Orchard planting

[Goran]

Bees love my honeysuckle especially bumbles but if you are looking for something to trail in trees or hedges and are on an alkali soil go for clematis vitalba ( traveler’s joy) as it is always a major component of the pollen in the honey from my hive just under the Southdowns.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clematis_vitalba

At my place Clematis vitalba is really attended by the bees.. but is such nasty weed. When it catch tree, not rarely it suffocate it or break branches due to weight if you let it.. Not rarely I found its vines as hand wide..

 

[ldwgs]

I'm thinking about installing some raised beds for planting various herbs. I've thus far identified the following as potentially good, not only for me to use in my cooking, which I love to do, but for the bees to take advantage of for forage:

• Rosemary
• Lavender
• Thyme
• Mint
• Sage
• Tarragon
• Fennel
• Chives

I've also come across others I'm less familiar with, but I'm quite open to trying new things:

• Borago officinalis (Borage)
• Echium vulgare (Viper’s Bugloss)
• Lippia dulcis (Aztec sweet herb)
• Rumex scutatus (French sorrel)
• Satureja montana (winter savory)
• Angelica archangelica (Angelica)
• Valeriana officinalis (Valerian)

Are there any others I should explore, or any above I should avoid?

We're also thinking about installing some trellis with Honeysuckle on, but need to be careful we're not crossing the line from agriculture into gardening, as that could land us in hot water with local planners. (They're a tad touchy and militant in my area...)

• Borago officinalis (Borage) & Echium vulgare (Viper’s Bugloss) are Bee magnets

 

[ldwgs]

At my place Clematis vitalba is really attended by the bees.. but is such nasty weed. When it catch tree, not rarely it suffocate it or break branches due to weight if you let it.. Not rarely I found its vines as hand wide..

Clematis vitalba is like bindweed grows everywear and get so wrapped around plants and structures, Had a swarm in 1 a nightmare to collect it was 10ft up and so entangled

 

[BoothBees]

Everything is growing.

One of the saplings:



One of the apple trees:



As somebody who has never grown a thing in his life, this is very exciting!

 

[BoothBees]

We've been very busy.

We're now up to 1,140 saplings planted, in additional to our 30 Juniper trees and 30 fruit trees.

We've also started some seeds at home and plan to pot up and plant them at some point. We've got runner beans, sweetcorn and potatoes going, as well as a good variety of herbs.

We've gone a step further than we planned as well, by buying chickens. They're point of lay and we got our first egg yesterday. The setup has been costly, but the kit should last 25 years or more, so we'll get a return on that in a few years, in the form of eggs. We're combining the chicken waste with the horse waste from my wife's horses, so the resulting compost should be really good.