After bees, flies (and in particular hoverflies) are among the most important pollinators of agricultural crops.

We'd love to hear from you with your ideas and experiences, share them on our Facebook group. You can always contact us via our contact page too.

We have been continuing to send out entry packs to our entries. We hope you enjoy your wooden plaques and find a great spot to display them in your garden. If you haven't yet signed up the link is here.

As we get towards spring we'll all be thinking about what to do with our gardens for the year. This week, Susan has shared her thoughts on her Pollinator Paradise with us.

Last week I seem to have spent quite a lot of time looking out over my front garden through rain-streaked windows and imagining what I would like my Pollinator Paradise to look like in a few months. Making a decision about what to plant and where, when there are so many plants to choose from, is not easy.

My problem is that I just love them all and want them all in my garden.

I love colour, big bright bold colours, and more often than not I will put clashing colours next to each other rather than complimentary colours. I do so admire people who can plant their gardens with a sophisticated restraint of limited plant species and colour.

As space is limited in my front garden I realise I really do need to limit my palate of plants – but on what criteria?

My fixed parameters for any plants are that my front garden has a heavy clay soil and faces due east. I can improve the soil (which in fact I have just done by adding some Lakeland Gold clay soil improver from Dalefoot Composts). There is nothing I can do about the orientation, but facing east means it gets the morning sun and in the height of summer the sunshine doesn’t leave the front garden until about 2pm. So sun-wise it's not bad.

Variable parameters to consider or not are colour, height, flowering season, pollinator potential and native or non-native species.

I definitely want my plants to attract pollinators and provide abundant nectar and pollen, so that’s my top filter. Colour, height, flowering season – well yes, but aghh how do I limit my choice from so many wonderful, joyous plants?! Maybe native and non-native species will help. Should I choose only native species? I look though my seed catalogues and yes, there are some great native pollinator plants: foxgloves (digitalis purpurea), bluebell (hyacinthoides non-scripta), comfrey (Symphytum officinale), clovers (trifolium species), greater knapweed (Centaurea scabiosa), hellebore, stinking (Helleborus foetidus) to name a few.

But my desire for big bright colours draws me to plants like Tithonia (Mexican sunflower), Verbena bonariensis, Echinacea purpurea, dahlia, Californian poppies (Eshscholzia californica).

So I wonder, are non-native species as beneficial to pollinators as native species?

I turn to my good friend Mark Patterson, @apiculturalLdn, www.apicultural.co.uk, beekeeper and wild pollinator consultant in London, for his opinion.

“Most adult pollinators do not discriminate between native and non-native flowers as long as the pollen and nectar supply is good. Approximately 82% of the nectar supply in towns and cities comes from non-native plant species, proof that non-natives can benefit pollinators,” he informs me. Adding “domestic gardens have such an important part to play, they cover about 28% of the land area in the UK providing a whopping 85% of the food resources for pollinating insects.”

"Fantastic", I say to myself, that’s good to know. I turn to my seed catalogues... decisions, decisions...

This week we have started sending out our entry packs to the first wave of entries. Don't forget to sign up if you haven't already so we can send you yours!

We've had interest from a few local primary schools who want to get involved. We are currently planning a way we can involve local schools in our competition and hope to announce something soon. Get in touch if you are a school that might be interested.

When a pollen grain moves from the anther (male part) of a flower to the stigma (female part), pollination happens. This is the first step in a process that produces seeds, fruits, and the next generation of plants. This can happen through self-pollination, wind and water pollination, or through the work of vectors that move pollen within the flower and from bloom to bloom. These vectors are animals such as bees, wasps, butterflies, moths, birds, bats and all the other pollinators we are trying to create habitats for. Many plants cannot be pollinated without the help of animal pollinators.

Photo of the Week

This weeks photo is from Susan's garden in 2019.

This week we want you to think about what kind of compost you will use when you start planting soon. Our blog post from this week discusses the use of peat-free compost and why that is important.

We'd love to hear from you with your ideas and experiences, share them on our Facebook group. You can always contact us via our contact page too.

Before we start sowing and planting in our containers, window boxes and hanging baskets, we will need to fill them with compost and, if our aim is to help our pollinators to flourish, according to our leading wildlife charities, that compost should be peat-free. Why is this so important?

Peatland provides a unique and thriving habitat for many bog loving plants and animals. It absorbs large quantities of rainwater, protecting nearby towns and villages from flooding. The peat is formed over thousands of years as waterlogged plants gradually decompose. Thus peat is an incredible carbon store, and the world’s peatlands hold more than twice the carbon stored in all the world’s forests.
In the UK over 3 billion litres of peat are used every year to make garden compost. The machinery employed to extract the peat can destroy hundreds of years’ worth of growth in a matter of months. Much of this peat has been stripped from other European countries so we are increasing our environmental footprint by wrecking the peatland in these places.

Butterfly Conservation states “One of the biggest threats facing certain butterflies and moths is the destruction of the peat bogs where they live”.

This week we launched the competition and were delighted by how it was received. Thanks to everyone who has signed up so far, don't forget to sign up if you haven't already so we can send you your entry pack.

Each week we are going to announce our favourite photo of the week. Our Facebook group is a great place to share photos with us.

We won't all have our gardens sorted yet, so this week we'd like to see your photos from last year.

Each week we'll try to share some ideas for you to think about when doing your own planting, and also highlight any upcoming events.

This week we're suggesting you hold off on cleaning up your gardens to help protect pollinators.

We'd love to hear from you with your ideas and experiences, share them on our Facebook group. You can always contact us via our contact page too.

If you would like to grow vegetables instead of flowers for your pollinating plants, the fruit and vegetables that are great for pollinating insects are:

• strawberries
• raspberries
• cucumbers
• squash
• pumpkins
• courgettes
• tomatoes
• peppers
• most types of beans
• peas
• aubergines

These vegetables will encourage bees and other pollinators into your garden, keeping them filled up on nectar while you can also benefit from having your plants pollinated in order for your fruit and vegetables to grow - it's a win situation all round!