September

The thing I've been most chuffed with this month has been the Victoria plums. It's been the best year I can remember for them, no burrowing insects inside and very few have rotted on the tree. In the shops they're purple and green but growing my own means I can pick them at the peak of ripeness; they taste like they're laced with brown sugar.

Also cropping this month: runner and French beans, kale, mizuna, leaf beet, carrots, blackberries and raspberries. Nom nom.

Nectar plants in September

Flowering this month for the bees and butterflies:

Agastache foenicolium 
Alfalfa (Medicago sativa) 
Aster frikartii "Monch" 
Aster cordifolius "Little Carlow"
Bladder campion
Blood Pink (Dianthus cruentus)
Borage 
Buddleia
Catmint (Nepeta mussini)
Cirsium rivulare "Atropurpureum" 
Clover - wild, white 
Comfrey
Coreopseris verticillata
Cosmos "Sensation Mixed" and "Pied Piper"
Dahlia "Redskin" 
Didiscus "Madonna Mixed"
Echinacea purpurea
Echium "Blue Bedder" Eupatorium purpurea
Evening primrose 
French beans
Golden Marguerite (Anthemis tinctoria "Sauce Hollandaise") 
Helenium "Sahin's Early Flowerer" 
Helianthus "Lemon Queen"
Marjoram (Origanum marjorana) 
Monarda fistulosa (wild bergamot, bee balm)
Nicotiana "Lime Green"
Perovskia "Blue Spire" (Russian sage)
Phacelia tanacetifolia (second crop)
Potentilla atrosanguinea 
Rose Campion 
Rosebay willowherb
Rudbeckia "Marmalade"
Runner beans 
Sainfoin
Scabiosa atropurpurea "Oxford Blue" 
Scabiosa caucasia "Perfect Blue" 
Sedum
Snapdragon 
Verbena bonariensis
Veronica spicata
Wallflower "Bowles Mauve" 

 Cosmos in the meadow mix.

 Lovely light at this time of year.

 Newly emerged comma.

 Carder bee on dahlia.

 Some plants save their glory for the autumn - like this aster "Little Carlow" - just staring to flower at the end of September. (Now renamed symphyotricum but I can't pronounce that).

Little stunner more like.

August

No shortage of veggies this month as the harvest gets into full swing. Potatoes, runner and French beans, carrots and kale all keeping me well fed. And stacks of fruit - raspberries, blackberries, grapes, cherry and Victoria plums all doing nicely.

Plenty of plants for pollinators too, some like the perennial wallflower "Bowles Mauve" and the echium "Blue Bedder" have been flowering non-stop all summer, some like catmint, bladder campion and golden marguerite are flowering for a second time, whilst I'm getting another crop of flowers from a second sowing of phacelia. And of course others like helianthus, sedum, liatris and eupatorium save their glory for this time of year and are flowering for the first time.

In the meadow grass in the orchard the yellow of ragwort and blue of tufted vetch is giving way to the purple of common knapweed. A time of abundance for both me and the creatures with whom I share this little piece of planet earth.

Not so many of the common bumblebees around now as many of the colonies have reached the end of their lifecycle: order will have been replaced by anarchy and the old queen killed. However there are still plenty of tree bumblebees and carder bees around in need of nectar. It's been a fairly good year for butterflies - among the colourful garden varieties I've noticed more peacocks than small tortoiseshells this year and at the height of summer there was no shortage of the grassland types: gatekeepers, meadow browns, skippers and speckled woods. And a major improvement in the number of common blues I've seen.

Here's the pics:

 Cosmos coming to the fore in the pictorial meadow mix.

 Didiscus: I trialed this for the first time this year but it's been a disappointment, attracting very few pollinators and  also being good at falling over in the wind. One I'll probably not bother with again.

 Agastache: at the other end of the scale one of the very best plants for bees.

 Now that I'm getting a handle on which are the best plants for bees and butterflies I'm starting to think about combinations - what looks good together - to plan for future years. Here helenium, fading poppy stalks and borage with aster in the foreground.

 Agastache in the foreground with echinacia against the woody stems of a dying wallflower "Bowles Mauve".

 Meadow grass and wild flowers.

 Plot in the morning.

 Greenbottle fly on aster.

 Hoverfly on helianthus.

 Large white on verbena.

 Tree bumblebee on scabious.

 Common knapweed in the meadow grass.

 Potentilla and bladder campion make a nice combination.

 Tree bumblebee on agastache.

A treat at this time of year is seeing the sedum flowers change colour as they slowly open.

A late bumblebee on dahlia.

And the not-so-common Common Blue on marjoram.

Plants for bees and butterflies in August

Here's what's been providing pollen and nectar this month:

Agastache foenicolium 
Agastache foenicolium "Golden Jubilee"
Alfalfa (Medicago sativa) 
Aster frikartii "Monch"
Bishop's Flower (Ammi majus) 
Bladder campion
Blood Pink (Dianthus cruentus)
Borage 
Buddleia
Bramble 
Catmint (Nepeta mussini)
Cirsium rivulare "Atropurpureum" 
Clover - wild, white 
Comfrey
Coreopseris verticillata
Cosmos "Sensation Mixed" and "Pied Piper"
Cupid's Dart (Catananche)
Dahlia "Redskin" 
Didiscus "Madonna Mixed"
Echinacea purpurea
Echium "Blue Bedder" Eupatorium purpurea
Evening primrose 
French beans
Golden Marguerite (Anthemis tinctoria "Sauce Hollandaise") 
Helenium "Sahin's Early Flowerer" 
Helianthus "Lemon Queen"
Hyssop 
Knapweed
Liatris spicata "Floristan Violet"
Mallow - wild
Marjoram (Origanum marjorana) 
Monarda fistulosa (wild bergamot, bee balm)
Nicotiana "Lime Green"
Perovskia "Blue Spire" (Russian sage)
Phacelia tanacetifolia (second crop)
Poppies - cornfield, opium.
Potentilla atrosanguinea 
Ragwort
Rose Campion 
Rosebay willowherb
Rudbeckia "Marmalade"
Runner beans 
Sainfoin
Scabiosa atropurpurea "Oxford Blue" 
Scabiosa caucasia "Perfect Blue" 
Sedum
Snapdragon 
Tufted vetch
Verbena bonariensis
Veronica spicata
Wallflower "Bowles Mauve" 
Wild basil (Clinopodium vulgare)

July in pictures

 Echium "Blue Bedder" - one of the bee's favourites.

Summer stunner: Helenium "Sahin's Early Flowerer"

 Scabious "Cambridge Blue"

 Hoverflies out in good numbers this month...

...as well as ladybirds.

Hoverfly and thunderflies on Dahlia "Redskin".

 Hoverfly on Shirley poppy.

 White-tailed bumblebee on field scabious.

 Buff-tailed on opium poppy.

 Tree bumblebee on scabious.

 Another lovely hoverfly...

...and another.

 Agastache foenicolium and Rudbeckia "Marmalade" making a nice combination.

Small tortoiseshell caterpillars on all-important nettles.

 Large skipper on one of the best plants for butterflies - perennial wallflower "Bowle's Mauve"...

  

...and small tortoiseshell on the same.

Flowers in the orchard

The most success I've had with planting plug plants in the meadow area of the orchard - and the one most popular with the bees - has been with tufted vetch. Also flowering this month is the much-maligned ragwort, clover, buttercups, rosebay willowherb and self-heal. The long grass also gives shelter to numerous other invertebrates, frogs and hedgehogs.

Nectar plants in July

What's been flowering for the bees and butterflies this month:

Agastache foenicolium 
Agastache foenicolium "Golden Jubilee"
Alfalfa (Medicago sativa) 
Asparagus 
Aster frikartii "Monch"
Astrantia major 
Bishop's Flower (Ammi majus)
Blood Pink (Dianthus cruentus)
Borage 
Buddleia
Bramble 
Candytuft
Catmint (Nepeta mussini)
Cirsium rivulare "Atropurpureum" 
Clover - wild, white
Coreopseris vertverticillata
Cornflower
Cosmos "Sensation Mixed"
Cupid's Dart (Catananche)
Dahlia "Redskin" 
Echinacea purpurea
Echium "Blue Bedder"
Felicia "The Blues"
Field scabious (Knautia arvensis)
Foxgloves
Geranium "Johnsons Blue"
Geranium pratense "Mrs Kendall Clark"
Giant Scabious (Cephalaria gigantia)
Golden Marguerite (Anthemis tinctoria "Sauce Hollandaise") 
Helenium "Sahin's Early Flowerer"
Hyssop
Lavender
Love-in-a-mist 
Mallow - wild
Marjoram (Origanum marjorana)
Nicotiana "Lime Green"
Night-scented stock
Peas
Phacelia tanacetifolia
Poppies - cornfield, opium and Shirley 
Potentilla atrosanguinea 
Ragwort
Raspberry
Rose Campion 
Rosebay willowherb
Rudbeckia "Marmalade"
Runner beans 
Salvia x superba "Rose Queen"
Scabiosa atropurpurea "Oxford Blue" 
Scabiosa caucasia "Perfect Blue" 
Self-heal (Prunella vulgaris)
Snapdragon 
Tufted vetch
Verbena bonariensis
Veronica spicata
Wallflower "Bowles Mauve" 
Wild basil (Clinopodium vulgare)

June

So the solstice has been and gone and I can finally stop living off asparagus and leaf beet. Broad beans, peas, carrots and cabbage all coming on stream now. A bit behind with the blogging this year but I can't get everything right.

I'm continuing my experiments with which plants are best for bees and butterflies and have planted my favorites along with some newbies, more of which later.

Hope you're all having a good season and enjoying the sun at last!

Plants for bees and butterflies in June

Plenty of candy this month, here's what's flowering out on the plot:

Alfalfa (Medicago sativa)
Astrantia major
Blood Pink (Dianthus cruentus)
Borage
Bramble
Campion - red and rose
Catmint (Nepeta mussini)
Cirsium rivulare "Atropurpureum"
Clover
Cupid's Dart (Catananche)
Dahlia "Redskin"
Echium "Blue Bedder"
Felicia "The Blues"
Field Scabious (Knautia arvensis)
Foxgloves
Geranium "Johnsons Blue"
Geranium pratense "Mrs Kendall Clark"
Giant Scabious (Cephalaria gigantia)
Golden Marguerite (Anthemis tinctoria "Sauce Hollandaise")
Love-in-a-mist
Marjoram (Origanum marjorana)
Mustard
Nicotiana "Lime Green"
Night-scented stock
Peas
Penstemon "Summer Bluebell"
Phacelia bolanderi
Phacelia tanacetifolia
Poppies - cornfield and Shirley
Rose - wild
Sainfoin (Onobrychis vicifolia)
Snapdragon
Wallflower - wild and "Bowles Mauve"

 Tree bumblebee on Giant Scabious

 Red-tailed bumblebee going for Bladder Campion

 Buff-tailed bumblebee on Phacelia

 Buff-tailed on Borage

 Astrantia major

 Carder bees on Sainfoin

 The humble clover

Foxglove

Night-scented stock

 Blood Pink