Eaglestone Landscape Design

Check out this very cool pollinating bee log available at www.henandhammock.co.uk. It is a home for mason bees and other solitary types. As you are all aware the bees are in trouble. Their decline is unprecedented and is extremely disturbing. Before we know we may not have any meadows or honey left to name a few. One way of helping is creating planting schemes with plants that are nectar rich. Also just creating habitats like the one above will help the bees.

For more info on the decline of bees click the link below:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/3302327/Bee-decline-threatens-our-dinner-and-the-countryside.html

Everyone should grow rhubarb, its so easy! Rhubarb is a perennial and is one of the first crops to harvest. There are many varieties but the one we most commonly see and eat is the red-stalked rhubarb. As delicious are the green and speckled pink stalked rhubarbs.

Rhubarb, believed to originate from the river banks of Volga in Russia, is extremely nutritional, is cathartic and disturbingly so has been used as a laxative for over 5000 years. The leaves are toxic and so avoid these at all costs.

In warm climates (which ours certainly isn’t) rhubarb can be grown all year round. We however, have been forced to grow it under pots i.e. in darkness and in warmth. This encourages the shoots to search for light subsequently sprouting early. Only in a matter of weeks shoots are ready for harvest. Even rhubarb farmers in this country still have to hand pick it like it was back in the Victorian days.

Cultivating rhubarb is relatively easy. Pick a fertile free-draining site in partial shade. Before planting dig in well rotted manure (organic of course) and plant with the bottom of the plant just below the surface of the soil. Once established rhubarbs do not enjoy being disturbed. Anyway there is no need to do that, just eat it!

Check out www.rhubarb-recipes.com for 150 rhubarb recipes.

Check out this stunning new white Echinacea. It was selected by the legendary Piet Oudolf and offers better performance compared to the older white Echinaceas. Furthermore, it is fragrant and they do not require staking. The flowering period is from mid-summer through to autumn, and with deadheading it will bloom for longer. Leave the dead flower heads as they will provide food for birds throughout winter.