Embedded Files
Our Bee Garden
Our Bee Garden
Established in 2022 our award-winning Community Bee Garden was created with help from the Bramley community by Wilder Bramley to provide our declining pollinators with food, water and shelter throughout the seasons.
The diverse range of pollinator-friendly flowers not only support local wildlife but create a beautiful vista for the Bramley community and visitors to Clift Meadow. The garden now offers an eye-catching wildlife friendly display of flowers where previously was an overgrown verge.
The garden showcases many aspects of wildlife friendly gardening – including a bug hotel, log piles, compost heap, a living roof, stumpery and several mini ponds.
The garden has won two Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Level 4 “It’s your neighbourhood awards” , 2023 and 2024.
The garden attracts many pollinators and members of our local community!
The Bug Hotel gets a Living Roof
A recent addition to our Bee Garden is a sedum living roof for the bug hotel. The materials, recycled or re-used, were donated by various residents from the local community and the sedum donated by Sky Garden specialists in green roofs.
Green roofs create natural habitat as part of an urban wilderness. Even in high-rise urban settings as tall as 19 storeys, it has been found that green roofs can attract beneficial insects, birds, bees and butterflies. A recent list of the bee species recorded from green roofs (worldwide) highlights both the diversity of species, but also the (expected) bias towards small ground-nesting species. Rooftop greenery complements wild areas by providing stepping stones for songbirds, migratory birds and other wildlife facing shortages of natural habitat. Bats have also been reported to be more active over green roofs due to the foraging opportunities these roofs provide. Research at the Javits Center green roof in New York has shown a correlation between higher numbers of certain insects on the roof, particularly moths, with an increased amount of bat foraging activity.
Green roofs also serve as green walls, filtering pollutants and carbon dioxide out of the air and helping to lower rates of diseases such as asthma. They can also filter pollutants and heavy metals out of rainwater.
The Bee Garden gets a Stumpery
A stumpery was a Victorian garden design trend which is now making a comeback. Dead wood is beneficial to insects and the wildlife that feed on the insects, which makes a stumpery very environmentally and wildlife friendly. Bees often make their home in a stumpery.
A stumpery is also an interesting way to treat a difficult shady corner. If, for example, you have a part of your garden that is heavily shaded by trees, with tree roots growing in it, then it’s an attractive way of dealing with an area that can be difficult to plant.
The logs used for our stumpery were cut from a nearby fallen tree and were buried approx. 500mm into the ground. There is no ideal arrangement for the logs: be artistic, do what suits you, but be assured whatever you do will be appreciated by a whole host of wildlife.
Want to help with the Bee Garden? We need more volunteers!
Second Sunday of the month, March - October - Bee Garden work party:
10 a.m.-12a.m. Come along and help maintain the award winning Community Bee garden at Clift Meadow! Help the garden to flourish for the bees. Enjoy working with other like minded volunteers and get some exercise too! No big commitment necessary, just come when you can. Nothing too strenuous and satisfaction guaranteed. Stout footwear, and arm and leg covering advised, please. A few tools are provided, but if you have your own favourites, bring them along.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse