National Gardening Week and my seed buddy

National Gardening Week this year is concentrating on gardening for wildlife, something which I believe is very important, especially for our poor bees which are having a hard time of it what with the varroa mite and now neonicotinoid pesticides. Without bees and other pollinating insects, not only will we have no honey but our food security could be under threat - something I wrote about in more detail last year.

With this in mind I am looking at what I might plant in one of our flower beds this year. We had to dig up most of the plants in it as although the bees did love them they were far too big for our little garden and the bed has needed a refresh for a couple of years - I am thinking of some Verbena bonariensis with some lavender maybe (although we've never had much luck with lavender before!) However I am holding off on the seed buying as my latest blogging buddies over at Social Fabric (see the badge in the sidebar on the right) are doing a fun get to know people seed exchange and I have a seed buddy which I am rather excited about. I have been sent their details and what plants/colours they might be interested in. I have been out to buy them some seeds and I will be sending them along with some silly facts about me and hopefully in return I will get a surprise package of seeds

This is what I got my seed buddy - they said they liked the colour blue so I majored in on that with some bee friendly lavender, sweet peas which smell gorgeous and every garden should have and some purple sprouting broccoli as a blueish vegetable! I also put in basil for the windowsill in case they run out of room in the garden, sunflowers as every child should grow a sunflower and some dwarf french beans as they are a great veg crop (and bees like bean flowers!) I hope they like them and I can't wait to see what I will get from them!

Of course it's not all about bees, gardening for wildlife also includes the birds, hedgehogs, ladybirds and all sorts of other insects, including the gardeners friend the worm and on that note I will be posting about how to make a wormery later in the week. Here's my favourite bee photo to finish: