Poppies in the allotment wild garden

Those of you who have visited this blog before will know that my allotment plot is unusual in that it lies in a secluded wooded area in a valley with a very large tree canopy. This means the available sunlight is limited to about four hours a day and plants are always struggling for enough light. Weeds however have grown enormously this year some like cow parsley are 6 feet tall.
Plants like peas and runner beans do very well as they grow very tall anyway others plants do not fair as well.
This year I left one small corner of the plot to grow as it liked and sprinkled lots of seeds to see what came up these Calendula add a real splash of colour and the poppies are self seeding every where.

Lawn weeds

I cut the grass today this warm dry spell has meant the lawn hasn`t grown much but the weeds sure have buttercups and daisies and the three I have macro photographed here,  red and white clover and selfheal. They do look wonderful with the camera lens close up

Self heal (prunella)

Red clover

White clover

How to revive a bumble bee

Judi and I like to think we have a wildlife friendly garden but this year we have seen a shortage of bumble bees which is worrying.
We spotted this one on our kitchen window blind quite motionless and appearing to be dead after not moving for some considerable time.
Judi (my wife) put some honey and water on a teaspoon and gently lifted the bee on to it before taking it outside and placing it on our garden bench, clearly the sweet smell was to much to resist and the bee started drinking after a while he finished and flew off.
We were both fascinated watching this as we have only ever seen a bee using it`s proboscis to collect pollen and nectar on flowers.