Phacelia - a gift to the bees and the compost heap

Описание: Phacelia is a fast growing, largely hardy, purple flowered annual plant, beloved of bumble bees in particular. It is generally sown as a green manure, and dug into the soil to add organic matter before it can flower. It germinates very readily, and is easy to pull up, so doesn't become a pain.

I prefer to let it flower, particularly from an Autumn sowing (just throw seed down in September/October) - this will flower in early May for the whole of May and some of June, and will provide vital nectar and pollen to growing bee colonies. Honey bees are also attracted to phacelia, but they don't seem to be able to mine the nectar in the same way as the bumbles - they sort of bounce off the flowers, though I have seen them returning to the hive with the deep purple pollen packed into their pollen baskets..

Once it has finished flowering, phacelia pulls up very easily, and is quite brittle, meaning that it breaks up into manageable pieces that can go straight onto the compost heap. I usually follow it with a tender crop such as dahlias, french beans, or courgettes, which are happy to wait for their patch of ground until June.

I buy my phacelia from www.greenmanure.com in 500g bags, which go a very long way!