HIGH SUMMER IN THE GARDEN

And now, a moment to reflect....
Some photos I've taken over the last few months.
I realise that every time I'm at the garden, I pretty much take exactly the same photographs.
I am sure you won’t mind.

It’s been a perfect couple of weeks for the garden, starting with lots of sun followed with lots of rain. How lucky we where at the Sydenham Arts Trail with glorious weather, lots of visitors and some unbearable hot days that we couldn't even enter the polly tunnels without passing out. But things have been growing healthy and lush.

Workshops  with Ky Lewis during the Sydenham arts trail

Work from  Nick Richards

 Work from Angela Wright

For those that follow Grow Mayow on Instagram, 

you will have already seen some of these photos.  

Still, I have added some new ones too. 

We had this little fellow on the Cardoon all summer long, loving it.

Don't blame it, really! What a dream!! 

  The Cardoons also called artichoke thistle have now gone

 from the bright admired purple heads, into faded light brown, still gorgeous and full of seeds, great as winter food for birds.

Quick peek inside 

Bees just love the Echinops 

 Talking about bees, 

They had a fantastic summer, working hard bringing great harvest of pollen and nectar to our hives.

The honey harvest starts end of August 

You can order your honey by emailing us @ Growmayow@gmail.com 

£6 a jar

SEE YOU ALL SOON 

OUR BEES

In the back of our garden we are keeping bees for over 10 years 

and they are thriving well.

KIDS AND BEES

The mission of the Kids and Bees program is to educate the next generation of citizens on the importance of bees and inspire them to take part in the bees' preservation.  

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?

Our bees provide one out of every three bites of food that we eat.  

No bees, no food, no us

  

It's also a commonly known fact that our bees are in trouble.  

Annual losses of honey bee colonies are in the tens of thousands. 

We are losing our bees at unsustainable rates.  

It will be up to the next generation to not only understand their importance, but to take action in their conservation. 

HONEY BEES ARE THE MOST PERFECT POLLINATORS

They pollinate the fruit trees and the orchard in Mayow park the vegetables and plants in our garden and many gardens and other green spaces around us.

We invite schools to come and learn the importance of bees and the local Philip and st Neri school even sponsored a hive. Schools are now extremely keen and many already have nature gardens/mini allotments and are sympathetic to the cause of the bee.We have protective clothing for classroom kids and they will learn the importance of a honey bee.

We  are on the 'The Bees needs Award' goverment page and you can read it here:

Celebrating the nation's Bees' Needs pollinator heroes 

Should I keep bees?

Honeybees play a vital role in our eco system, pollinating flowering plants, trees and crops.
Bees can do well in an urban environment where there is a rich diversity of plants, flowers and trees in our gardens, railway sidings, roads and disused pieces of land.
They are also a good way to reconnect urban dwellers with nature. Many of us are suffering from what has been termed "nature-deficit disorder" and one remedy is to come home after a hard day in the office and watch your honeybees bringing nectar and pollen into their hive.
We need more green spaces in our cities and becoming a beekeeper is part of a growing movement to green our cities. If you love honey, then you'll be glad to hear that honey from cities is thought to be more flavoursome than honey from the countryside because of the diversity of nectar on offer.

Although not scientifically proven, local honey is also said to cure hay fever.    

The neighbours?
We told all our immediate neighbours and sent leaflets out and in our case it was even on the local radio, but that was 10 years ago. Most neighbours know we have bees and that they benefit their gardens too.
If you are going to be keeping bees I advise you to tell your neighbours too,
but there are no laws that say you have to.
Bees are only interested in nectar and pollen from flowers, unlike wasps which are carnivorous, so the bees should not bother your neighbours. Once people know this they usually have no problem.
However bees can become defensive and are more likely to sting when the beekeeper opens up and inspects the hive. But what will you do if you get intruders entering your house?

Click on Photo

More Bees news here;
What's the buzz?

Thinking of keeping bees? 
below is an interesting documentary 

BEES NEWS

Great news 

We came second in the Tesco's bags of help

Bags of Help is Tesco’s exciting local community grant scheme  where the money raised from the 5p bag charge is being used to fund thousands of local projects in communities right across the UK.  Projects that bring benefit to their community will get the green light – these range from improving community buildings and outdoor spaces to buying new equipment, training coaches or volunteers and hosting community events.

Administration of the local funding is being managed by the community charity with a green heart, Groundwork, which specialises in transforming communities and the local environment for the better.

We applied for funding for our bee project.

The funding will be spend on a hands on garden interpretation sign about honey bees

2016 

#BeesNeeds 

FRONT GARDEN

L A B Y R I N T H

There is a Labyrinth in our front garden made by local artist Maria Strutz. 
She made it with stones but over the last few weeks the stones and pattern have disappeared. 
Perhaps it wasn't very obvious. 

But like Andy Goldsworthy's work,  art can disappear into nature

Next year Spring
hopefully 

100% ORGANIC HONEY FROM THE GARDEN

We harvest this years honey end of August 2017

please email us if you like to order as they fly out of our garden as fast as the bees bring it in.

Its £6 a jar.

The post below was from last year, but enjoy the read.

We harvested our honey from the hive in the far back of our garden.

This honey is from the diverse trees in Mayow park, our garden and gardens beyond. 
It's the bee's knees on toast and for local pollen suffers too.

Every pound you spend on the purchase of our honey goes directly to honey bee conservation and beekeeping education.

Drop us a line at growmayow@gmaill.com or pop in. We are selling the jars for £6 inc. a pound deposit for the returnable jar.

(the only thing is we already have lots of orders coming in so not many left)

 

Education class with virtual hive

Our mission is to educate the young 

and old the importance of bees

Checking the hive

COLLECTED IN SOUTH LONDON,  BY HONEY BEES,  FOR YOU!

DID YOU KNOW?