Page 36 - Simply Vegetables Spring 2023

Plum ‘Blue Tit’
are to be found. A good way of ensuring that honeybees - and other pollinating insects - are attracted to your garden is
to grow plants in your garden that are
very attractive to these insects. The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) through its Plants for Pollinators scheme urge all gardeners to grow these types of plant in their gardens and for more information please have a look at the RHS website. One method of growing bee attractant plants is to sow meadow flowers which are rich in both pollen and nectar, the latter of which encourages the attention of the bees. Additionally, do not use chemical products of any type in your garden as despite the so called “advice” of pundits, garden centres and manufacturers all of these products will harm honeybees.
We are now having to rely on other pollinating insects and perhaps the best are bumblebees. Bumblebees are really good pollinators and at times are better
than honeybees as they will fly at lower temperatures and therefore are more likely to be available for early flowering fruits such as apricots and plums. Despite the gloom over honeybees, I am finding that bumblebee populations are building up very well and I reckon that last year much of my orchard pollination was done by them. You can encourage bumblebees by growing plants to attract them but also allowing them to nest in your bird boxes and compost heaps. The important thing to recognise is that bumblebees are not aggressive and do not pose a threat to you unlike some other insects. Additionally, their nest will become redundant come winter so if you are really concerned about buzzy insects you can, if necessary, seal up entrance holes to their nests in the winter months when all have flown.
Mason bees are very good pollinators and although they can generally be considered as solitary bees it is possible to encourage them into your garden by placing mason bee nests around your garden. These mason bee nests usually contain around 30 nesting tubes and during the year you may get as many of 50% of them being used and then over wintering queens. You can buy mason bee nests from various suppliers. I have mason bee nests in my garden and
like bumblebees I find that they fly at temperatures when honeybees are still
Plum ‘Haganta’
tucked up in the warm! By the way take no notice of the name - these mason bees will not harm your house!
Although rarely appreciated wasps are good pollinators albeit for later flowering fruit trees. As a result, I always implore gardeners not to destroy wasp nests unless absolutely necessary. In areas where
there is shortage of both honeybees and bumblebees, wasps are going to become an increasingly important pollinator, so
it is essential that we tell friends and neighbours of the importance of these insects.
Other insects will contribute to pollination in a small way and I include
in this general “flies”, moths and early butterflies but once again the importance is having plants in your garden that the insects will want to visit. They will then turn their attention to your fruit blossom.
If you grow your fruit under glass - and apricots, nectarines and peaches can benefit in this way - you will need to pollinate by hand and the traditional tool for this is part of a rabbit’s tail! I am not encouraging you to go and hunt out a pet rabbit so suggest that you should use a soft artist’s paintbrush. It is a long job as you carefully need to transfer pollen from flower to flower and on a well grown fan there may be hundreds of flowers! In days gone by Head Gardeners use to employ boys for this duty alone!
Damson ‘Bradleys King’
Pear ‘Colar D’ Ete’
Pear ‘Jargonelle’
36 Simply Vegetables