Page 32 - ALG Issue 1 2023

how to...
Make your allotment more attractive to bees and other beneficial insects
1. Invest in a bee hotel or bee bricks. We have spent hours watching leafcutter bees roll up their cigar-shaped leaves and push them into the holes.
2. Directsowavarietyofannual flowers.Wenoticedthatthe poached egg plants only attracted the honeybees. Different shaped flowers will attract different bees as do different colours.
3. Ifthereisasparebitoflandonyour allotment, try to get together and erect a large bug hotel using old pallets, roof tiles, clay pots etc.
4. Perhapsmembersofyour committees could each join organisations like Plantlife, Bumblebee Conservation Trust or Buglife. Once they have read their great magazines, pass them onto
plotholders or put articles from them on the notice boards. (Hopefully
you will have already done this with your Allotment & Leisure Gardener Magazine!)
5. Ifyouhavedahliasontheallotment, grow a few of the open varieties such as Honka, Bishop of Landaff, Twinings after Eight. Not only do bees love them but hoverflies and butterflies do too. You could also growanyoftheannualdahliasfrom seed. Being later flowering, dahlias provide blooms well into the autumn.
6. Growcomfreyandletitflower.
7. Don’t spray, let nature take its course there is usually enough for you both.
Janet Tublin
This is a new regular column, and we
are looking for contributions from our resourceful members. Send your “How to...” articles to marketing@NSALG.org.uk
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32 Allotment and Leisure Gardener