Bees, Butterflies and Blooms – Sarah Raven on BBC2

Fri 17th February 2012

Last night I sat down to the first 2 episodes of Sarah Raven’s ‘Bees, Butterflies and Blooms‘, and was inspired!

Sarah Raven is a well established writer and wildlife gardening expert on a mission to ‘get Britain buzzing‘ again. Over the last few years she has been working hard to persuade us all to help our ailing bee and insect populations by planting for pollinators.

bees on a flower

We depend on insect pollination for the vast majority of our fruit and vedge, but whilst pollinating insects help us get our five-a day it seems that we are failing to offer the year round variety of nectar and pollen vital for their own good health!

Reasons for the alarming decline in pollinator populations include:

  • Intensive farming methods turning the countryside into a wildlife desert
  • Close-mown parks and gardens bare of nectar-rich daisies and clovers
  • Gardeners’ fancy hybrid blooms low in nectar and pollen

In the series ‘Bees, Butterflies and Blooms‘ Sarah tackles key groups of people in the UK who are well-placed to make a difference – farmers, rural parish councils, RHS Britain in Bloom judges, not to mention us, the nations’ gardeners! She opens our eyes to the rewards of gardening for wildlife, and to the extra vibrancy that hosts of foraging bees and hover flies bring to our garden environments!

butterfly on budlia

I am now inspired to try some container-grown mini-meadows!

Watch on iplayer, or visit Sarah’s website.