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You see, I read lots of baby books before she arrived but threw them out not long after. After the clocks went back, our walks became shorter and our trips to the library more frequent – a good opportunity for Constance to see all those books she was supposed to have read. I tell Constance lots of stories to keep her entertained on dark December days, particularly about the bees and how they are looking forward to spring as much as we are. I hope to have a couple of Saturday afternoons here and there to visit the apiary and bring back home more stories from the other beekeepers to tell Constance.

Our own garden has overgrown in the heatwave as preparations for a special arrival (we don’t know yet whether we will have a queen bee or a king drone) have taken priority this summer. The frog ponds are teeming with tadpoles and the frogs have shown their appreciation over our lack of garden maintenance by sitting on rocks sheltered by ivy. At the apiary, mine and Emily’s hives were very kindly looked after by Thomas Bickerdike until he found two excellent beekeepers to take over Everlasting’s and Angelica’s So like Emily, I have said farewell to our lovely Ealing bees but in the knowledge that they have two new wonderful keepers, Jo and Dinesh, under whom they will thrive and make new queens and new stories.

The grape hyacinth flows like a river of blue along garden borders, hedgerows and woodland spaces. If you don’t mind flowers that choose where they want to go (I don’t mind, it’s my idea of lazy gardening), then grape hyacinth looks pretty when planted under trees and left to wander across the lawn (a very charming planting scheme I’ve seen in neighbouring gardens). If you prefer a tidier garden, you could try planting grape hyacinth in a spring container as an Easter present for the bees. I’ve been eyeing up the lungwort (pulmonaria) that’s sprung up uninvited in my parent’s garden (and which my step dad calls ‘weed’).

You don’t need to become an expert in soil types, or rush out to get a pH kit to test the acidity or alkalinity of your soil (although you can if you want to), but a few simple observations like these will give you a better idea of what types of plants will grow best in your garden. If you suspect that you have heavy, clay soil that drains poorly, then this doesn’t mean that you can’t grow a bee-pleaser like lavender which prefers lighter, well-draining soil. You might also want to consider the type of flower beds that will require the least attention – mulched beds (where a layer of gravel, bark, leaves or compost is laid above the soil) allow the stems of established plants to continue to grow but slows down the growth of weeds. [EDIT] philipstrange also suggests this list of bee-friendly plants on Dave Goulson’s web site: http://www.sussex.ac.uk/lifesci/goulsonlab/resources/flowers and singles out pulmonaria “as a must for bee enthusiasts as it attracts the very early Hairy-footed flower bee