Bumblebee House
This week we’re making a simple home for everyone’s favourite fuzzy garden friend, and Suzanne has some answers for your gardening questions.
Hello all, it’s Chris here! I’m taking over the blog for a week so Suzanne can focus on putting together plant deliveries to take out into the community. Her regular Q&A session can be found at the bottom of this post, and we’ll be back to regular horticultural content next week.
Everyone knows that bees are in decline all across the country and the world, but while a surge in beekeepers (apiarists if you’re feeling fancy) might be good for honeybees, the majority of pollinators are much more difficult to help. Bumblebees and other more humble species don’t produce honey and live in small nests of only a few insects which mostly die off every winter. Each spring the surviving new queens set off from their nest to find a new home and start their own colony, and that’s where we come in!
Making a Bumblebee House
With Chris Folwell
Anyone can make a new nest for bumblebees, and we only need a few simple things to make a home for those young queens, an old plant pot, something to fill it with, an bit of old hose, and a stone to cap it off.
The packing material can be anything biodegradable that the bees can easily move around and encorporated into their nest. They’ll glue it all together with a mucus they produce, similar to the lovely hexagonal frame a honeybee colony builds but not so orderly. I’ve used a mix of shredded paper, torn up cardboard, old leaves, a few twigs, and some wooden sawdust packing left over from a Christmas hamper. Just mix it all together and jam it loosely into your plant pot, then stick the end of your hosepipe in. You don’t need as much hose as I have here, 6 inches will do plenty!
See, easy. You’re halfway there already!
Our next step it to prepare a spot for your bumblebee house to go, ideally this should be somewhere tucked out of the way so when you’re having a bbq or sunning yourself you won’t disturb the bees, and they won’t disturb you. I found a shady patch behind a bush where I can dig a pit a few inches deep just big enough for the widest part of my pot. You don’t need to bury the pot completely, just tuck it underground a little. Make sure you dig a channel for your pipe to fit into as well, then scoop some soil (or in my case, stones) up around the edge of the pot, and over the pipe so it’s nicely tucked into bed.
Your last step is pop your stone over the hole in the bottom of the pot, easy peasy, job done! Fingers crossed we get a nest full of bumblebees in the coming months and years, but if you want to improve your chances try planting some bee-friendly plants around the new house. I’ve got some foxgloves shooting up behind mine, and I’ve started some borage off in pots I’m going to transplant back here.
If you’re working with a smaller space like a balcony or yard don’t be discouraged, bumblebees will nest wherever they can find a small opening even if it’s quite high up. They commonly nest in old brick walls, so putting a nest out in a container or even a hanging basket should be just fine. If you can plant out a few pots with flowers in your space then you can create a lovely warm world with everything your bees will need!
Gardener’s Questions
Every week Suzanne answers questions from green-fingered (on not so green-fingered) folk all over the community, you can submit a question via the comment section below or on our facebook page.
Sharon: I have a friend who forgot to lift his Jerusalem artichoke when he moved house. I want to grow some to give him but don't know where to start. Can you help?
Hi Sharon, Now should be a good time to buy Jerusalem artichoke tubers online from garden centres. I found some here:
https://www.dobbies.com/jerusalem-artichoke-fuseau-tubers-2-per-pack-504681011
They are easy to plant and are really productive (and as I’m sure your friend knows, they spread quickly!) so you don’t need many tubers to start you off. If you want to give them as a gift, start them off in pots. You will need quite large pots and only one tuber per pot. Place the pots in a sunny place outdoors and water well at least once a week.
Have a look here for more information:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyVudeHWxUY https://www.growveg.co.uk/guides/growing-jerusalem-artichokes/
Polly: My lavender plant looks unwell I’ve been giving him a little drink. Do you think he will flower again? Thanks x
Hi Polly, Your lavender will need pruning back every year to keep it from getting long woody stems and to encourage more foliage and flowers to grow. Spring is a good time to do it.
Start by finding the woody base for each stem. You should see where each stem turns from green, fresher growth (from last year) into brown, older growth from previous years. Cut a couple of inches above the woody part of the stem. This will encourage the plant to produce more foliage and become more ‘bushy’. Cutting too far back into the bare woody stems often kills the plant. This picture illustrates it well:
Photo courtesy of Garden Gate Magazine
If you’ve got time a bit of time on your hands (haha!) you could have a look at these videos for a bit more information:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEDwFrB-IX8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ac7LJbCTLc
Marge: I’m wanting to grow cactus in pots around my front driveway and leave out all year. I’m hoping they’ll be easy to look after as I’m not too good with pots. What do you think?
Hi Marge, there are lots of hardy cactus varieties you can grow outdoors in the UK but they are hard to handle and pot up. Here’s someone who know all about that struggle!
I would recommend alpines and succulents instead. You can choose between many varieties of Sedum (Sedum morganianum is a lovely trailing variety) and Sempervivum and you could also add a bursts of colour with plants such as Dwarf Alpine Phlox, Dianthus, Saxifrage or Thrift.
Have a look at this link for some good background information: https://www.craigiehallnursery.co.uk/page_2650323.html
Hardy succulents like Sempervivum are really easy to grow and don’t need much looking after. We have grown them in our community allotment in the vertical planters along the length of the shed. They are low growing, evergreen (with many different foliage textures and colours) and will tolerate ‘drought’ conditions in summer and are hardy to frosts and winter conditions as well. They don’t need a great depth of soil, as they are shallow rooted so you can grow them in all sorts of unusual containers.
Sempervivum have really sweet flowers in summer, which attract lots of beneficial insects, and they spread rapidly via ‘offsets’. Offsets (clones of the ‘parent plant’) are all the little plants which grow surrounding the original ‘parent’ plant. As your containers fill up, you can separate the offsets and replant them in other pots or give them away to friends.
This website talks through and illustrates nicely how to remove and plant the offsets:
https://www.twotwentyone.net/re-plant-hens-and-chicks/