Collecting Seeds for Future Bee Garden

As my landlord and landlady are gone to their cottage for most of the summer, only occasionally appearing at home, I am free to roam around the garden on most afternoons, discovering the world of little things without actually being seen. Even better - I gained their permission to collect seeds from plants that grow there. There are many many pretty plants there and I cannot wait until they all have seeds.

I started with this variety of blue cornflower, which I consider really simple and pretty. The seeds look a little bit like tiny glossy sunflower seeds (without shells) with hairs on each end.

I also happened to notice that I am definitely not the only one interested in harvesting seeds - the ants do it, too! I am always amazed at how much these little creatures can carry!

The reason why I started collecting seeds of these flowers is that I am moving to a new place soon, a new place in England, which will possibly have an access to garden of some sort. The main inspiration was seeing the three-part documentary called Bees, Butterflies and Blooms, in which Sarah Raven is on a quest to save the UK's native bee species by providing them food. She shows how using herbicides and lawn mowing has resulted in decrease of wild flowers, therefore decrease of naturally occurring bee food.

She also shows, how little nectar there is in the horticultural varieties of the traditional garden plants and how difficult it can be for a bee to get inside a flower with lots of petals - if they do finally get in, they find very little nectar there - the horticulturalists concentrate on making the plants appealing to our senses, but not to bees' stomachs.

So I decided to collect some of the seeds for my future garden here, where they are in great abundance and then maybe have a few trips to some English meadow  in summer and collect my seeds there. Next year, I can start sowing my first little meadow in my garden :)

For those that are not keen on collecting their own seeds, there are many seeds of pollinator-friendly plants available online here.

---
All three episodes of the documentary can be watched on Youtube for free:

Bees, Butterflies and Blooms - part 1 
Bees, Butterflies and Blooms - part 2 
Bees, Butterflies and Blooms - part 3 

The Little Pencil Box

A few weeks back, I borrowed my colleague's pencils without asking and it caused a bit of a friction in the workplace (I should have asked) - so I decided to bring my own set of pencils to work. I don't really know why the idea never occured to me before - I rarely use my pencils at home. As I walked home that day, the rubbish bin for plastic to be recycled presented me with a nice little gift - this perfectly unharmed white plastic box. It was sitting on top of the container, as if someone thought it was too good to be thrown in and someone might like to take it. Well, I did! I washed it in the dishwasher and I have my own little pencil box now. The pencils fit into the box perfectly and the box itself fits into the shelf under my desk wonderfully. It is nice how things sometimes work out :) 

A Little Pea Harvest

I harveseted my first batch of pea pods this Sunday - they were sweet and delicious, completely chemical-free and from my own produce. There weren't many of them, but it isn't too bad for just one windowsill container, is it? They were gone within three minutes, but they were the sweetest peas I have ever eaten :)

Beetroot

About a month ago, I planted older and shrunk beetroots that I had left over from shopping into the container on my wondowsill. All I did then was water - and now I am rewarded by big and healthy leaves that are not only beautiful to look at, but also great to be used in salads. Yum, beetroot!! 

Windowsill Salad

After about a week of rain the weather turned warm again, bees are buzzing in the garden, white fluff from poplars flies around in the wind and the streets smell like barbecues and my windowsill vegetables are growing nicely. Summer always makes me want to eat healthy food. this time I made a salad of lettuce, spinach and beetroot leaves and pea shoots that I grew.

With some egg, red onion, sesame seeds and dressing added and combines with a nice hot crunchy bun, it made a great dinner. One day, I will be able to grow all these ingredients in my own garden. Soon, I hope :)