotting my tomato seedlings, which were getting rather crowded in their seed trays.

They're now stretching their roots in a variety of recycled plant pots, and enjoying their first day outside (though for now they'll be brought back inside overnight and in inclement weather - the hardening-off of seedlings like tomatoes is a careful business).

You can see they're going flop a bit in this picture, having only just gone through the trauma of pricking out and potting up, but with a good watering-in they'll perk up again on no time.

I planted these in August, but it's not too late to still grow your toms from seed indoors. Check out my seed shop on Felt for seeds of my favourite tomato varieties!

Peas please!

It would be fair to say that this bunny loves peas. Raw, cooked, crisp in their pods or even, dare I say it, mushy.

Whatever sort of peas you like, the good news is they're one of the things you can get into the garden nice and early. They don't mind the odd late frost (you can actually plant them in late autumn and winter and they'll just sit and grow slowly until spring) and they do best in cooler conditions. They're what's sometimes referred to as a shoulder season crop - they prefer spring and autumn to the harsh heat of summer.

So now's the time to plant your peas! My favourite sort of pea is a mange-tout which, as the name suggests, is the sort you can eat pod and all. They're great for stir-fries but I love to graze on them as I'm gardening, so they almost never make it into the house. My favourite variety is Goliath, a snow pea that grows tall and strong, crops prolifically and actually has a fairly good resistance to powdery mildew, the bane of all peas.

I've got these available for you in my Bigbunny shop on Felt, along with a couple of varieties of podding peas - the sturdy old Victorian Alderman Tall, a bumper cropper, and Dutch Blue, which has the most gorgeous mauve flowers and zany purple pods.

And if you prefer your peas flowering rather than edible, I've even got sweet peas - a lovely mix of heritage varieties that just keep self-seeding in my garden each year with almost no input from me. You can't beat them for stunning colour and glorious scent.

So whatever sort of peas please you, get planting - seize the day! It only takes a few minutes and you'll be glad you did when you're harvesting those gorgeous pods for tea, nibbling on them as you garden or enjoying the sweet scent of gorgeous heirloom flowers.

Hmmm, maybe I'll just plant some more - you can never have too many!

Why, hello there!

Well, I've been a bit absent online... y'know, burrows to dig, carrots to eat. (Oh, so many carrots... mmmm....)

Anyway, I'm back - bigger and better than ever and fresh and raring to go like the new pea shoots I spotted just this morning. I've been saving seeds like mad over the last year and I have a whole new range to show you. Hop on over to my BigBunny shop on Felt and take a look!