Garden resolutions for 2014

Tags

Beehive, compost, garden, gardening, Home and Garden, home grown, New Year, organic

• Start a compost bin
• Install a rain garden
• Plant more Natives
• Build an edible garden
• Use Natural Pest solutions
• Be more water wise
• Encourage wild life into the garden
• Acquire new bee hives
• Start seed saving
• Up-cycle more
• Relax and enjoy the garden

What are your resolutions?

Giant Winter Leek

May the year 2014 greet you with days as fragrant as roses, as colorful as rainbow, as bright as sunshine and as happy and cheerful as a lark.

 

Bee boles and skeps

Tags

Bee, Bee boles, Bee skep, Beehive, garden, history, home, honeybee, insect, Lost gardens of Heligan, Middle Ages, organic

A Peep into the world of Bee boles

These Bee-boles are part of a large wall with 15 vaulted chambers to house bees – the forerunner of modern beehives – bees were very important to gardens as they pollinated the plants and supplied honey and wax.

For centuries, beekeepers have used “skeps,” carefully designed domed baskets, to house their hives. Bees need a clean, dry place to make a home

Skeps, which are baskets placed open-end-down, have been used for about 2000 years. Initially they were made from wicker plastered with mud and dung but from the Middle Ages they were made of straw. In northern and western Europe, skeps were made of coils of grass or straw. In its simplest form, there is a single entrance at the bottom of the skep. Again, there is no internal structure provided for the bees and the colony must produce its own honeycomb, which is attached to the inside of the skep.

Lost Gardens of Heligan

How to make a Bee skep

 

Related articles

• The Giant’s Head (aristonorganic.com)
• Insect Hotel (aristonorganic.com)
• Flowers Garden (aristonorganic.com)