Garden Club - What no flowers?
Today I am going to tell you about a challenge I have received regarding the garden club. I recently wrote that all the flowers in my garden have gone as the fruits and rosehips have now set. One keen young gardener has challenged me to say - why don’t I have flowers in my garden for the bees and other pollinators at this time of the year?
That is a really good question!
Historically, I have weeded the garden during the Christmas holidays, started the sowing in the spring half term and planted out in the Easter holidays. Then, I disappeared from the garden for the summer term because of the heavy work load of end of school reports writing, reference writing, interviews and exams. I came back into the garden in late July, early August, to pick the crops that have survived. I, simply, didn’t have time to plan or plant or dead head flowers and that has been a pattern for a very long time that I have not factored flowers into my garden during those months.
A fact I was blind to until - this question came up. My garden is in flower in spring and green in summer. This has got me thinking, as a homeschool teacher, I am in the garden all year round (expect last year when I had my accident). Therefore, I can have flowers for the pollinators all year round because I can deadhead them and water them.
However, because I have never done flowers - I need some help! I need some recommendation for perennials for the summer and some shrubs for the autumn and winter.
The word 'perennials' means those plants which grow in beds and borders, which are not trees, shrubs or bulbs. They are the 'summer colour', the 'border flowers' and make up a 'flower garden'.
What would you recommend for my garden - so we have flowers and help the pollinators all year round? Here is what I have now and the empty months.
January
February – snowdrops
March – daffodils
April – the fruit trees and lily of the valley
May – sweet peas and rosehips
June – blackberries
July
August
September
October
November
December
