Totally bee heaven!

On Sunday, we finally had the opportunity to visit a garden we had wanted to see for some time, Sussex Prairies, based near Henfield in West Sussex. And boy, was I in for a treat!

The couple who own the garden, Paul and Pauline, have created the most wonderful place to wander amongst the plants and art installations. And the bees...gosh I think every bee whether bumble, honey or solitary must have flown in from miles around. So many species of Heleniums, Echinaceas, Veronicastrums, Helianthus, Monarda, and Altheas, it was incredible!

Steve, Sam and the in-laws enjoying the buzz of the garden

Six acres of  lush planting

Without doubt the star bee plant of the day was Veronicastrum, it was so covered in bees, that it looked like the flowers must be covered in invisable flypaper!

The range and combination of flowers was just lovely

These lovely ladies were having a party on one of the many sunny flowers

Digitalis ferruginea - popular with the bumblebees

Rudbeckia galore!

Flying saucers!

Love the bird boxes

Lots of fun art work dotted round the gardens, much of it available to buy

The in-laws taking a rest

The grasses were lovely too, but more for humans - not for bees!

I would whole heartily recommend this garden, the naturalistic planting was truly inspirational. Some pathways had areas of planting which were so heavily plastered in bees, one almost needed to wear a beesuit to walk past. No doubt bees from every hive within at least a 5 mile radius must have been visiting that day!

 
And in case you get thirsty and hungry, there's a lovely tea shop and plant nursery on site, so bring plenty of cash!


www.sussexprairies.co.uk

Monet goes to College

Another guest blog by Steve

Now, we wouldn't normally recommend sowing seeds at this time of year, but this was an exceptional project. The University of Sussex want some areas of pollinator-friendly vegetation in the heart of the campus, and were poised to go ahead with no delay (I do so love a greenspace manager who says, 'Yes - let's do it. Now!). 

Oh to have the right kit for the job! This cuts, scarifies, rolls, cultivates...

Not wanting to disappoint, we have suggested sowing the 'Monet' mix as a stop-gap; being mainly poppies, it will hopefully germinate quickly and give us a show of colour in the Indian summer we are undoubtedly in for next month (ahem). The sites will then be there and reasonably weed-free so we can do some more ambitious seed-sowing in spring of next year.

A lovely tilth

So, fingers crossed for us - we need a little bit of rain (not too much; during the night would be fine) and some nice warm days for the next three weeks or so. Even though the students are technically off on holiday, we still got lots of expressions of interest and support from passers-by.

Andy Jupp, University of Sussex Estates Manager, mixes seeds with sand

Karin and Andy sowing the mix!

 And this is what it will look like!

For more information about the pollinator friendly seed mixes we provide at FlowerScapes, have a little look here  FlowerScapes

New make - new blog web addess

Welcome to the new Kattegat blog address, slightly changed, but same old me! I ran out of picture space, hence a new blog, well, technically not, but you know what I mean.

I have been wanting to replace Sam's chair in his room for some time, and having a batch of 4 chairs bought from a neighbour some time ago for just £6, just stored in the garage, and plenty of old comic books, I thought that actually now was the time to get on and complete this project. The chairs are black, so I started by painting it with white emulsion. It gave it a brighter background on which to decoupage the pieces onto. 

I choose an old 1976 comic book and cut out lots and lots of pieces. There was a comic strip in which a character was named Sammy, so that was quite appropriate. Then it was just a case of gluing and gluing, and after 3 evenings of sticky fingers, the chair was complete. That  left 3 coats of varnish to be applied, and the chair is now happily at home tucked under Sammy's desk.

Have a lovely week ahead. I wonder what everyone will be watching on telly now that the Olympics is over for another 4 years, but I am sure the games in Rio de Janeiro will be just as spectacular as they have been here in London.