Grow Organic To Save The Honey Bee

The Sunday Times publishes some very useful gardening tips each new month. For February, its time to wrap up warm and get out there to prepare for spring coming just around the corner. The Times recommends sowing hardy varieties of peas outdoors right now, such as the tasty ‘Meteor’ pea. The Haxnicks Pea and Bean Planter is ideal, giving you adequate support and a graceful arc of pretty foliage. It’s also perfect if you don’t have a lot of space to play with. You could perhaps even fit one on a city balcony and they would certainly look fantastic on a roof terrace. I’ve written a whole guide to Growing Organic Vegetables - it’s far easier than a lot of people might think and more important than ever right now....

Sadly, there have been numerous headlines about the mysterious decline of the honey bee in the last few years. Their numbers suddenly began to plummet throughout the UK and Europe leaving beekeepers at a loss to explain what on earth was going on. There are now disturbing reports emerging that a new generation of pesticides called neocortinoids may be responsible. The Telegraph has published details of the latest research from the USA, where the American bees (pictured here) are also in serious decline. Researchers found a correlation between neocortinoids and increased susceptibility to disease for bees. The Telegraph points out neocortionoids are used for both agricultural crops and garden plants and have tremendous insect killing properties which are similar to those of nicotine.

This claim is controversial already and it’s still early days for solving the bee crisis. Until we are certain what has harmed our bees, there can be no better time than to implement a ‘no pesticides policy’ in your garden. Grow houses can help by keeping pests away and they’ll also help to protect your prized organic veg from the perils of the UK winter.